Leaseback program in Casa Linda Sosua/Cabarete

This area is a great place for expats.  Don’t act too quickly.  Casa Linda is like every other community. I’d recommend renting there for a few months before making a decision.

Welcome to the forums!   Great advice, rent first and  see if this works for you!

we have a very similar story. Decided to purchase a second home in the DR.  Reading a LOT about the DR and what fit our lifestyle (early 60's, prefer quiet and smaller community) led us to the north coast.  Visited Sosua in August, looked at 12 homes and decided on purchasing in Seahorse Ranch.  We liked being able to take a 2 minute walk to the beach and the community pools.  We liked the park like setting with common area and walkways behind each home.  The mature vegetation is like living in a botanical garden.  The security is over the top to where our guests immediately feel more comfortable than in their homes in the US, And there is NO noise which can be a problem in other areas here in Sosua and throughout the DR.  It is truly Spectacular! 

Although we made a decision in just 3 days on our first trip to the DR, we are still thankful and happy with our decision.  And even though we were fortunate that it all worked out, I recommend the advise provided by planner and Tripp to rent first. Make sure there will be no regrets.

if you are like us, you will fall in love with the people, the culture, the pace of life, and of course the climate.

wish you the best in your planning.

I've looked but can't find anything on the Casa Linda website about their lease back program. Can you share a link? I'm interested to see the fine print!

Hi, sounds like you are at a similar stage in life as my wife and I. While I agree that it is certainly a good idea to 'try before you buy', we didn't follow that rule at all. In fact, we have never been to Sosua or the north coast for that matter but we did purchase a piece of property inside the Casa Linda (CL) community back in April as part of their 'vacation club' program, which is the lease back option you are referring to. Everyone is different; we're pretty flexible and easy going so I'm sure we'll love it there. ; )

We didn't know about CL when we started our search; our agent then mentioned to us that CL made a couple of lots available for the vacation club and that's how we got in. My understanding is that CL, if the demand is there, will look for investors that are interested in this program. In our case, we will 'lease back' our villa to CL for three years and in return, we can use the villa for up to two weeks per year for ourselves. That works perfectly for us because our daughter is only 16 and won't be going off to university for another 2 years which means, we couldn't get away for more than a week or two anyways right now.

If it works for you, the vacation club program is great. Working with the CL team has been pretty smooth so far. We are in the midst of having our villa built. The villa is 'standing', they are working on the backyard right now, pouring the pool, stucco the exterior, working on the insides,... It's coming along nicely.

I would suggest you speak to Tony at CL to find out more about the program. Again, I believe this is something 'CL initiates' IF they need to make more villas available but things change all the time. Perhaps they'd be open to offering this to you if you approached them. Does hurt to try.

Good luck, Walter.

Just to add to my previous comment, we made our decision within a day after seeing the lots our agents showed us 'live' via video call. We purchased in April and by May 1, CL's list prices went up by at least 10% so while I typically would suggest not to rush into a big decision like this, you also have to keep in mind prices can go up quickly. CL released phases 10, 11 and 12 earlier this year and by July, phase 10 had sold out completely as far as I know.

To summarize, if we had waited, it would have cost us quite a bit more so there are pros and cons to making a move sooner rather than later. If money is no concerns, sure, take all the time you need to find the perfect spot for yourself, especially if you plan on spending a lot of time there. Again, for us, a great experience so far working with CL, their project manager, the in-house architects, etc.

Thank you all for the great information, I truly appreciate it.  Yes, I agree that the opportunity right now is within my price range as well as the leaseback program that isn’t always available?  I tried emailing someone in regards to the vacation program, which definitely peaks my interest but I was given misleading information.  I did attend the presentation but was a bit hesitant because it seemed to be like a timeshare thats to good to be true.  I find it hard to believe that if I purchase a vacation membership, I get 11 weeks vacation then the deposit goes toward the purchase of a new home and they give me a guaranteed monthly stipend depending on how many bedrooms are purchased?  I was told by another representative of Casa Linda that the leasing buyback is only on the sale of the home that has nothing to do with the vacation club, which left me a bit confused?  This is why I am glad that I found this website with people like yourselves, who can help newbies like me.  If anyone can explain further I’ll be happy to hear from you.  Thanks again for everyone’s input on the subject.  You can post or pm me for my telephone number and we can chat this way as well.

There appears to be two different topics here, one - the vacation club - which is what my wife and I are doing and the 'lease back' program. Just to clarify, in April, CL offered three lots to investors to be entered into the vacation club program, meaning, that investors would finance and build a villa to their liking and once completed, let CL use it for the duration of three years so they can rent it out within their vacation club offering. This offering might be the lease back program you are referring to; this might be a timeshare or something similar although I am not sure. I never heard about that myself and I'm not too concerned about who CL is going to rent our villa to.

All we know is that CL will rent our villa to visitors for the first three years and after that, we will take over the villa 100% of the time at which point we can either use it ourselves or, rent it out privately through AirBnB and other channels.

If you are interested in the time share program, I'm afraid I can't provide any insights. We are 'on the other side', building a villa CL will eventually enter into their vacation club. If this is what you are most interested in, purchasing, building and 100% owning a villa out right, I suggested to contact Tony Willies at CL. Out of privacy concerns, I can't post his contact info here but I'm sure if you call CL and ask for him, they'd be happy to put you in touch with him.

It's a bit of a process though. You need to get in touch with a lawyer who'll draft up the purchase agreement, work with the CL in-house architects, make up-front payments to reserve the lot, work with CL's project manager who'll oversee construction, line up a decorator who'll source all the furniture and appliances, etc. Keep in mind, my wife and I so far have done all of this remotely. We are in Toronto, Canada and have never actually been to the DR north coast nor have we met any of the people from CL.

The most important decision, in my mind: Are you interested in a time share CL might offer (I don't know anything about that) or are you interested in building you own villa and either enter it in their vacation club program or, use it for your own purposes from day one. From my understanding, though, the vacation club offering is something CL initiates from time to time, pending on demand and not something you can approach them with unless, of course, they are looking for people. That might be the reason why there is nothing on their website. Again, that is my understanding.

Good financing option for CL...... and will suit quite a few people.

Build a house - have it rented - pocket some $$$- move in in 3 yrs

We are not interested in the timeshare program, we went to the presentation and they offered us a similar package as to the leaseback program?  When we went to the sales office as a fluke and spoke with the sales manager who was pretty upset to hear that we were being mislead and stated that they do not have the authority to offer this program.  I was a bit confused and upset as well because I didn’t know who to believe, which is why I’m trying to gather information from my end and people like yourselves who are actually been or going through the process of a leaseback.  The program seems to be very conducive to investors who are not ready to move full time yet but can get in early on an investment to the area and pay off a portion of the home.