How to Buy A Farm In Uruguay

Yesterday, we put money down on a farm in Uruguay.  Not a farm, but the farm—the only one we wanted to see, the one we instantly felt we were meant to buy.

I’ve been through many real estate transactions in my life, including ones in which we have sold or purchased directly without an agent.  One of the best experiences was selling a house in Oregon on Craigslist—things went extremely quickly and smoothly, the people were great to deal with, and everyone was completely happy with the outcome.

After contacting a few real estate agents in Uruguay about listings I’d seen online, I became frustrated.  Several wrote to say that the property I was interested in had been sold two months ago—they just hadn’t updated the website.  Others never responded.  I could see that it might take a very long time to find anything through real estate sites online.

So, because we’ve always had such great luck with Craigslist (we sold most of our cars and furniture that way) I decided to look there.  Though Craigslist is international—the one for Buenos Aires is really extensive—there are no real estate listings for Uruguay.  So, I checked out MercadoLibre.com, which is the Latin American version of eBay.

I searched for homes in the Colonia “department”—sort of like a county.  We knew we wanted a place with enough space for whatever possibilities we decided to explore—probably two or three acres.  We wanted a simple, small house that could be refurbished inexpensively—no tear-downs.  But the biggest challenge was that we wanted to be in the country but also have great access to transportation.  Since our family and friends will be coming out to visit often and very few of them will have cars, we wanted our place to be easy to get to.  We were hoping to find something within at least a mile of a bus of some kind, though we knew how rural Uruguay is in general and finding a hunk of land AND easy access could be difficult.

In minutes, I found a house I loved.  The photos showed a sunny living/dining area with a wood ceiling, stone fireplace and tile floor, and the house itself, though not painted, looked simple, solid and well designed. It was located on a main road (by which I mean it was paved and had two lanes—one in each direction) and even had a bus that went by every two hours—you could simply stand out front and flag down a bus and take it all the way to Colonia or Montevideo.  The house was situated on two hectares—about five acres, which is more than we need, really—but the price was so unbelievable that I decided to go ahead and contact the owner.

I sent an email—in Spanish—to the address listed.  Within an hour, I received a response from Julio, who turned out to be a friend of the owner.  The owners didn’t use email, but this friend had decided to help them by posting the house on MercadoLibre.  Julio and I corresponded back and forth about a dozen times in three days.  He answered every single question promptly, sent tons of photos, and seemed completely open and honest about everything.

The only thing that worried me was the price.  It was so low!  What was the catch? I contacted an expat I’d heard about, an Argentine American who had purchased acreage and built a house just a few kilometers away from this one.  She got excited about the listing and, without any prompting from me, she drove out to the property, took a bunch of photos, and even asked around about the place.  Sara assured me that there was nothing wrong with the property—that it was, in fact, quite beautiful and appeared to be very well maintained—and the price was probably low because the sellers were motivated to sell it quickly for personal reasons.

Within a week, Tom and I arranged to go to Uruguay—a 90-minute ferry ride away from BA.  From Colonia, we took a bus to Rosario, a Spanish colonial community of about 7,000 people.  Rosario is a few kilometers off Route 1, which is the main road between Colonia and Montevideo, the biggest city in Uruguay.  (Montevideo has 2.5 million people and another million residents are scattered around the country)  Peter and Nathalie (the friends we’d made on our previous trip) met us at the station.  We drove over to Sara’s place.  She’s built a small but impeccable home on a piece of property with stunning views of a dramatic rock outcropping.  Sara joined us and we drove the ten miles or so out to the property.

The owners, Javier and Rosario, greeted us with the traditional kiss on the cheek.  They were exceedingly warm and showed us around their home and property with tremendous pride.  They purchased the place three years ago and refurbished and expanded the 90-year-old farmhouse themselves.  The two original downstairs bedrooms still have old stone floors, but there is new tile throughout the rest of the main floor and the new section is sunny and inviting.  The kitchen has tile counters and beadboard cabinetry. There are two new bedrooms upstairs—carpet covers the plank flooring.  It’s quite rustic—it’s the traditional concrete construction with pineboard and beam ceilings—but utterly charming.  There’s nothing we’d do immediately except paint the interior walls, which are all white.

The property is a rhombus-shaped plot that consists of mostly meadow, 18 recently-planted fruit trees, an old apple tree, and a few other shrubs and trees.  Javier and Rosario used to have Jersey cows and made cheese from the milk, but have sold the cows.  They are moving to an uncle’s property on the border with Brazil—they’ll have more land there and more ways to earn a living.  They have a daughter who lives just a kilometer down the road who has already offered to help us with the transition or watch over the place when we are gone.  They also have a 27-year-old son with special needs who lives with them.

The final remaining worry was internet access.  Nathalie brought her laptop and picked up the wireless signal immediately. YES!

What struck me about Javier and Rosario is the love they have lavished on this home.  They built the new addition themselves—and fortunately, they have a good sense of design and excellent craftsmanship.  Even more amazing:  they don’t own a car!  They have one motorcycle.  In fact, the place doesn’t even have a driveway (though it will be easy to add gravel to the entrance)—all of the owners since 1917 have had only horse-drawn wagons or motorcycles!  (I’m embarrassed to admit that the first thing we’ll do is buy an old truck so we can haul plants and other materials.)

Tom and I loved everything about the place, and Sara, Peter and Nathalie assured us that it was a steal and the people seemed truly kind and genuine.  We decided to sleep on it—though we didn’t sleep much—and the next morning, we went out to the place again with Peter and Nathalie.  We asked a few final questions, walked around one more time, and then told them we wanted to buy it.

It was the most simple and joyful transaction imaginable.  We all embraced each other and both Rosario and I shed a few tears together.  They agreed to finish a couple of things that were underway already—completing a little balcony off the bedroom upstairs and doing the rock work on the front entry floor to match what they’d done with the fireplace.  They were grateful that we’re not in any hurry to move in—they really want to spend the holidays with their daughter and her new husband before moving.  We told them that we would go into Colonia immediately and meet with an escribana—sort of a notary public who handles the purchase process.

Peter and Nathalie drove us to Colonia and introduced us to Maria, the escribana they’d used.  Within minutes, we’d signed an initial agreement and put down about ten percent of the price in cash in order to reserve the place.  Maria will call Javier and Rosario directly and arrange to have them come in with the papers.  We saw the file they’d put together—a meticulous collection of every original deed and title since 1917.  The first owners were Italian immigrants, then a French family bought it in the forties and a British family in the nineties.  As Rosario told me, it’s always been an international house!

Despite the fact that we’re bumping up against the holidays, Maria assured us that this would be a simple process and that we should be able to make the final payment and move in by mid-January.  I fully expect it to go as quickly and easily as everything else.

Listen, I know we could have looked at a hundred properties.  We could have taken months to find a place.  But though I’m not always sure what I want, I ALWAYS know it when I see it.  I’ve learned to trust my instincts, and my heart tells me that this is the place and now is the time.  Tom, of course, is the logical one—he’s much more likely to analyze the numbers than I am—and he believes it’s literally the deal of our lifetime (and we’ve had some great ones.)

Most Americans spend more on a car than we are spending for a four-bedroom farmhouse on five acres.  In fact, our new studio apartment in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires and this property are well under $100,000 together.  We feel so fortunate to have found this place online, and connected with Julio and then Javier and Rosario.

We plan to spend most of our time there but come back to BA whenever we feel like we want a blast of city life or a visit with our girls (at least two of them will be living in BA and using the studio as a gathering place when we’re not staying there.)  It’s easy enough to get to—a pleasant 90-minute ferry ride followed by another 45 minutes or so on the bus.

We’re extremely excited about this new chapter in our lives.  I feel completely at ease with this decision and know that there are some wonderful possibilities ahead that we have not yet imagined.  It helps that we already have friends there and access to many others who have done something similar.  There’s an Irishman living nearby who is growing barley, a woman from Belgium growing almonds, and lots of others scattered around the area who are engaging in all kinds of farming and other ventures.  We look forward to using our Spanish in “town”—Rosario—and getting to know the locals, including our neighbors (three within a mile on each side).

Though it might seem like this was an unusually quick decision and process, I have heard countless stories from expats who have stumbled upon a property that just “felt right” and bought it on the spot. Most will say it’s the best decision they’ve ever made.  Interestingly, we continue to bump into expats from the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Cascadians seem to make up the bulk of expats who are finding and settling in Uruguay.

I believe that when we pay attention to the people and opportunities around us, trust our instincts and get past our fear of taking risks, we live in greater alignment with our true selves.

This feels right.

(Want to see photos?  I’ve got some on my Facebook wall.  Friend me at http://www.Facebook.com/mayafrost )

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