land – Building a House in The Caribbean – Waitiki at Windchime Estates – St Croix

Seeking the Perfect Land Lot on St. Croix

Today was a good day. We started at K-Mart to grab a few things for the house, and then headed to our favorite spot on the island, Norma’s Domino Club in the rain forest. At this place, the pigs drink beer. No joke. After a couple of drinks ourselves, we headed to the West End to take a look at a few properties that were on our list and meet Doane, our Realtor. We parked at a spot on the beach to wait for her at the end of the of the road leading from the rain forest. Unfortunately the properties out on the West side were very vertical, hillside, which would make it hard to build. Although the views were incredible and the sunsets would be amazing. We proceeded then to follow Doane to the North shore to take a look at a couple more, one of which isn’t listed on the MLS.

That’s the great thing about having a realtor like Doane – I know I’ve talked about this lady in multiple posts now as one of the best realtors out there who goes out of her way, but really she is! She showed us a lot that used to be on the market back in 2009, of which she knows the owner. She had contacted him before to sell off other lots when they weren’t listed, and got them sold to her buyers successfully. She kept saying “it’s exactly what you’re looking for. This is the one.” and we think she was right. The thing is, there isn’t much on the market right now, so having an “in” is really helping to find what we’re looking for.

At least out of all the properties we looked at today, her “not listed” property is our prime choice. It’s the top crest of a hill off the North shore, so there is a lot of gentle slope for a great build (unlike steep cliffs which cost a lot from an excavation standpoint.) The property will be great for both a main house and a guest house with a large outdoor pool area – and room for a future horse barn if we end up getting a horse. It’s a total of 1.6 acres, which is a little smaller than I originally thought we wanted but the location and views are superb. You can literally see the North coast line AND the South shore from the top of the hill. 360 degree views of the ocean! It could be an incredible space.

We left each other today with Doane saying she would text the owner’s previous Realtor. She’s planning to strike up a conversation to see where his head’s at, and if he’s still looking to sell it. Will the owner be reasonable from a pricing stand point? To be continued…

Not Many Lenders Out There Lending for Land on St. Croix

Scotiabank never returned my call about financing. I called them back and found out they aren’t doing land loans or construction loans at this time. That leaves two options out of the list of 10 I started with, Bank of St. Croix and Banco Popular. I still don’t have land loan information from Bank of St. Croix though. I think I’m going to go ahead and get pre-qualified with Banco Popular so we can get the process moving. It doesn’t mean I have to close a loan with them and can still check through Bank of St. Croix when and if they get back to me.

Carlos sent me the names of a couple other guys to talk to regarding the house. One’s a contractor who owns the forms to do the concrete and steel shell of the house including the cisterns, and the other is an excavator and land clearer to help me clear the lot. I’ve left messages with both of them and hope to get in touch with them soon to start reeling in a rough budget.

Right now we’re so focused on the move that very little is happening in regards to planning of the house. We may have selected a Jeep, it’s my first experience planning for shipping between 3 islands and working with multiple logistics companies to get it there. I better get used to that! It’s on St. John so it first has to go to St. Thomas, and then to St. Croix.

Garage sale at our Orlando house next Friday by the way. Lots of things going up for sale! Come get some!

Financing and Design

I made calls for about 2 hours today looking for financing information and only got ahold of one person who has 100% of the information I needed. Banco Popular wins for the day out of lenders. The people at Bank of St. Croix were very nice too, but only had info on Construction Loans. Someone is supposed to call me back about Land Loans. First Bank VI and Scotiabank both have to return my calls still as no one could get me to anyone with any information. Welcome to the Island life! These are the only four banks that offer land and construction loans from what I’ve found down in St. Croix. Hopefully if I have info from all four, I’ll be able to make the best choice between loan products. I need to get prequalified before we start real conversations with land owners. We have our eye on 8 properties at the moment.

In other news, I spoke with Carlos Reyes, a designer and draftsman who was referred to me on the VImovingcenter.com site. This is my third call with him, and I really like him. He seems to be very free with information and knows where the good deals are VS the sub contractors who are out to get as much as they can from a “mainlander.” He was helpful in a few budgetary items today as well. He also seems like he’s going to be the best value wise for us to use. We’re planning to meet in person when we go down around the end of our next trip. I’ve got some hand drawings of features I want in the house going, and a Pinterest Board Shaleece and I have been working on, but we have to wait until we get the lot to start layout out the actual house. Follow our Caribbean Home Pinterest Board and dream with us!

Update: First Bank VI called back first thing this morning (8/22/17) and they are no longer doing Land and Construction loans. Just waiting on Scotiabank and Bank of St. Croix to finalize a decision after receiving the rest of their information.

Looking for Land for Sale on St. Croix, U.S.V.I.

The good news is since St. Croix is part of the United States Virgin Islands, the process for buying and selling property remains similar and protected under U.S. Law. It’s one of the few places this far down in the Caribbean that you have all the protection of the U.S. Government. It makes the whole thing a bit easier than going out of the country. I’m used to the Real Estate laws here so that’s good.

While we’ve worked with about four different Realtors over the course of the last two years looking for homes to buy, we figured we’d try and find yet another recommended Realtor to help us in our hunt for land. Not because any of the previous Realtors did a bad job (we know there’s a housing supply issue), just that different Realtors continue to give us different insight and opinions that have been helping to shape our direction and decisions on how to move ourselves down to St. Croix.

We found a woman named Patrice Kelly who came recommended from someone we met on www.vimovingcenter.com who is helping us with our land hunt. Already we’ve got a couple good candidates for what we eventually want to do. The criteria is: 1-3 acres, easily build-able, a not too steep slope, up on the mountain side, with a view of the ocean, on the North or West shorelines of the island. Options right now are ranging anywhere from $60k-$100k which we’re considering, and while that’s not cheap, they say the views are worth a million dollars. 😉

We’re not supposed to go back to St. Croix until the very end of November, but if we find a serious piece of land I may go down for a quick trip sooner as not to loose the opportunity. The real estate market has been on fire down there lately, and things can sell quick if they are the right deal.