Who’s Behind Chapala Club?

Hello, my name is Sid Grosvenor.

I live, work, and play in the beautiful Lake Chapala area of Mexico. My past lives include being a Dallas Police Dept. Commander, an Attorney, (Juris Doctor - Southern Methodist University with Advanced Studies in International Real Estate Law at the University of Exter, Exeter England), and a Real Estate Investor/Broker.

My late wife, Patricia, and I spent several years checking out possible retirement destinations. We checked into retirement possibilities in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and various locations in Mexico. We decided on Lake Chapala, Mexico! All things considered, it was the best for us. It just might be best for you too!

Before I lost my wonderful wife of 36 years to cancer, Patricia and I enjoyed living part of each year in East Texas and part of the year here in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. After her death and getting my grief under control, I decided to return to Mexico. I’m very glad I did, because I found the second love of my life here, Arcelia ( R – say LEE ah). After a lengthy courtship (almost 2 years) we married.

We are very happy here and would like to invite you to visit our lovely area. Check out the various sections of ChapalaClub.com, read and comment on our posts and ask any questions you may have, subscribe to our free RSS, email notification service AND, you can even customize your portal’s home page (Yahoo, MSN, etc.) to add ChapalaClub.com to it and keep up with all the latest news about Lake Chapala Mexico, (you may even want to drop your current news feed from ABC, NBC or CBS as their news is usually not very positive and ours almost always is.)

What do I do to stay out of trouble here at Lake Chapala. Well, I’m currently associated with Lake Chapala Real Estate as a Buyer’s Agent Realtor.

As a Realtor member in good standing in our local MLS group we call GIL (Groupo Inmobilario del Lago) and a member in AMPI (National Professional Mexican Realtors Association) I can help you with any home or lot offered by any of the area member real estate firms.

It’s in your best interests to contact me to help you. Read on to see exactly why.

The main searchable Multiple Listing data base has hundreds of homes in all different price ranges offered from all over the Lake Chapala area.

The Lake Chapala Real Estate Market:

The homes listed in pesos will likely be Mexican sellers. You can approximate the price given in pesos into dollars by dividing the stated price in pesos by the current exchange rate which is about 10.5 to one as this is written. The result will be very close to the asking price in dollars.

For example a home listed at 880,000 pesos would be listed at approx. $83,809 USD.

Homes here may or may not be less expensive than where you live now, since so much depends on just where you live and market conditions there.

Homes here are built stronger and of more durable materials than are used North of the Border and they are built using a lot more hand labor. A typical home here takes from 8 months to 12 months to build as a result.

Land is valued higher here than in some parts of the USA. In our area except for very large tracts, land is sold by the square meter. A square meter is approx. 10.76 sq. ft.

I tell you all of this as a reality check for you since many people think that land and homes here are very inexpensive. That depends on your frame of reference of course.

If you are coming from an inflated market then the homes seem very inexpensive. But, if for example, you are coming from the Southern USA then the homes here may not seem so inexpensive.

But, even if homes here are at or even above the cost of comparable sized homes where you live, there’s a lot to offset the cost of buying a home here… and you should consider all your expenses here compared to all your expenses where you live now to see just how much better off you would be financially living here compared to where you live now.

Real Estate Taxes at Lake Chapala and Ajijic:

Your property taxes will be almost nothing here. For example, I value my home at $200,000, but my property taxes are under $80 USD per year.

My utilities are a lot less too than they would be in the States. And, almost every other expense I have would be well under the USA costs.

Well, thanks again for reading this admittedly long post and joining Chapala Club. Membership has its privileges, as you will soon discover. I truly look forward to being of service anyway I can.

“My promise to you is to treat you as I would want to be treated if our roles were reversed. In short, I know you have a choice in just who you put your trust in to help you discover the Lake Chapala area.”

I strive every day to be a better husband, father, grandfather, person, friend, and Realtor. I have many, many delighted clients/friends. (Personal references upon request).

One more very important thing I want you to carefully consider before going to the data base link I’m about to provide to you.

I act in the capacity of a “Realtor Buyer’s Agent”. Now you could just go to the listing seller’s agent on any home you find in the data base without my help. But consider this: Who does the listing agent represent and just who is he or she looking out for?

The listing or seller’s agent represents the seller’s best interest, not yours. This is as it should be. But you should have someone representing your best interest too!

So, I strongly advise you to use me or some other buyer’s agent to represent your best interest.

A buyer’s agent can usually find out things from the listing agent and other means available that you could not find out on your own. OK, here’s the database link

www.mlsmexico.com/chapala

Siempre tu amigo (Always your friend) , Sid
sid@chapalaclub.com