The WILD World of DR 🇩🇴 Mortgages

In this edition of the Grubernation Weekly Newsletter:

• The WILD World of DR 🇩🇴 Mortgages

• In Case You Missed It…

• Amazon RUINED US Culture ... Now They’re Targeting DR

In Punta Cana October 24-26? If so, I’ll be at the Keller Williams Investor’s Camp at the AC Marriott as a keynote speaker for the event.

Check out the event website and get connected to KW for this event. See you there!

The WILD World of DR 🇩🇴 Mortgages

A few weeks ago, we closed on the sale of our Michigan home and earmarked the equity for a sizable down payment on our ‘forever’ home in Punta Cana.

We forged ahead applying for mortgages with both a bank directly as well as a mortgage broker.

(If either or both are good, I’ll share the contacts)

In the Dominican Republic, there’s a universal rule …

You MUST know to ask the question you have no idea you’re supposed to ask!

Confusing right?

It’s just not normal to volunteer all the info needed. It comes out in drips even when you THINK you’ve clearly asked.

When we shipped our car, we CLEARLY asked for all fees and charges both from the US, the shipping company, Aduana, etc.

‘Claro’ we got in response.

But when we got this comprehensive cost list, there were 3-4 things OBVIOUSLY missing.

“Oh yes - that’s after though” or something like that is the justification.

Back to mortgages …

Here are 3 things we didn’t find out, despite EXHAUSTIVE questions until mid-way through the process that you should know too.

#1: They’ll Dilute Your Income to Qualify You

This may be because I’m not a ‘W2’ employee with a steady paycheck, but imagine my shock when in the middle of the process I’m told that they wouldn’t consider all of my income when calculating my debt to income ratio (DTI).

‘Ok’, I thought - ‘I get that’. 

‘They’ll probably knock 20% off my income to be conservative’

Try ONLY considering 20% of my income!!!

The standard range is 10-30% of income considered.

That means if you make a good income like $300,000 USD/year, the bank will consider $30,000-$90,000 and qualify you based off of that.

We’ve been blessed to do ok, but 10% of my income ain’t gonna cut it!

Ask your bank in advance!

#2: Everything’s Negotiable .. To a Point!

The bank will lay out their standard terms for you and they’re pretty conservative.

• 40% down payment

• 20 year amortization

• 10% interest rate fixed for 1 year

• DTI of 35% (based on 30% of your income)

Each bank has their own list of terms, so the above isn’t the country standard, but not far off.

So you look at that and say ‘hey, let’s negotiate to put 30% down, 30 year amortization and fix the rate for 3 years based on 50% of my income’.

They’ll play ball .. but only 1-2 exceptions max.

Pick the thing that’s most important to you and get them to make THAT exception .. and MAYBE you’ll get a second one if you’ve got an insanely good relationship.

But that’s it.

In my case, we got them to accept more of my income to qualify, but our down payment is 50% (instead of the 40% I had planned) and all other terms remain the same.

I am seeing if I can roll the transfer tax into the mortgage (which is possible) just to keep more cash on hand considering I have to pay 10% more than expected out of pocket.

But if not, we’ll need to pay it and I’ll just do some window washing at stop signs to build our savings back up.

#3: Life Insurance

A standard portion of the bank’s process is to require insurance to close the loan.

Not property insurance per se .. but life insurance, with the bank as the beneficiary.

The mortgage broker said there’s a good chance the bank will accept my US based life insurance policy, but there’s no guarantee of that.

In our most recent DR Inner Circle Q&A, a few members that have secured mortgages said they had to buy the policy with the bank for $200-$300/month even though they offered to make the bank the beneficiary on their US life policy.

This isn’t an expense discussed when applying. There’s no outline of all fees and considerations for you when applying for a mortgage, so I hope this helps.

There are a BUNCH of other conditions to be mindful of:

• Will the bank not allow amortization past your 70th birthday?

• Do they require property insurance in addition?

• Will the bank carry their own property insurance?

• Is there additional consdieration for Dominican citizens?

• Can a foreigner get a mortgage at all?

• Are terms different for a foreign buyer?

• How do I make the down payment if there’s no escrow?

We spent over an hour talking through ALL of this in the DR Inner Circle. That video is recorded and in our portal for viewing.

Truly hope you consider joining us there. We have weekly discussions on various topics from investing to moving to traveling and even offer discounted legal fees for members.

On Friday September 12, we have an attorney speaking to the commuity and on Tuesday September 16, Cheryl Henderson is updating the group on the Miches project.

It’s a tremendous value for $9/month (cancel any time) with options to be in our private Facebook group, our very active WhatsApp communities broken down by interest and location - or both!

Hope you consider joining us.

In Case You Missed It…

Going forward, I’m going to use this portion of the newsletter to capture a few news stories of interest providing a brief summary and link to the article.

Hope it provides good value to you!

• Collado Announces An Upcoming Plan for Punta Cana Infrastructure - He promised a plan outline to be published in the next 60 days and offered this quote that intrigued me…"we're going to organize our destinations. Bávaro-Punta Cana has to be organized”

• DR Sets New Record for Tourism - Through August 2025, 8 million people have visited Dominican Republic with nearly 2 million coming via cruise. Despite that, August air arrivals set a new record (breaking the record set just one month before in July). Air arrivals show the impact of the open skies agreement offering more diverse routes to multiple airports in the country.

• Abinader Commits to More Infrastructure Spending - this one isn’t in the news and that link will take you to a video I created outlining economic insider type content. Abinader’s actual notes were provided to me and translated for the DR Inner Circle recently. As you can see from the Collado announcment above along with new commitments to Samana and Bayahibe for infrastructure development, the insight from this video is coming to life. For more details, you gotta come join us in the DR Inner Circle.

Amazon RUINED US Culture - Now It’s Targeting DR!

If you haven’t heard, Amazon announced hub operations in Dominican Republic with 7 day a week cargo flights into Santo Domingo.

In this video, I analyze the good and the potential very bad (and it’s not what you think!)

Who reads to the end? Reply with a ‘como tu ta’ if you’re one of the real ones that goes all the way through. Appreciate you!!