So we have been home for about a month now, back from Europe, and a lot has happened.
First, we had our first Airbnb guests! I had 4 bookings in November, and made about $400. The first couple got there one day after we arrived ourselves, with BF’s aunt in tow. They rented our new room, that had been closed for two months and we were worried about it smelling like mold, the sheets smelling like mold, and the fact that our water pump was broken so we had no running water!
Thankfully, it all turned out just fine. The sun made a quick appearance, just enough for me to wash the sheets and air the room, BF spent the whole day fixing the water pump, and our guests arrived at night like nothing had happened.
Then we hosted three more groups, one of them even found me via the shameless plugs on this very website, so get ready to see many more haha!
I also made a few pages on my land development website to describe the guest house, rates, how to get there…
Having guests was fun, but on our arrival day, it was pretty stressful. And with the rain season that was supposed to stop in September but didn’t, washing the sheets and towels was complicated. We need to buy some more. All of our guests were fascinated by the property, which was awesome. When people really enjoy your place and your work, it is always nice. I am glad they left happy!
What concerns us now is that with the heavy rains, the lake keeps rising, and is not dangerously close to the level of our deck. We may have to tear the deck down to save it. We are the only deck around that still remains above water. It is impressive how fast the lake rises, we are really hoping for the dry season but it may keep raining for a few more weeks.
The animals don’t really care, we got 13 little ducks while we were away, 6 are still there, and they are too cute! The other 7 may have been eaten by “the animal”. That is how the villagers call a disgusting marsupial that looks like a rat, only bigger and with a long tail. We found out he was visiting our kitchen too! I had a face to face encounter a few nights back with him and he is really disgusting. We have put poison everywhere the chicks don’t risk eating it, but he doesn’t die. Looks like we need to trap him. BF made a trap in the shower with food, surrounded by empty glass bottles so we hear him, and a rope we would pull to close the door and keep him imprisoned in the bathroom until morning, for the handyman to kill it. So far, no luck.
But…
THE one big piece of news is….
Get your checkbooks ready!!!!
We are ready for business people!! And not only to rent our place out to tourists (another plug can’t hurt, can it?), WE GOT OUT DEEDS APPROVED FOR THE LAND DEVELOPMENT!!!!!
There are not enough exclamation points to truly describe how happy we are. Long story short, we thought after we got our plans approved by the cadaster, that the register of property would take 3-4 months to approve the plots and issue individual deeds for each of them. They took two weeks! Apparently, they digitalized most of the process, unlike their counterparts at the cadaster.
That means our land development is officially formed by 100 plots, each of which has an individual title that we can now sell to whomever wants to buy!
That is the map of the project with the plots and the adjacent village. You can find an interactive map with sizes and prices here.
Before that, we didn’t want to accept any money, in case our project was denied and we would have had to give the money back. And we can ask for a higher price with full titles rather than without. In the village, lots of people sell without a title for a lower price, because what the registry really looks for is ownership of the land, meaning you live in a house on said land, or cultivate it and nobody is opposed to that, but the day you want to get your deed in order you may have a surprise. For example our dear friends at the council have been selling plots that weren’t theirs to sell, and now people can’t get their deeds.
That also means that the council now has ZERO say in how we develop our land. We tried and tried to talk to them and they were just being ridiculous. We offered to give them our roads, as they serve a part of the village that only has a bad road so far, they wanted the road but not to maintain it. We offered to give them enough land for a football field, they never followed up. But they were quick in requesting that we submitted a ton of useless paperwork and costly studies to the tune of $5,000, in hopes we would bribe them instead to get their approval.
Remember that letter I had to squat at the council for hours and type myself in order to get? That is the one that we used to tell the national institutions that the council was on board. Just after signing it, the council asked for more studies, but the other bureaus were happy with just that letter to split our land.
All in all, what I am most proud of is that it was a zero bribe operation. The counselors must be fuming but that is the way we roll!
So if you would like a little piece of paradise, complete with property title, contact me :). Prices start at $1.5 per sqm.
Oh, man. I am really tempted to buy land in Guatemala from you now. I already have visions of building a tiny house on wheels, and shipping it down there…
Are there any of the less expensive lots you think would work well for a little tiny home? Something flat, with easy access to a road?
Yes, the smaller plots are about 0.2 acre and you can roll the house up via an asphalt road in the village. However don’t ship anything here haha the customs are crazy and if they see something they have never seen, like a tiny home, they will have to set a price to determine taxes and will probably set it really high. With low cost of labor I am sure you can bring a picture and have a tiny home built for little money. The tiny home may need a tiny AC too 🙂 My idea on the land is more stone houses or mud houses/adobe so it doesn’t get so hot. My house is stone and partially buried in the earth to provide some natural cooling.
Congrats on your first guests Pauline. I absolutely love the trap you have set up. It sounds like something from a cartoon!! I hope it works!
Thank you Graham!
Awesome that you got the land deeds approved – yay!!!! One day we are going to have on our to-do list to come down there and rent your place – it just looks so beautiful and peaceful.
Yaaaaaay!!! That is a really beautiful region, and so many cool adventures for the kids, I hope you can visit some day!
So what I am hearing is that I could building my shipping container house there and not have to worry about some HOA saying no? How many days of sun do you get down there? Is it enough that solar panels would actually make sense?
Yes, absolutely! I don’t know about the days of sun, a vast majority of days are sunny, many people in the capital use solar panels for hot water, I haven’t seen many use it for electricity, mostly because panels are expensive. I heard about a charity that I want to check out who covered a hospital roof with panels and is running most of the hospital on solar.
They do make sense but you would have to import them in your container 🙂
Congrats Pauline! Sounds like a big milestone in your project and it was no easy task getting to this point. Makes the achievement that much more sweet.
Thanks Liz, it was long but you are right, now it is a graet feeling.
So awesome that it got approved Pauline, that must be a huge weight off your shoulders. Nice work on the first guests as well. With snow falling right now, Guatemala doesn’t sound too bad at all. 🙂
We’re in the high 80s now, and the lake is around 70… just perfect 🙂
Wow, congrats on the land development! That’s incredibly exciting and a real testament to staying persistent and sticking to your guns. Now it’s time for the cash to really start rolling in!
Fingers crossed it does!
Congrats on succeeding without paying bribes! I remember how frustrating the process was for you and I bet it feels amazing to finally have the deeds approved. Looking forward to hearing more about your development in Guatemala!
Yes, it is pretty cool. Feel like going to the council and doing a happy dance, although I am not sure bragging is the way to go… quiet home happy dance then!
I’m so, so happy to hear that you got the land titles!!! It will be so neat to see houses start to go up. How exciting!
I’m glad to hear you got great feedback from your Airbnb guests. The water pump not working would have been so stressful! It sounds like you are able to make a pretty decent amount of money via Airbnb too. I was just looking for places today with it last night and was pleasantly surprised.
Yes, they have pretty nice places which you wouldn’t find otherwise. I got on Booking too but not sure I’ll stay as the clients referred by Booking expect more of a hotel setting and you don’t get to interact with them beforehand. With Airbnb you can exchange 2-3 emails to see if you are a good match, then accept or refuse. With booking you just get the reservation and that’s it.
Nice Pauline! I would love to visit your property one day =)
I hope everything goes well with your land permits!
Thanks Holly!
Wow! So many projects! I don’t know how you keep it all straight. The amount of spreadsheets I have just to manage my blog and freelance writing make my head spin.
I just make more mistakes I guess, organization is not my strong suit.
Congratulations! This has been a long time coming!
Thank you Jenna!
Congrats on both- the Airbnb and the land development- especially the land development. That’s huge!
Thanks Ryan!
That’s fantastic! What a wild month. I think it’s great that you put this work in motion….once a plan gets rolling downhill, it’s hard to stop.
I sure hope it doesn’t stop!
Wow, that’s some news! I’m going to need to speak to my boyfriend about this. What would your opinion be on someone purchasing a plot but leaving it undeveloped for some time?
Hey Jamie, yes that is pretty big news! The North of Guatemala is growing pretty fast, and there have been talks of an asphalt road for years, apparently the money was there but “disappeared”, even so, when they do asphalt the road the prices should rise quite a bit, and at 5-7 years that is pretty realistic. It is only 6 miles now, 5 years ago it was about 15 miles but they did that bit already. So leaving the land for appreciation is a good option. Other parts of the country are stalling but around here prices more than doubled in the past 10 years.
Woo-hoo! I know this took so much longer than it should have with all their crazy rules and hope for bribes but you did it! I bet it feels great and I have no doubt that you’ll be selling plots like crazy. It looks so peaceful on your lake, even if the lake is getting a little high. Hopefully, it stops raining so you don’t have to tear down the deck. You could send the rain to us. We need it, even though it annoys me when it rains. 🙂
Pushing the clouds North right now 🙂
it sounds like you have an Opossum! they are pretty vile, although they’re the only North American marsupial so they have a soft spot in my heart. they also “play dead” which is kind of funny to watch. I didn’t realize they ate ducks…
Glad you got the land titles and were able to do it without bribing! Hope you get some sales. 🙂
Fingers crossed! I’d like to see the opossum play dead instead of eating my eggs and animals… they look horrible, I’d rather have the rackoons that live in the South of the country at least they are cute.
Your place on AirBnB looks awesome!! Thanks for sharing about your experiences!!
Thanks Jon!
Congrats! Zero bribe operation is a great accomplishment and such a sweet victory!
it is, thank you!
Congratulations! I know it’s been a long time coming. I hope you don’t have to tear down the dock! That would be such a shame. 🙁
Thank you! I hope so too, so much work to rebuild…
Congrats not only on your first AirBNB client, but also on getting the land titles! You must be over the moon. THings are looking good in Guatemala!
Yes I was so happy to get them eventually, thanks for the good wishes!
Will you be the general contractor for anyone wanting to build on a lot? You have experience with getting permits and with getting the locals to finish a job so it is a natural extension..
There is money in building homes. Western retirees don’t want to deal with inefficient local councils and unreliable workers. Retirees want to pick paint colours and move in.
It could be an option although I am not very interested in building, I could give them a team of reliable contractors or supervise for a fee.
Looks like things are going really well for you! Congrats on your success. Bribe free is always good. Fingers crossed for a long and lucrative AirBNB career!
Thank you Daisy!
Woop woop – you are a dynamo, Pauline. I don’t know how you find time to sleep – do you even? So many projects and successes – felicidades!!!!
Gracias! Yes lots of times to sleep thanks to cheap labor doing many things too 🙂
This is so awesome Pauline! I loved the AirBnB experience – as a renter it’s a great way to travel – I’m glad it worked out for you !
Thanks Laura, I enjoy it as a traveler too, it is a really cool idea.
Soooooo happy to hear about the plots! Congratulations! Enjoy your celebrations – after the rat thingy is gonzo!
Hey Tammy, nice to see you back around here! How is life treating you and CJ? Thank you for your good wishes, it is indeed great news.
Congratulations! The bribing question comes down to rent vs. buy: buy costs more and takes longer, but rent (the bribing) goes on forever once you start…
Best of luck with the development! 🙂
I can see how they would get used to the bribes and certainly do not want that!
Yeah, honesty and hard work win! I am very curious about the animal. Is it like an opossum? We had those in KY and they are scary looking and mean.
I think it is a cousin of the opossum. It has disgusting little hands that look like human hands (I could see one close as my neighbor just trapped and killed one) and looks pretty mean.