1. Everybody can buy real estate in the Dominican Republic - no residence or local partners are required. You can buy as a private person or use an offshore company.
2. Be careful with estate agents and realtors in the Dominican Republic as they do not need a license to operate and they have no malpractice insurance. Your deposits are not covered by any laws or realtor associations.
3. Before signing any contracts or paying any money you must use a trusted lawyer to make a "deep" local title search. It's not enough to check if the title is "Clean", the ownership history must also be investigated as there has been and still is a lot of fraud with titles in the Dominican Republic.
4. If you are buying land you must use an independent surveyors to re-measure the land and confirm the position(the lawyers know which one to use in the area). Do NOT buy any land with squatters on it and make sure that no squatters are moving into your land as it's impossible to remove them later on.
5. Be extremely careful with fancy promising pre-construction projects on the Dominican Republic. Many promoters and projects are running out of cash which are delaying or even stopping the projects. There are no laws protecting you and no guarantee that the project will ever finish - many buyers has been left stranded in the Dominican Republic.
6. NEVER pay any cash or make any transfer directly to Dominican estate agents, promoters or timeshare sellers. Always use escrow accounts together with a trusted lawyer or a title guarantee company recommended by us.
7. If you are buying a property for renovation or land for building a new home. You have chosen one of the most difficult projects in your life. There are no master education in the Dominican Republic - all construction workers are from Haiti and they are all painters, plumbers and electricians except the fact that none of them have had any real education in their field of work!
8. The cheapest way to build is to find a good local builder with a lot of references(you must see his work and talk to the owners!). You must check the work daily and pay him every Saturday. You should buy all the building materials yourself from HACHE and OCHOA - don't use small local hardware stores - it's worthwhile to shop around and get discounts - you will save a lot of money!  The only problem with the small builder is that he can only promise you a lot, but in reality he will not be able to offer any warranty on his work and you will never get anything out of suing him - thats why you must check everything yourself!
9. NEVER EVER pay any money in advance to builders or for building materials. There are thousands of examples of cheap builders on the island who ask 10% in advance or just USD 500 and you will never see them again!
10. The best way is to use a trusted lawyer to prepare a contract with a wellknown and trusted building company. That contract will stipulate payments and penalties plus keep an amount of 5% on escrow to fix problems that might happen under the 2 year warranty period that Dominican Watchdog recommends.

If you follow these simple rules then property investments in the Dominican Republic is still cheap compared to other Caribbean locations. Just stay away from real estate projects that are under development and areas with bad infrastructures as blackouts is one of the biggest problems for home owners in the DR.

Blacklisted Dominican Estate Agents & Realtors

Villas & Castillos operating in Casa de Campo, Juan Dolio and Santo Domingo

reason: the Owner Tomas Oscar Valenzuela Ponshas issued checks from his US acc. for USD 300,000

to a seller of a Penthouse in Juan Dolio. There are insufficient funds on his account to cover the checks.

According to the local tax register does he not own anyhting in his own name in the Dominican Republic

If you have had a bad experience with a Dominican estate agent please report it so they can be blacklisted in order to prevent them from committing more fraud. If you have any questions you can always ask Dominican Watchdog for free advice.

Watchlist On Dominican Real Estate Developers

Be careful, the following real estate development projects in the Dominican Republis are not offering secure escrow account nor tittle gurantee services. Dominican Watchdog recommend that you find another developer who is protecting your investment!

Punta Perla in Cabeza de Toro(Punta Cana area), Dominican Republic

In the intersts of better consumer protection, Dominican Watchdog will add any real estate development in the Dominican Republic to our Watchlist, if they do not protect invesors. PLEASE CONTACT US TO REPORT A PROJECT THAT IS NOT USING ESCROW ACCOUNTS OR A TITTLE GUARANTEE COMPANY.

If your legal battle in the Dominican Republic is ONLY related to real estate agents or larger developments, then Dominican Watchdog has introduced the first - NO CURE - NO PAY - service to local or foreign investors to recover their lost money.

If we don't reach a settlement with the developer or estate agent in less than 100 days, then you pay absolutely nothing!

This offer is limited to real estate and timeshares purchases. The Dominican Watchdog is not a law firm, we don't give legal advice. This service is a completely independent "swift out of court private settlement" in order to prevent you from losing more money on year long court battles.

We must have access to all your signed contracts and proof of payment to the real estate agent or developer. Without legal documents confirming your investment or lose we can't help you. You will have to sign a NO CURE - NO PAY agreement valid for 100 days. 

The Dominican Watchdog is the only international consumer protection website fully focused on the Dominican Republic. We have the power to reach swift out of court settlements, because we have the power to block international sales and marketing immediately by exposing fraud or irregularities regarding the Dominican real estate market.

You should avoid any lawsuits in the Dominican Republic - read why!

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