How do people pay for a home on Roatan: cash, a HELOC, or a mortgage?

This is the question I ask on every first call, because the answer decides everything else. Here is what I see. In my experience, local banks do not lend to foreign buyers who are not residents, and banks at home do not usually lend against a property in another country. So most Canadians and Americans who buy on Roatan pay cash.

Cash does not mean a suitcase. It usually means one of three things. Some people sold a property at home and are putting part of the proceeds here. Some people open or extend a line of credit secured on their home in Canada or the US, a HELOC, and borrow against it at home, where the rate and the terms are familiar and in their own currency. Some do a mix: part savings, part line of credit. I am a trained accountant, and my only comment on which is better for you is that it depends on your rate at home, your tax situation and how long you plan to hold the property. Your accountant and your bank at home answer that; I do not.

Occasionally a seller offers to finance part of the price. It happens, and it is negotiated like anything else. If you go that way, your lawyer writes the terms, registers them properly, and explains exactly what happens if a payment is missed.

Now, how the money moves. Think of it as three wires. First the deposit after your offer is accepted, held somewhere you have agreed to in writing with your lawyer, never sent to the seller directly. Then the balance of the price before closing. Then the closing costs, which are on the next page of this list. Each wire goes from your bank at home to the account your lawyer names, in US dollars. Ask your own bank, before you commit to a closing date, how long an international wire takes, what it costs, and what paperwork it wants for a transfer of that size. Banks ask about the source of funds, and a wire can be held for days if the paperwork is not ready. Build that time into the closing date rather than finding out the week of.

Two practical notes. First, decide early whether you want a Honduran bank account for paying the electricity and the property manager later; opening one as a foreigner has its own requirements, and your lawyer can tell you what the banks here are asking for right now. Second, the exchange rate between the Canadian dollar and the US dollar moves, and a swing between the day you decide and the day you wire changes your price. Ask your bank about locking a rate if that matters to you.