Negotiating for property: Once you find property that you want to buy, don’t delay in making an offer. The market in Belize is simply too robust to wait. With the help of a real estate agent and attorney, prepare an Offer of Purchase to present to the property owner. It should include your name, the name of the seller, the property’s legal description, the purchase price you’re offering, and the terms of the deal.
You submit this with a deposit—usually 10%. Most real estate offices have a standard form they use for this. At this point an attorney can research the title and take care of the paperwork needed to complete the sale, including registering your title to the property. The earlier you engage an attorney, the better, and you should not use the same attorney as the seller.
Title insurance: While the vast majority of Belizean real estate agents are honest, a few may not be as diligent as they should be, especially in a fast-paced market. Moreover, even the best attorneys can make mistakes. For those reasons, it’s always wise to invest in title insurance. First American Title Insurance Company provides title insurance in Belize.
Closing costs: You’re likely to pay about 18% in closing costs. In addition to the 2% to 3% that attorneys charge, there’s a stamp duty (transfer tax) of 15%, as well as fees to register the property in your name.
Real estate tax: About 1.5% of the property’s assessed value, payable annually.
Ben was born again at the age of nine in Southern California and baptized by Immanuel Missionary Baptist Church under the pastorate of Dr. E.A. Sharver. Ben is married to his beautiful and loving wife Terese and has successfully raised their five awesome children, Stephanie, John, Amber, Aaron & Samantha. He answered God’s call to the Gospel Ministry in 2000 under the pastorate of Mike Raines in Norman, Oklahoma. Within the Lord’s churches he has held the positions of music director, teacher, youth minister, treasurer, and interim pastor and has chaired building, missions, finance, bus ministries and pastor search committees. Ben is currently attending Heritage Baptist Institute and Seminary in Missouri City, Texas. He has been involved in missions and church planting for most of his life and is no stranger to the processes and challenges of mission work and community evangelism. He is fairly fluent in Spanish and has lived in Peru (Lima and the Amazon) and Kenya. He enjoys singing conventional church music, southern gospel and contemporary Christian music and loves to play guitar. Ben was most recently employed by BP America (British Petroleum) Corporation as a safety and health professional and Crisis Management Advisor. Ben has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than thirty years holding positions of management in some of the largest energy sector corporations in the U.S. and the world. He has extensive leadership experience in the church, corporations, civic, and professional organizations. Preparing to take early retirement from BP in December 2010, again, Ben has answered God’s call to the foreign mission field and is preparing for service in Belize, Central America.
Terese became a child of the King at 14 years of age as a result of neighbor’s faithfulness, love and willingness to pick her and her brothers up and take them to Sunday School and church. Terese is married to her loving husband, Ben and is so thankful for her five beautiful children, Stephanie, John, Amber, Aaron and Samantha. Children are her blessing and she counts it all joy that she is able to teach them about Jesus Christ the Lord. She is committed to her family, and her husband’s ministry. Terese has extensive experience running several different businesses including electrical contracting and real estate, not to mention a very active household with five children and all their friends. Terese enjoys arts and crafts, baking and serving others. She has a great burden for missionaries everywhere and looks forward to any opportunity to help them and be a part of their work wherever she can. She has served leadership roles in church and local associations as teacher, VBS Director, President and Vice-President of local and associational auxiliaries and has planned and produced successful women’s conferences.
