places to live

There are many parts of the island that are great to live. Each new island resident has his/her own ideas about what Paradise should be like. Whatever your dream about the "perfect island home" happens to be, it is very likely that St. Croix can provide it.

What do you hope to find?

Dear Jacky-

We just purchased a condo on the North side with great caribbean views, a wonderful breeze, as well as a view of Buck Island. Estate Judith's Fancy is just West of us and has some beautiful homes. The east and west end also had some very nice choices (it's all a matter of your personal preference).

Just FYI: We noticed that many of the listings on MLS were very outdated (if you do not get them directly from a Realtor) and many of the places that we really liked were already sold and off the market. We received exceptional service from Alexandra Marshall, as she emailed us the newest listings in our price range and also treated us "like friends" throughout our entire transaction. She was a life-saver, since we completed most of our transaction from California.

We wish you the best as you find your perfect place!

Hello Alexandra,

We would like to live in a house that is in a safe area and has a view. One of our requirements is a house (around 2000 sq ft) with an apt.

We were dealing with a realtor on our last visit in November, but she hasn't been communicating with us too much since our return to the states.

We were also considering using a buyers agent rather than a sellers agent. Could you tell me about the difference.
Thanks for your time.
Jacky

Jacky,

All listing agents are automatically the seller's agent. They are required to try to put a deal together with the seller's best interests in mind. However, that does not mean they work actively against the buyer's interests, as it would not be in the seller's best interest for buyers to walk away and not make an offer to purchase the property. Always remember to be careful what personal information you divulge to a seller's agent, as they are required to share that information with the seller and it may harm your bargaining position. A listing agent will generally encourage you to pay full price (or better than full price) for a property. At times this is necessary (and would be suggested by a buyer's agent, also) to do to get an offer accepted if the market is tight, but at others a less than full price offer would possibly be accepted.

In the islands, almost all agents (not just the listing agent) are also supposed to be working on the seller's behalf to get his/her property sold. The seller is paying the commission to both his listing agent and also to the agent who brings in the buyer who ultimately purchases the property. The agents escorting the buyers will have a much more direct relationship with the buyers they are escorting than they do with the seller, yet technically they are not considered buyers' agents. In most cases, these agents do keep the buyer's needs in mind and work to provide assistance and information so that the buyer can get a fair deal on the property he chooses to purchase. These agents are generally referred to as "the buyer's agent" in the transaction... yet they have a fine line to walk in what information they pass to the buyer about the seller and vice versa.

There is also a second variety of Buyer's Agent, which may be what you are really wondering about. An Agent in some cases can work solely for the buyer in the transaction. This can only be done with informed consent on both sides of the transaction. The Buyer's Agent must disclose to the seller in the Offer to Purchase that he/she is working on behalf of the buyer and is not representing the seller in the transaction in any way. Seller's are not obligated to pay commissions to this variety of Buyer's Agent and often will not do so. The Buyer's Agent is therefore compensated directly by the Buyer. For some buyers, this brings peace of mind that their personal information is not being passed to the seller and being used against them in negotiations (such as if the Buyer is offering $200K for a property and the agent knows the buyer will go up to $230K and is approved for a mortgage to make that possible.... and if that information is passed onto the seller, the buyer may wind up paying more for the property than he would have if that information had not been disclosed.) An agent working specifically for the buyer would absolutely not disclose personal information to the seller or the seller's agent that may be detrimental to the buyer's negotiating position or in other ways. Occasionally, this type of Buyer's Agent may be able to assist in negotiating such a good price on a property that even after adding a buyer-paid commission to the purchase price, you can come out ahead... but at other times it does cost the buyer a little more in the end.

The reality is that the vast majority of transactions are completed to everyone's satisfaction using the first type of agent who escorts the buyer and works with them to find a property and write up an offer to purchase and is ultimately paid a commission by the seller. It is rare that secret or personal information is passed from side to side without consent, as nobody wants to do something shady that would possibly make a deal fall apart.

If you have doubts about the agent you work with to locate a property, then do not disclose your full bargaining strategy or tell him/her your absolute maximum price if you are offering less in your offer to purchase. Hopefully you will be working with someone whose ethics you trust and whom you have a good working relationship with so that you know you and she/he are involved in a collaborative effort to find you just the right new home.

Something that may also give you peace of mind to be able to trust your agent is that he/she will hope to receive referrals from you in the future once your property sale is completed to your satisfaction. If the agent does not treat you fairly, they would not have much reason to expect your future recommendation!

Hopefully this did not confuse the issue too much...

Dear Alexandra Marshall

I think you have given everyone a look at the differences between a "buyers agent" and a "sellers agent". As you point out, it can be a complex and often contradictory relationship. When I first looked for property on St Croix, I was told..that I should hire a real estate attorney to protect my rights and negotiate any real estate purchases.

I respect your openness and honesty, so I would like you to comment on the need for an attorney to represent real estate buyers in the Virgin Islands.

Thanks

Some of the threads alluded to the difficulty of closing a real estate transaction in the Virgin Islands. Even Ronnie asked for more information. I hope we can get a knowledgable source to respond regarding the need for a real estate lawyer.

Closing a real estate transaction is not necessarily more difficult than in the states. I closed my first loan here in less than 30 days from application. Good agents and attorneys will help both parties protect their interests. Attorneys are part of the purchase process here, as in many states. While I have not often seen them included early in the negotiation process as the Realtors do a fine job there (though they could be to review a contract, etc.), they are involved in finance and closing portion of a transaction. I can get you a name and number of an attorney if you would like to speak to one directly.

As an attorney and a recent home purchaser on the island of St. Thomas, I would recommend an attorney even at the initial contract-of-sale/offer stage. While many of the realtors here utilize a standard form contract, I have personally encountered some nuanced flaws with that contract. Furthermore, you may have some specific issues you want to address, e.g. options after inspection, extended financing approval options, etc.
Of course, I am an attorney and, well, my livelihood depends on conflict and the anticipation thereof. 🙂

Onika has a good point regarding having an attorney involved early in the process. IMHO, since you will be having an attorney involved anyway, why not let them engage early and help facilitate the deal. However, in reality, the are often engaged later in the process. Then if they find issues, the process and closing can get delayed as these get resolved. Such delay is not necessarily a bad thing, but early involvement and anticipation of requirements can get issues resolved early as well.

Also, I have often experienced buyers who require financing making offers and tying up money before they ever talked to a lender, much less obtained a pre-approval. I don't have the space here to describe the problems this creates. Get pre-approved ahead of time and the purchase process will go much smoother. Lenders also anticipate issues, and being involved early in the process helps to resolve them.

For what its worth, and I won't mention the attorney's name, the sellers for our property did have a USVI attorney acting on their behalf from Day 1. We also had an attorney to represent us - the buyers.) However, we found that the sellers' attorney was habitually late, screwed up the paperwork, unnecessarily caused delays, didn't return phone calls, didn't inform the sellers of our responses so much so that the sellers became angry at our "lack of response" they at one point walked away. Not until we called the sellers personnally were we able to resolve the issues which were proven to be caused as incompetence (my opinion of course) and failure to communicate with her clients. I expect some bumps in the road for these tranactions even if everyone involved is doing their job.

......very frustrating. I don't really have any advise that would be constructive in this situation. Just wanted to make you aware that, as with anything else, there's the good and the bad out there.

Hello Guy,

A real estate agent is rarely involved at the time property transactions are in negotiations. Unless you're talking about a multi-million property deal where future development concerns are being written into the contract, most basic condo, home and land sale transactions in the islands are negotiated between buyers and sellers with the assistance of the two real estate agents working with each party in the transaction.

Once the contract has been negotiated an mutual acceptance has been reached, the contract is passed onto lawyers for the escrow/closing process to commence. On the mainland, this part of the transaction is usually handled by escrow companies. In the islands, both the buyer and the seller are separately represented by attorneys. If there is a mortgage company involved, they will have their own attorney representing them... although the buyer will pay for this attorney in addition to his/her own.

Unfortunately, it is not at all uncommon for the closing date on the contract to be ignored by the two or three attorneys. This is a major irritant to buyers and sellers. Staying on top of your attorney is the only way you have much chance of closing at a date close to what you negotiated in your offer to purchase. If you have purchased properties before on the mainland, you probably arrive in the island thinking that when a contract says the sale is to close in 60 days or less that it will close in 55-60 days. That is very rarely the case. Don't forget that we're on island time, mon!

As a real estate agent, I have looked for lawyers who tend to be better about honoring the closing date when a buyer has a timeline they want to stick to. Some are better than others. As a buyer, you might want to discuss how important the negotiated closing date is to you when you first talk to a lawyer about representing you in the closing. If they blow off your concerns, you might want to talk to a different lawyer. Definitely find out what they intend to charge you for their representation. On STX, this typically runs anywhere from $700-$1200 per closing, depending on the complexity of the contract. Lawyers on STT are usually more expensive (at least they have been in the transactions I've seen them be a part of on STX).

Well, I will throw in my $.02. We just closed on August 2nd on a condo in St. Thomas. First, I will agree with everything that Alexandra said. Even more reason why you would consider getting a lawyer. Keep in mind that my background is a paralegal with real estate experience and my sister (co-buyer) is a loan officer, so we weren't clueless to the process.

We didn't need a lawyer to negotiate the contract, it was done with the 2 real estate agents. We didn't think we needed a lawyer to close the deal and had been told we didn't have to have one but should consider it. We opted not to as to not bear the additional expense (in our lack of understanding how things are done there). At the time, we didn't "get" that the "closing agent" was a lawyer, representing the mortgage co.

Consequently, I did most of the pushing to get the deal done. Without getting into detail here or mentioning any names, we started out with one broker, who said he could get the deal done in the 45 day time frame we had negotiated with the seller. We did get prequalified (would highly recommend since you're not really taken serious because of the competition of buyers in some cases and hence are more of a risk of the deal falling apart). Paperwork was done within 10 days and approval would've been done within less than 30 days, but due to the carelessness of the broker, we encountered some problems. Again without getting into detail, we ended up moving our loan to a different broker 3 days after our initial agreed upon closing date. We had been approved by the initial broker but not for the loan we wanted, so everything was done, appraisal, title, etc. It came down to getting the deal closed on a timely basis and with financing that we wanted, where we weren't getting gauged on the rate and points.

What we discovered was that things that are typically handled by the title company stateside, are done by the lawyers there. Well, if you don't have one.....like who's responsibility is it to order title insurance? Well no one had done it (we didn't know) and fortunately our realtor got it taken care of. When we moved to another broker, his attorney stepped in and helped ramrod getting the closing done. He was great. He can be hired to represent individuals and does real estate & corporate law. I would highly recommend him. His name is Lou Flori. Typically his fees are around $1000 (as closing agent chosen by mortgage broker), however we agreed to pay a little more to get the deal done quickly, which due to the timing required him to work extra and on the weekend to get it done for us in under 10 days. The seller was represented by an attorney, as they had moved off island after we contracted their property. Their attorney was a piece of work.

I would also recommend Rick Obymachow at First Liberty Mortgage on St Thomas for a mortgage broker. He stepped in and got our deal closed in under 2 weeks. Granted the front end work had been somewhat done, however, I know with a shadow of a doubt that had we started with him, the deal would've closed on time if not before. He knows his stuff and his products. He also won't gauge you on the front end.

In my opinion, these men both operate with a stateside mentality. If there are delays, what we found was that it usually had to do with other parties involved who operate on "island time". It only takes one to slow it down. Both of these guys dogged the parties involved in order to get it done.

Our closing was interesting also. Would've never happened that way in the states. The seller's atty was there as their POA, the seller's real estate agent was there (who also worked at the same company as our agent), the title company rep and the closing lawyer and us. Of course in the states, you are never in the room at the same time as the seller to close. The seller's lawyer even tried to negotiate us paying 1/2 the stamp tax at the closing table, even though it had not been agreed to in the contract. Would never happen in the states, and frankly shouldn't have happened at all. We were flabbergasted to say the least. I think the closing lawyer was too.

Anyway, it was definitely an experience with a lot of learning lessons in it.

Deb

I learned very quickly that attorneys are very much a part of the real estate process here, as are surveyors (another story). I have also worked with Louis Flori and would highly recommend him for anyones real estate needs (340-777-7800). First Liberty has a stateside mentality because they, like most brokers, are stateside, they have a local office but the phones are forwarded to Connecticut. However, it is good they picked up the deal and helped get it closed. The closing table antics by the sellers attorney serves only to break deals and upset people who have already made their agreement. His role should have been to simply execute the agreement. It wasn't the first time such things have happened, and won't be the last. In the end, it is really a team effort, and everyone has to play their part and coordinate with the others. When that happens, loans close effortlessly... when one falls down, the whole deal can go sideways and everyone winds up jumping through hoops to get a close. Thankfully, everyone did just that for you, and now we can call you our new neighbor!
See you on Labor Day.

What's the surveyors story? I'd be interested!

Jim

In the states, you can often close in urban/suburban areas without a survey required (identifies encroachments). Here it is always required for title purposes. If the seller has a "current" survey, and they sign an affidavit stating nothing has changed since the survey, the buyer may be able to have waived getting a new survey. I have yet to find anyone who has kept their survey documentation so they could avoid a new survey cost, or have been willing to help the buyer. In a refinance, it would be the survey you had obtained upon purchase, and you would sign your own affidavit. The survey then simply becomes a regular cost of financing in order to expedite the process. It needs to be ordered early as it often takes 2 or more weeks to obtain.

Another interesting item I have observed concerns seller concessions. A common practice in the states is for the seller to pay anywhere from 3-6% towards closing costs. This is allowed by FNMA and the amounts are determined by the product. Here it is nearly unheard of. With real estate prices high here already, it can often make a difference for a cash strapped buyer to have this assistance. So long as the property can appraise for 3-6% more, there is no net difference to the seller. It appears it is something that has not been promoted nor widely accepted here.

I have had good luck with George Estridge. First Lib has a small office in town on STT. One guy and the rest is call forwarded to Conn.

i just closed on a house in stx. i used st croix survey and engineering in gallows bay. they were extremely nice and had the survey done in one business day (i called on a friday and it was ready by monday afternoon). these guys were great when it came down to getting their job done with accuracy.

as for a lawyer, i didn't get one for myself. it is not required, but recommended. i ended up letting the bank's lawyer take care of the dirty work. i figured that he was looking out for the bank's best interest, so if they thought the deal was rotten, i should probably think the deal was rotten. sam grey is his name.

as for the seller's attorney - terrible! he is what kept the deal from going through any faster then it did. hopefully most of you that are buying will not be drug around as much as i was due to the seller's attorney.

agents are pretty good in general. there are some better then others. i believe it has alot to do with personality. i've met alexandra, and she is wonderful. i hadn't met her before putting in an offer, so i didn't have the opportunity to work with her. but none-the-less, we got our deal through.... and our agent did a wonderful job for us.

-adam

We just closed on a 1 bedroom 1 bath condo in STX and I just wanted to thank everyone on the board for all the info and advice posted. We went down expecting and preparing for the worst. It all went so well and so smoothly we were shocked. The closing went smoothly and we managed to transfer WAPA, set up cable and telephone on the very same day of closing. Scary, huh! I would definately recommend having your own attorney. Originally we were doing things without an attorney but because of issues with the seller we hired an attorney. It just makes it easier to have someone down there working on your behalf.

Congratulations, stxdd! Welcome to St. Croix. Will you be living here full time or are you coming and going for now? What complex did you buy into?

I agree with Adam that Sam Grey is a great attorney to represent buyers. I send a lot of buyers his direction, as he consistently gets transactions closed without a lot of delay and drama.

Coming and going for now. We'll try to rent out short term when not there.

you said a 1-BDR, 1-BTH condo... is it at St. C's? I've sold 6 units there in the past 4-1/2 months. It's a nice area and the units have such great views. Then there's that awesome breeze! Several of those were purchased by people who post often to this website. Maybe that's a good place to have the next STX BBQ. 🙂

Other popular 1-BDR condos... Southgate Farms Villas, Questa Verde, Club St. Croix, Sugar Beach, The Reef, Harbour View... but I think St. C's is my favorite.