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I just wanted to post and say thanks to everyone on this site for all of the information that you provide.
My husband and I currently live in Canada with our daughter. I'm from the US, he's Canadian and our daughter has dual citizenship. We moved to Hawaii for a while but found it was just too far (10 hour flight to visit the grandparents or friends is just too much!). We spent a few weeks in the Caribbean (BVI, antigua, St. Kitts, Montserrat etc) but never managed to visit USVI. We were always told negative things about it but in hindsight I think it's because people were just trying to sell the other islands to us.
One of the positives is the fact that we don't need to jump through extra hoops to move to the USVI. Hawaii had a lot of free hold vs. lease hold problems and most other Caribbean islands require you to get a non-belonger land license which only allows you to live on the island for 6 months at a time. As far as I can tell, those issues don't apply in the USVI. Am I correct in thinking that I wouldn't have a problem buying and owning property in the USVI?
We're finishing my husbands US immigration process. It's mostly a sit and wait game which should give us a visa for him in the next 3 months. Our current "plan" is to come down for a one month vacation and set up a rental for January 1st for 6 months to see if we really like it. During that 6 months we'll be looking for a house to buy. Would having a real estate agent set up a house rental for us and then having them be our real estate agent be the best option?
How realistic is high speed internet? In hawaii they had wireless access on Maui that was outstanding. We both work from home and run our own businesses so all we need is a good internet connection.
I've contacted a few banks in USVI for a home loan. I just wanted to see if the mortgage process was anything similar to Canada or the US. So far I'm still waiting to hear back but I'm planning a year ahead so hopefully that helps.
I apologize in advance for all of the questions. I've tried to do as much research as possible. I know how annoying it can be when people just come into a forum without reading the website. Thanks again for all of the information that is provided on this site. It really helps.
Posted : June 8, 2004 6:52 pm
Rachel: I too had the Hawaii vs. USVI dilemma.I eventually moved here because: Hawaii was so far from anything and it was too much like America.
I definitely agree with renting something for six months or a year before making any decisions. The only problem you might have in buying property is if you have a budget! Houses are very expensive. See several threads here from new home buyers.
A couple of thoughts: If high speed internet is important, be very cautious. While life is changing here every day, in many ways we are way behind the rest of the world. Some of us like that ;-)... Also, if your daughter is of school age, you may need to take a close look at the education system and the various choices you will have. If the high cost of housing doesn't bother you, then school tuition won't either!
Ask away- that is the purpose of this forum.
Posted : June 8, 2004 11:57 pm
Topic starter
Well, we're used to living in the country here in Canada so while it's not our favorite solution, satelite internet still works for us. It's the latency issue which can drive us bonkers. As long as dial up internet is available as a back up (if the high speed went down), we'd still be okay. When you say "be cautious" what do you mean? Are we being misled that it is available?
My daughter is only 13 months old. She won't be ready for school for a while yet but we plan on a combination of homeschooling and tutors. I was homeschooled until middle and high school because both of my parents are horse trainers and we traveled for shows. I've been looking through the board of education sites and at what my options are. I currently have a nanny that we'd be bringing with us.
We're looking for a house in the million dollar range which looks like we can get a pretty nice house for that price. The price doesn't seem that high given the location and the limited availability of property and housing.
Posted : June 9, 2004 2:38 am
Hi Rachel,
High speed wireless internet is available in many areas of the U.S.V.I. as well as dial-up. Choice and Innovative I believe are two of the providers for that service. I know a month ago, there were quite a few postings on buying real estate. You may want to wade thru and search for those postings. They were pretty informative. I am not buying so I don't have much more info for you. Good luck.
Teresa
Posted : June 9, 2004 3:24 am
Topic starter
http://www.wdsl.net/ is one of the providers that I found thanks to you giving me the name of the company. They have exactly what we need. As long as they don't have horrible downtimes (like outages for days on end) we'd be fine. I'll go search for the real estate threads.
Posted : June 9, 2004 3:33 am
Hi Rachel,
I am a new homeowner and therefore recently completed the mortgage process.
The process is fairly traditional, just with the added delay of doing business on an island. Hey, that's the trade-off for looking at the ocean every day!
FYI, I have a Canadian friend who recently got a mortgage with Scotia Bank on St. Thomas and she said that the Scotia in Canada and the Scotia in the USVI are absolutely NOT the same.
As far as market availability, if you are looking to spend $1,000,000.00, you will have no problem. However, honestly, with that kind of $$$, I would buy on St. John.
You mentioned that you and your husband work from home and your daughter would not be attending school immediately, so needing to get to St. Thomas on a daily basis would not be an issue. You also sound like you are open to any island and St. John is truly beautiful. Property is expensive there and with good reason.
If I had a million bucks and no office job, that's where I'd go.
My .02c
Posted : June 9, 2004 2:02 pm
