Purchase: Buying your own private island
The steps in the process of buying a private island are basically the same as buying property anywhere else, but the small details within each step is what makes the process different. After you find the island you wish to purchase, you would make the seller an offer to purchase at a certain price and under certain terms. The seller will then either accept the offer or may will wish to negotiate the price or terms. After it is settled, the buyer and seller sign a contract including the purchase price and terms agreed upon and the buyer provides a deposit, normally ten-percent of the purchase price. The buyer then performs their due diligence such as inspections of the property, research of the property titles, and calculating improvement costs. If everything is acceptable, the buyer transfers the balance of the purchase price and escrow closes. The overview of the buying process is very similar to buying property in the United States, but the details make it slightly different.
There are details about buying property in a foreign country that differ from those than in the United States. In Belize, for example, it is difficult for a buyer to see everything on the market as there is no organized system for marketing property. This is because real estate companies don't share listings. In Placer County, California, real estate agents can login to a database called MLS and view every listing available on the market. This makes the process of finding property much less time consuming and less stressful than in Belize. The best database of property for sale in Belize, or any foreign country for that matter, is the internet. Another difference in the buying process compared to the United States is the cost of financing. It is not uncommon to have to provide a fifty-percent down payment and pay sixteen-percent interest for a loan. In some cases, if as little as two payments are missed, the contract is revoked and the property including any payments that were made are taken back by the seller. Like the loan percentages, transfer tax is also huge. Compared to the one-hundredth-of-a-percent transfer tax the seller must pay in California, buyers in Belize are required to pay a fifteen-percent tax on the purchase price to the governement.