Intro

 Hi!  Just an introduction.  My husband and I bought a condo here in Roatan April 2021.  We figured out the cost of building is much less than in the United States, so we sold the condo and are now going to build a house on the island of Roatan.  This will be a basic blog of the steps we took to build our house along with pictures.  Please follow if you are interested.

First step - find a good realtor - we used Ana Flores with ReMax.  She's great.  I recommend that you live here for at least a couple of months to see what section of the island works for you.  Some of the deciding factors for us were:  1.  Security.  We like gated or secure neighborhoods.  We picked Palmetto Bay.  Yes you will have HOA fees involved going this route, but we are ok with that.  2.  Neighborhood.  Some sections of the island are noisier than others.  For example - Coxen Hole is the major city on this island, but it's noisy.  Same with parts of Sandy Bay and West End.  West side is popular for tourists, so if you don't want people around - the east end of the island might be more to your liking. 3.  Convenience.  Grocery stores are located in French Harbor, Coxen Hole and there is one in Sandy Bay.  How far do you want to drive for your groceries, or restaurants?

So we found a lot that we like.  

Second step - find a builder, unless you are going to build it yourself.  We found one that we like, we looked at his previous build and talked to past clients and they all gave a thumbs up, he does quality work.  Gave us an approximate cost of our future house.  I actually designed the floor plans and he sent them to someone on the mainland that had them approved by an engineer.  He also laid out the steps of how things were going to get down and what we had to do on our end.

We close on our lot June 6th, but before than we have:

1.  Engineering cost $1500 or you can use an Architect to draw up your plans - usually around $2200.

2.  We went to the Municipal building in Dixon Cove and requested proof that we do not owe any taxes for this year.  That cost $381 for 2 people.  We got cute little plastic cards with our picture on them.

Our lot is in Palmetto Bay which has a good HOA and they have to approve our building plans.  That will happen after we close.  If you buy outside of a planned community you don't have to worry about this.

I'll keep you updated on Monday with closing of our lot.  I'm so excited!!!