The 5-Day Scouting Trip

The plan we give our own clients

Most people who come to look at property here spend the first two days doing what tourists do, and fly home without the answers they came for. This plan front-loads the things that actually decide the question — the drive, the neighbourhoods, the lawyer, the water, the internet — and leaves the beach for when you've earned it.

It also tells you when to walk away. There are good reasons not to buy in Nicaragua, and you should find them on a $900 trip rather than after a $300,000 purchase.

• Day 1 — Get your bearings, not your hopes upThe town on foot, the ridge road, and what the place sounds like at night. No houses today.
• Day 2 — The neighbourhoods, in orderTown, the hills, the beach communities, the established developments — and why they behave differently on price and resale.
• Day 3 — The professional dayYour own lawyer (not the seller's), the questions to ask about title, the hospital, the schools, and testing the internet yourself.
• Day 4 — See properties properlySix to eight maximum. The water, power, roof, access and neighbour checks to run in every single house.
• Day 5 — Sit with itBack to your two favourites alone, an ordinary errand, and the honest conversation with whoever you're buying with.

What's actually in it

Managua versus Liberia and what the border crossing really costs you in time. The questions to put to an attorney about title and coastal restrictions. What to check at 2pm about the afternoon sun, and what the road looks like in the rainy season. Annual carrying costs, and the line item people always underestimate.