SOME CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BAJA, U.S. AND CANADA

By Guillermo Galvan

Hola amigos, I would like to use this space to talk about some of the customs or differences in our cultures, I will start by addressing the real state industry in Baja.

First of all, if you have had the experience of visiting or living here in Baja, you have probably done some shopping in the local supermarkets or the international chains like COSTCO, WALMART, SMART AND FINAL, you may notice that our prices down here are from 10 to 15% higher than what you would pay in the U.S., then you might question yourself, how do people afford to live in Mexico?, the fact is that we pay more for clothing, food, furniture, almost everything and at the same time the wages are a lot less that what  they are in the U.S., to give you an idea, someone that works in a maquiladora gets paid from 50 to 100 dollars per week, that is for 48 hours of hard work.

So going back to the question, how do people afford to live in Mexico?... the answer is simple,  we are magicians and natural recyclers. Let me explain myself on this..

Real Estate for low and middle income housing. Down here we buy our houses without any amenities or appliances, the houses are delivered without carpets, tile, closets, kitchens, water heater, bars on windows, fence, etc., Why is this?, the answer is because we buy them at the lowest cost possible, and then, we all know someone like a friend or a family member that is a plumber, an electrician, or a carpet installer that can give us a better deal, so we go and move in and then we start working on finishing the house, it can take for ever but “at least we are not renting”.

This is very important in the real estate industry because some of the developers of this type of houses are the ones building for our new neighbors from the north, which are used to a totally different finish product, and it’s our job as the professional real estate agent to teach the mexican real estate developer that they need to improve their finished product if they are interested in the U.S. and CANADA buyers, and this is one of the tasks that we as RE/MAX are working on for the benefit of our clients.

Best regards and I will be writing other articles addressing the differences in our culture in buying Cars, clothing, furniture, food.

Saludos desde Ensenada,