Do you speak Portuguese Raimundo?

Just wondering because you seem very knowledgeable about south america in general but I'm surprised that you would base your experience in Brasil on one event which happened to you personally. Don't get me wrong I totally agree with you about researching the property to death and making sure everything is 100% ok before investing. But you can't meet someone in Brasil (or be introduced) and trust them implicitly from day 1 with your hard earned money. No matter who recommends them.

One thing everyone seems to have either forgotten or is just ignoring - Brasil is a relationship country the same as Portugal - nothing like Spain and I assume therefore quite different from other countries in South America which are more similar to Spain - just guessing there though as I don't know the rest of South America very well yet.

The Portuguese and the Spanish are nothing like each other. The Brazilians are very similar to the Portuguese and therefore also nothing like the Spanish.

To get something done in Brazil you need to have Brazilian friends. And when I say friends I don't mean "buy a stranger a soda and talk to him condescendingly". A lot of people seem to think that to become friends with the "natives" you need to spend money on them. Not at all true.

But you also can't be seen to be an idiot. It's a tough country because you need not only to find the right person to help you but then you need to earn their respect while also giving them your respect. Anything else and you may well get taken for a ride. Oh and if you are the type who goes to Azucar every night to meet the girl of your budget you probably won't be getting much of that respect.

Or you could go the Dotty route and "find a brazilian agency in the yellow pages and they will be safer than an established european agency".

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Yes, I work for a Real Estate company doing market research and analysis but I'm not involved in sales.

Have a nice day