Author: Journeyman Jack Ecuador

Proudly serving Ecuador Expats since 2008, My Services, web links, contact info tel. #'s - US, CAN & EC. are all below: Thank You, Jack Abercrombie, Cumbaya, Quito- ECUADOR S.A. [email protected] [email protected] #StrategicRelocationEcuador "May your strategy be as dark as night and as swift as a boulder rolling down a mountain." ~ Sun Tzu "I'd rather prep 10 years too early than 10 minutes too late." Strategic Relocation Ecuador: http://JourneymanJack.com/ Ecuador Real Estate: http://EcuadorRealEstate.org Call Toll free from U.S. & Canada: Mnts: 770-828-7913, & Coast: 770-988-4492, EC. Off: 02-380-4088, Ec. Cel Claro: 098-828-8953, WhatsApp, Zello, Telegram, Viber, Signal, WIRE, Element, Sessions: +593-98-828-8953, For Virtual Real Estate Tours, PreTrip Planning Video Conference via Zoom, jitsi, "skype" user name: "Jack.Abercrombie"- https://join.skype.com/invite/B4plcVLSCGWk Someone once said that Ecuador is a country that is: •EASY to love- •HARD to understand- •Impossible to forget- 'All the Very Best on Your Endeavors in Ecuador-

The critical first 2 steps to farming a lot in Ecuador

This week I closed the deal for the lease of the 1 hectare lot near my place which I plan to farm with a soon-to-be-named product later this week (stay tuned!)…

After speaking to my agro-engineer specialist who I plan to work with on this product, the first two critical steps are taking a soil sample and tractoring the land.

For the soil sample he wanted to test the land primarily for percentage of organic material, sandyness of soil, pH and be sure there was not anything hazardous in the mix.

The cost was $45 and it will take 2 weeks to get the results back. We dropped the sample off in Tumbaco in the agro-institute across from the CNT office.

The tractoring has been in three phases.

The first phrase was to drag the lot killing all the weeds. (Rastre). 2 hrs. ($17 per hr)

The next phase was to upheave the lot to get the tired used soil below the better richer soil. 2 hrs. (17 hr)

The last phase was to once again level out the lot by draging it again. 1 hr. $17 per hr.

Total cost $85.

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How you avoid paying gringo prices in Ecuador

“Just pay me what you will.” Said the local who helped me find my agricultural lot this week.

I was thinking a decent finders fee in the States would be at least a few hundred if not a few thousand dollars, so I was going to offer him a few hundred.

Then I caught myself!

Don’t think like that when you move to another country, I told myself.

Always always always pay the minumum amount accepted by the other person or ‘best price’ even if you think it’s TOO embarrasing low.

Why?

Because if you don’t you’re setting yourself up for that person in the future to overcharge you cause he’ll think “well, I’m going to milk it, he can pay it”.

That’s how a lot of people down here think. Rich Ecuadorians know it.

Always play “I’m broke” even if you’re not or you set yourself up to be a target in the future.

Never overpay!

To avoid being “gringoed” insist on them giving YOU the price.

Especially, when you don’t know how much the service or property should cost. And often being in a new land, you won’t know.

Afterall, how much is it to fix a sink in Manta, Ecuador?

“No freaking idea” would be your probable response.

But, hey, they provided the service.

So get THEM to give you their price first even if they insist you give your price first, then, you can negotiate from there to get the BEST PRICE POSSIBLE.

He said, give me a hundred dollars, shocked at the low price I reached into my pocket.

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How To Find The Cheapest (And Best) Farmland In Ecuador

Deciding I was going to lease a farm lot was the easy part.

Now, how do I actually find one with a solid water source, no surprises, near me, and at a good price?

I quickly realized driving around that searching for farm land is WAY DIFFERENT than what I learned when I wrote my guide on how to find the best property deals on the coast of Ecuador.

The tactics are way different. I could be at this for MONTHS with no luck.

Forget the Internet, nothing good listed there.

No ‘for sale’ signs.

No real estate agents.

No asking at street stores or local taxis, they don’t know.

No asking of the farmers, most the people you see working the fields are just farmhands, probably hired for the day, not even from the area. Chances are they haven’t even met the farm owner of the place they’re working nor any other owners in the area.

This was going to be tough.

So, I went to the one local contact I had in the area that was already leasing land and farming himself. Told him to help me look, and I’d take care of him.

And, within a few hours he came and knocked on my door and had 4 different options to choose from.

I chose the one closest to me, and he said it had a good water source as the lot was actually right next to his and literally a Peyton Manning stone throw from my Hotel near the airport in Quito.

The lot is about 1 hectare (2.2 acres), negotiated price of $1250 per year. Before me strawberries were planted there.

So there you have it, to find the BEST deals on farmland, pick an area, go, hang out a while, make a local contact or three and have them help you look. I call them rabbits. Find yourself a local rabbit!

Now, let’s do it!

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Getting your own farm in Ecuador without buying the land

No one in my school growing up in Cleveland, Ohio said they wanted to get into farming.

It was never a realistic option for me or my peers.

Hard to compete with the big boys in North America and their subsidies.

But, down here in Ecuador, the land is so fertile, the water so plentiful, and so many of the wealthy have small to medium sized farms, you can’t help but get curious about it.

But when you really start to talk to folks involved in farming you realize…

…many of them don’t even own the land!

They lease.

Lease the land, pay by the year, one solo payment that gives them rights to grow anything on the land they want.

Particularly where I’m at in the valleys of Quito the land prices are HIGH (compared to the rest of Ecuador) starting around $40-60 per meter.

That would mean 1 hectare would be $400,000 USD!  That’s a lot of money!

So most farmers lease.

In my area they pay around $800-1200 per year.

And I’m going to do just that, afterall, what does a guy from the suburbs know about farming?

Nothing.

So for my first experiment I’d like to do something close to where I live so I can keep my finger on it.

Stay tuned in the coming days and weeks to see how this goes!  I’ll share everything.

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The biggest danger you face in Ecuador…

BAM!!

“What the f@ck was that,” I thought as I sat up in bed.

The noise woke me up.

BAM!!

There it was again, sounded like a gun shot, in my house!

Now, I was really worried.

You see, I was a new arrival immigrant in Ecuador, three plus years ago, with no money and just a carry-on full of belongings, staying in a run-down student housing building on the ghetto south-side of the “Centro” of Guayaquil.

My only furniture was a little-box-bed I was sleeping on.

I was new, I didn’t know that this was NOT a good place to live, especially for a foreigner.

So…

I opened my bedroom door and still rubbing my eyes walked out through the hallway past the other students rooms and into the main area at the front of the house where I saw a gardener working.

“Buenos dias, boss” the gardener said.

I waved and went back to bed.

Later that morning I got a powerful knock on the door, it was another student that was in the building.

“Dude, we’ve been robbed!” He proclaimed.

“What?!?” I was shocked, remember, I was a newbie North American in Ecuadorian student housing. Afterall, this stuff never happened in the cushy suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio where I was born and raised.

We went to his room where it had been ransacked, along with the neighbor, and examening closely my door, it had been broke too, the noise I heard was the burglar trying to kick in my door, twice!

Thankfully, it was a solid wooden door cause if he would have got in and saw me there, it would’ve been two caged rats, only one getting out alive.

And then it hit me, the “gardener” was the burglar, he didn’t have time to get out when I came out and faked it, boy did I feel stupid when I told the other students.

He thought on a holiday weekend a student housing complex would be empty, well, I having no family in Ecuador had no where else to go and was there.

The next day I was out of there, moving to a nicer part of Guayaquil.

You see, the biggest danger you’ll face in Ecuador is from break ins, and yes, Ecuadorians already know this and take measures to prevent against it.

For instance, they put up big walls around the property, live in gated communities, put ghetto glass on the tops of the walls, get big dogs, even let poor local families live on their property so it’s not so vacant.

Usually, robbers in Ecuador will only go for a house that is OBVIOUSLY vacant.

Know this and take it into account before you buy or rent in Ecuador, how’s the security of the house/condo?

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