Strategy
Your timing, your privacy and where you go after the sale decide how the residence enters the market. We start there, not with a number.
SELLING AT $1M AND ABOVE IN PUERTO RICO
CRIM is the Municipal Revenue Collection Center, and it is administered separately from your closing. That is why most owners only discover a problem when they try to sell.
It assesses property on its 1957-58 value, not on what the house is worth today. The combined rate is set by municipality: for fiscal year 2025-26, 12.33% in Rio Grande, 10.58% in Dorado, 10.33% in San Juan and 10.08% in Guaynabo.
The part that stops a sale is not the rate. It is the balance. CRIM debt follows the property, a buyer's attorney will find it, and clearing a certification takes weeks you no longer have once an offer is on the table.
We request your CRIM status before the property is listed, not after.
It depends on your residency and on how long you have held the property, and it is a question for a CPA rather than for a broker.
What we can tell you is where it belongs: at the start of the conversation, not at the end. The number you net is not the number you sign, and the owners who are surprised at closing are the ones who planned around the gross price.
We work with a CPA here and we introduce you before you list. Capital gains when selling · Law 180-2025 and primary residences
In Puerto Rico ownership is not perfected when the deed is signed. It is perfected when the deed is inscribed in the Property Registry, and the Registry independently reviews documents for legal sufficiency.
It can run months behind on recording, and an error anywhere in the chain delays or prevents inscription.
For a seller that matters in one specific way. If your own title was never properly inscribed, or an inherited share was never cleared, the problem surfaces when the buyer's attorney runs the title study, not before.
It is the most common reason a sale here slips its closing date, and it is the one thing you can fix before anyone makes an offer.
¿Prefiere leerlo en español? Esta misma guía para vendedores está en vender casa en Puerto Rico.
Your timing, your privacy and where you go after the sale decide how the residence enters the market. We start there, not with a number.
From closed comparables on your street, with price per square foot in writing. It is the only method that survives an appraisal.
Editorial photography and video, and an honest list of what is worth doing and what is not. At this level the marketing is the first showing.
MLS, digital campaigns, search, and direct outreach to the brokers already working that buyer. Privately and off market when discretion is the strategy.
Price read alongside proof of funds, contingencies, deposits and timelines. The highest number is not always the strongest offer.
Inspections, appraisal, title, Registry and CRIM, with the attorneys and lenders involved. All of it runs slower here than mainland sellers expect.
These are not the same market as the rest of the island, and the sale is rarely lost on price. It is lost on four things.
Your buyer is not local. In these communities the buyer is an Act 60 relocation or a mainland second-home buyer who has not seen the property in person. The listing has to answer questions a local buyer would never ask — power, water, insurance, flood zone, what the commute actually looks like.
You are competing against new construction. Condado absorbed Vanderbilt, the ICON and Ocean Five, and Hard Rock announced 186 more residences this year. Guaynabo has The Legacy, the first new construction there in 25 years. A resale now needs a reason to be chosen over something nobody has lived in. Usually that reason is the terrace, the view or the square footage — and it has to be made explicit.
In a resort, the first question is the membership. Dorado Beach, Bahía Beach and Río Mar buyers ask what happens to the club before they ask about the kitchen. That answer belongs in the file before the property is listed, not in the middle of a negotiation.
In Condado, the building sells before the apartment does. Reserve study, HOA financials and board minutes are read line by line, because two of every three buyers here pay cash and a cash buyer has no bank doing the reading for them. Since Act 13-2026 the managing agent must deliver the regulations within five business days on request.
And the market is thinner than it looks. Río Grande closed 19 sales all year, and five of them were 84% of the money. In a market that size, the month you list is not a detail.
Before any of that: if the property was inherited, or if you are unsure what you will owe in capital gains, start there. Selling inherited property · Forced heirship · Law 180-2025 · Capital gains · Selling land
They are not the questions someone selling at $200,000 asks. We answer them before you list, in writing.
1. What do I actually net? Between six and ten percent of the sale price goes to costs: five to six in commission, notary at one percent up to $500,000 and half a percent above that, stamps, Registry, CRIM and mortgage cancellation. On a $2M sale that is $120,000 to $200,000 before any tax. You get that number from us in writing before the property goes live, not at the closing table. The hidden costs of selling in Puerto Rico
2. Is $300,000 really going to be held at closing? If you are not a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, a withholding applies on the gross sale price, not on your gain — commonly 15 percent for US citizens and 25 percent for those who are not. On a $2M sale that is $300,000 withheld the day you close. It is a withholding against what you will eventually owe, not the tax itself, and Hacienda can authorize a reduced amount when the real liability is lower — but that has to be requested before closing, not after. Most sellers find out the week of.
3. Who is going to know my home is for sale? Roughly four in ten transactions at this level never reach a public portal. A public listing invites what the trade calls real estate tourism: people touring the house to see the art, the cars and how you live. If discretion matters, the property can be worked privately, to a named list of brokers and buyers, with no MLS entry and no photographs online.
4. How long is this going to take? Luxury property in the United States averaged 319 days on market in 2025. In Puerto Rico the honest answer depends on the community: Río Grande closed 19 sales in a year and five of them were 84% of the money. In a market that thin, the month you list is not a detail.
5. What happens if I have to lower the price? Sixty-two percent of luxury listings marketed only through the MLS take at least one price reduction; among those marketed across several channels it is twenty-four. Every reduction is read by the other side as a seller who needs to sell. Listings priced within two percent of what they eventually close for sell 41% faster, and seven percent above market typically costs sixty days. The price you launch at is the negotiation.
6. Why does closing here take longer than it did at home? There is no title company running your closing: the deed is executed before a notary attorney who is responsible for the instrument itself. Ownership is perfected by registration, not by signing, and the Registry reviews documents for legal sufficiency rather than simply filing them.
What stops sellers here: a legal description that does not match the survey, a gap in the chain of title, an easement that was never recorded, or a terrace, pool or added room that exists in the world and not in the Registry. Title insurance does not correct any of that. Neither does CRIM, whose unpaid balance will stop a closing on its own.
None of this is a reason not to sell here. It is the reason we open the title and the CRIM the week we take the listing, instead of the week an offer arrives. The Registry risk buyers underestimate · Title, Registry and legal risk · Due diligence checklist 2026
We are licensed real estate brokers, not tax or legal advisors. On withholding, capital gains and succession, we tell you what to ask and we work alongside your CPA and attorney — we do not replace them.
“They gave me a super comprehensive CMA, explained the market clearly and without pressure, and now I have a real understanding of my property’s value. Professional, transparent, and straight to the point.”
— Elizabeth Y. Rodriguez, home valuation client (Google review)
“They sold my first property in record time. They supported me every step of the way, explaining the process to me step by step. They are completely transparent, as it should be.”
— First-time seller, Puerto Rico (Google review)
Asking prices are opinions. Here is what they closed at. 729 closings above $1,000,000 in Puerto Rico since October 2023, excluding listings entered into the MLS after a deal was already agreed.
Time on the market | Closed at |
First month | 92.7% of asking |
One to three months | 88.6% |
Three to six months | 85.0% |
Six to twelve months | 81.2% |
Over a year | 79.6% |
And the higher the price, the harder it gets.
Asking | Closed at | Days |
$1.0M to $1.5M | 89.7% | 62 |
$1.5M to $2.5M | 86.2% | 96 |
Above $2.5M | 84.0% | 139 |
What this does not tell you is which row is yours. That comes from your community, your building and your square footage, and the only way to answer it is to pull the closings around your address.
A house sits for two different reasons, and they look identical on a calendar. One is the number it opened with. The other is that the market for it is small: Cabo Rojo closed one sale above a million this year, and the whole west coast closed ten across four municipalities, against 104 in San Juan. In a market that size the calendar does the waiting, and a price cut will not speed it up. Reading which of the two you are in is the job.
If your home is above $2.5 million, call 787-717-6443. One of us answers.
Your property deserves a strategy built around its market, its buyer, and your objectives. Let’s discuss how we would position your property for today’s Puerto Rico real estate market.
Antonio Cartagena, Broker (Lic. C-13471)
Lizvette Robles, Broker (Lic. C-23765)
(787) 717-6443
Tell us where the property is and we will send you what has actually closed around it. You decide what to do with the number.
