Verify before you buy

A due-diligence checklist to work through before wiring money for property in Honduras. Check each item only once you — or your own independent lawyer, not the seller or agent — have confirmed it.

• The seller can produce a registered title with folio and inscription numbers — not just "derechos posesorios" (possessory rights).
• You verified the title directly at the Registro de la Propiedad / SINAP, not only from copies the seller handed you.
• You confirmed whether the property is within the 40 km coastal or border strip and, if so, that it qualifies under Decree 90-90.
• The person selling is actually the registered owner (or holds a genuine, verifiable power of attorney to act for them).
• Any power of attorney was verified as authentic — forged powers of attorney are a known fraud pattern.
• There is no sign the same property has been sold to other buyers.
• The price is not far below market value for the area (a red flag, not a bargain).
• No one is pressuring you to wire money quickly before documents can be verified.
• If using an S.A. company or a nominee arrangement, a lawyer reviewed the safeguards against nominee shareholders voting against you.
• An independent notarial lawyer — not the seller's or the agency's — represents your interests.

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