The PVREBA Story

What is PVREBA? PVREBA is the acronym for Puerto Vallarta Real Estate Buyers' Agents. As the name implies, PVREBA is a real estate company serving the greater Puerto Vallarta area, catering exclusively to North American buyers. PVREBA possesses a business plan and model long overdue in Puerto Vallarta with a Mission Statement that details a three pronged approach to building the business while providing a sorely needed service to retiring North Americans interested in evaluating the various retirement opportunities that lie in Paradise, south of the border.

Why PVREBA? The area in and around Puerto Vallarta has experienced exponential growth during the past decade as clearly revealed in What's Going on South of the Border?. The future ten year building plan, as presented by Fonatur, the Mexican National Tourism Development Foundation, indicates perhaps another 50% increase in population growth in the greater Vallarta area during the next decade. Currently, there are approximately 80 real estate agencies serving the greater Puerto Vallarta area, employing close to 500 agents. Historically, the majority of these agents are under educated, poorly trained, and are unlicensed to practice in Mexico. These agents concentrate most of their attention and effort on obtaining new listings and consequently, as listing agents, they should have their loyalty and dedication directed in the best interest of the property seller, to whom they contractually owe their fiduciary duty. Virtually none of the other agencies in Vallarta are exclusively representing the buyer. Because they are listing agencies and the Mexican real estate market has been booming, there has been little effort in locating buyers. For the most part, they obtain the listing and merely wait for a buyer to walk in or be brought in by another listing agent that was unable to sell one of his own listings. PVREBA has taken a revolutionary approach to the real estate market in Vallarta by exclusively serving the buyer. In order to do so, we first tell the Vallarta story through a series of interesting and enlightening articles about Puerto Vallarta and giving presentations in the US and Canada designed to dispel any misconceptions about living in Mexico and to highlight the dramatic changes taking place south of the border. Secondly, we introduce the buyers to Vallarta and show them the properties that meet their specific objectives and budgets and finally, we assist the buyers through the purchasing process with 100% loyalty and dedication. With PVREBA working exclusively on the buyer's behalf, there can never be a conflict of interest.

What are PVREBA Plans? PVREBA is currently affiliated with the National Association of Exclusive Buyers Agents (NAEBA) and with the Real Estate Buyers Agent Council (REBAC). We also have a GEMS membership in the National Association or Realtors (NAR) and hold Transnational Referral Certification (TRC) with the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA). In all probability, we will join Asociacion Mexicana de Profesionales Imobiliarios (AMPI), the voluntary association of Mexican realtors, during the next twelve months.

PVREBA currently has its main office near El Centro, the downtown area of Vallarta, and has plans for a second office in the Sayulita area. These offices will be staffed only with well educated and experienced professionals as the demand dictates.

Who is PVREBA? PVREBA was founded by Jim Scherrer, a retired entrepreneur from Houston with an engineering degree and business background. He was a co-founder of a Houston based manufacturers' representative firm almost 30 years ago which continues to thrive as an ongoing concern. In 1980, he founded another manufacturers' representative firm and a construction company in Houston, which is now a substantial division of a Fortune 200 company. Jim has bought and sold real estate in Puerto Vallarta for almost a quarter a century and has made Vallarta his permanent residence for over ten years. He recognized an obvious need for a real estate firm in Puerto Vallarta that would function exclusively in the best interest of foreign buyers. Those associated with PVREBA have extensive knowledge of the area, a thorough understanding of the local real estate market, many close relationships with the appropriate professionals including lawyers, notarios, mortgage bankers, escrow agents, property inspectors, etc., and are very familiar with the other realtors and their listings. Most importantly, we all have a common objective; to share the wonderful experience of living in Paradise with fellow North American retirees as discussed in Retire to Where and do What?.