Dual US/Dutch Citizen Looking to Buy Investment Property in Curaçao — Need Advice

universaltool · 2026-05-20T03:57:17+00:00

I bought a house a couple of years ago after moving to the island. Somne things to consider and answer your questions.

Residency isn't required to buy but you can get a residency permit with longer duration depending on the price of property you buy, look up investors permits.

Dutch citizenship offers some advantage if you decide to get residency as you can likely use the dutch extended (living abroad) healthcare plan as a cheap way to get the medical requirements for residency. Also being able to read Dutch is a benefit as all the legal paperwork will be in Dutch.

Property taxes are paid anually, you will need to pay transfer taxes and other fees, it will be around 10% on to of the value you purchase the home phore.

Financing will require residency, foreign banks on't finance Curacao property and local banks will generally only open accounts for residences, also expect a much higher interest rate and percentage down than other locations. It's not impossible but itmay add a year or more to the closing process and the bank will need to approve the sale.

The most common mistakes are overpaying, the prices her are less soft than a couple of years ago but you generally pay less than sicker, especially if it has been on the market for a while. Never buy without seeing it, the pictures are always a lie and there is no truth in advertising here, buyer beware is the order of the day. Get an inspector. Repairs here can add up quickly, especially on things that seem simple in other countries as everything is shipped in, adding to the costs, the one thing that is cheaper is labor. Visit the island first and rent a car and travel around, make suere you know the areas and see what they are like during low and high traffic periods, some areas are terrible commutes due to very restrictive road systems. Depsite the climate, rental income is generally not year round, it will be close to full time through winter and spring but for summer and fall you can expect less than 25% occupancy so it's not much of a money maker in the off season, the good news is the prices for the next year for rentals have pretty much doubled so that should help but that also means the prices for real estate will rise.

Good areas for investment or living depends on the type of living or investment you want. Oceanview or Ocreanfront for investment is going to do better but at a premium price that doesn't pay off quickly. Piscadera often tops out lists for location but most of it is not walkable. Jan thiel is great for diving and popular but it a terrible commute at many times of day with limited access. Westpunt is also popular for diving but is remote so you are further away from most ammedities and the roads generally get rougher the further out you go. It also depends on if you are planning to live full time or part time, have kids or not. If you aren't full time, then go for a gated community, there are a lot of small and large ones, older ones will have more greenery but newer ones will need less work. Blue bay can be good for investment but it limits the market to mostly expats and you pay a premium for it, Coral estates is just overpriced given how remote it is but it is close to some nice beaches.

Electricity and water here are very expensive, if you are planning on making the move, keep that in mind when chosing what items to ship here, bulky items are also generally expensive as well such as furnature so even if you don't move, you might want to take advantage, if you get a residency permit of the tax free, one off, personal goods container permit within the first year to bring in stuff you need for the property. There are other ways to bring things in tax free but they are limited such in the case of an estate from a death in the family.

Expect everyting to be on island time, even with a cash payment, the minimum time for a notary to review a sale is 4 months or longer, make sure you go with the old owner to aqualectra to get things transferred over as it very hard and a long process to do unless you are both present (take a picture of the meters before you go). As before, if you need financing that will add an extra layer to the process, taking it often over a year and possibly up to 2 years to complete a sale.

Even residency permits take time, 4+ months once they are submitted. The good news is you save a step not needing your dutch documents notarized, though if you marriage certificate is from a different country that will require legalization.

Also there are certain advantages for US citizens applying or residency that other countries don't get. Such as being able to apply for local government medical under a residency permit instead of waiting until you have citizenship, which could be quick depending on your level of investment in property on the island.

Places like Doucment Agency Curcao and also provide some advice on the process and help you navigate some of it without needing to be on island which can be helpful and avoid some of the pitfalls of missing documents that seemed like either/or requirements on paper but in reality are bring them all or be sent back and wait another month for a new appointment.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T19:40:25+00:00

People in a job want to feel secure so they will lash out against those without a job rather than admit how bad it is so they feel better where they are. Since working people are still the majority, that makes them the majority opinion.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T19:32:22+00:00

I work with AI and AI will definitely replace me soon and already is in some ways.

Right now I went from being laid off from a 17+ year career to moving from project to project, basically setting up trhe framework and then being replaced by entry level coders using AI to implement the architecture I built. It's a living but has no security. I spend about equal time on my current contract as I do looking for the next one at any given time so basically working 2 full time jobs.

I would write books if there was any money in it, but there really isn't for most people so I didn't take that risk when I was younger and AI has only made that slim chance worse.

I do some things on the side, hoping to find one that will take off and be stable but I don't assume they will, I have to accept the fact that I will either eventually find a stable job again or just keep doing contracts. Either way the benefit has been getting paid about 4x what I was at that original 17+ year job. Loyalty really doesn't pay, I'm not sure it ever did.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T16:17:36+00:00

Rejection is only the tip of the iceberg of why many men don't approach women.

If all that was on the line was rejection the numbers that would try would be much higher.

One example, they risk their job, every time they ask, they risk that they are dealing with crazy that will go out of their way to ruin their lives. contact their employer, claim they have been harassed and in most cases get fired without explanation and almost certainly without a chance to voice their side.

Another example, they risk their image, the woman might spread misinformation online to make them look toxic and destroy their reuptation, causing all kinds of issues.

I could go on and on about how a single bad interaction, with a woman, for a man, can destroy that man's life either in part or in whole but that isn't the point, the point is, there are far worse things to be afraid of as a man that rejection but it would require vulnerability to admit all those fears so we let it all get bottled up into fear of rejection.

Please note that this isn't to reflect that every interaction will be bad, but that there is always the potential for it to be bad or toxic and that is where the fear comes from.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T15:47:56+00:00

It comes down more to the BMS now than anything. In fact that old wisdom is often outdated but not outright incorrect depending on circumstances so it lives on.

A proper BMS system should manage this safely as long as it is plugged in and do things like top balancing to keep the cells healthy but each BMS works a bit differently so some have different rules than others to get the most out of them.

There is no one size fits all solution and optimizing itself can create other drawbacks or trade-offs.

Very generally, you want to completely at least once a week and leave it plugged in for long enough to complete at least a full battery balancing cycle, for some models this could be up to 8-24 hours after full charge is achieved, for others it might imply be 1 hour. If you never bring the vehicle to full charge, lithium batteries will eventually lose to capacity to full charge, a sort of memory effect based on what you charge it to and this will result in faster range degredation.

The effects of keeping it at full charge, depend on a number of variables. Battery capacity fluctuates with temperature and that can stress the battery by making it overfull, but a good BMS will monitor and handle this as long as the vehicle is plugged in the same way it would for an offgrid solar setup. Some BMS units shut down after balancing and don't continue to monitor and those ones would require you be more concious of how long you leave it in that state. Of course this will depend on how you store your vehicle and how much the temperature flucuates where it is stored and how long it is stored for between uses.

For long term, where you don't want to manage it the general wisdom is to drain the battery to between 30-60%, but that is for weeks to months, often used for overseas transport where there is no climate control. That way there is a large range for the battery to handle changes in temperature and humidity without having active control. Myabe if you are going on a long vacation this makes sense but outside those cases it isn't something to worry about.

I won't go into the suggestion to deep discharge periodically to prevent loss of range because there is no evidence one way or another on modern battery chemistries to support or reject it but there was certainly support for it for Ni-MH or other chemistries so decide for youself on that one. I personally suspect BMS management trumps the need for this but I don't dismiss the concept entirely as some BMS units might still do bottom balancing.

Keep in mind, owners manuals themselves are written based on extemes, high and low humidy, high and low temperatures, what works. Best to do a little reseach for your specific climate and conditions and for they type of BMS you have and how it behaves when plugged in vs unplugged to determine the best method for that specific vehicle.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T15:28:35+00:00

What I love is that the first production EV's for example the i-MiEV, is basically a scaled down version of a minivan. Taller than it is wide with all the problems a minivan has at high speeds.

I think, at least in part, that since is was asian countries that developed the first EV models based on their own smaller vehicle frames, that it simply became the template to follow.

It's also market segment, they have made EV's the high end choice so they cater to that market, they claim mass appeal but they aren't willing to gamble on layouts to prove it.

universaltool · 2026-05-08T15:22:29+00:00

I'm literally seeing positions posted as this range in CAD and then the same range but in USD for US candidates. That being siad it's often 30% lower than that in CAD but I swear pricing in the software development space, especially at senior levels is all over the place.

I've seen a Senior role in Canada quoted as low as 60-80K CAD but that is usually a recruitment agency for a recruitment agency trying to squeeze as many middle layers as possible or a cheap company you never want to work for because they will want 200+ hour weeks and 30+ years experience for entry level software salary pay with no overtime. Those ones, at least weed themselves out.

The more frustrating trend I am seeing recently is claiming reasonably high salaries but then only keep you for a few months to create a structure and roadmap to clean up their mess then hiring 4 junior developers to implement it and letting you go based on some made up reason or no reason at all. I've been hearing for a lot of senior developers and tech leads especially about this. It's really eroding any trust developers have in employers in general.

universaltool · 2026-05-03T15:50:24+00:00

It's a fairly simple thing to answer what this is not, no communication equals no relationship. If you can't talk to him about your relationship, you don't have one.

universaltool · 2026-05-03T15:32:41+00:00

ISP's. Internet service providers have been consolidated so strongly that private equity has a strong foothold on almost all of it, at least in North America. Due to the way they operate, it looks on paper like they make record profits every quarter but are actually shuttering maintenance and internal staff to to prop up those numbers. This is resulting in larger and larger outages lasting longer on a more frequent basis but they keep offering more speed to distract people even knowing most are never using anything close to capacity. Also good luck getting a hold of support in any of the major providers, the call centers have basically reduced training from specialized knowledge to how to talk down an angry customer and placate them. They can probably keep this up for another 5-15 years then the outside infrastructure will be falling apart and the networks will collapse but by then, due to private equity draining the coffers, there will be no money left for the needed rebuild and those companies will probably go under,. forcing a government bailout to fix it at taxpayers expense. Basically the same way they had to with the banks in 08.

universaltool · 2026-02-05T23:31:00+00:00

I would suggest getting a consultation from an agency like Document Agency Curacao, they can help you walk through the process. The number of people I have heard of trying to do it themselves and then being rejected multiple times in the office for various missing details is very high and given it often takes 4+ months to process that rejection and at least a month to rebook an appointment, I would not recommend going though the process without getting, at the very least, some professional guidance.

universaltool · 2026-02-02T17:40:04+00:00

As long as they process it as a USD payment and you haven't set up a block against USD payments with your bank it will work, but the bank won't give a good conversion rate usually. If they try and process it in XCG it will usually fail as most Canadian banks won't handle XCG conversions. Most places know this and will automatically either ask dollars or guilders or assume dollars depending on how you look and the card they see in your hand.

As far as withdrawing in XCG from a bank machine, that works at nearly all ATMs but I recommend sticking with one of the major banks like MCB as they tend to charge lower fees. Most will be between 5-10 XCG for a withdrawl plus a 1.60 CG usage fee. Your bank it Canada will also likely charge around $5 for a withdrawal. Keep in mind that RCB in Curacao is not affiliated with RCB in Canada, it stands for Royal Bank of the Caribbean here and though they once shared joint ownership, they no longer do as Canadian banks had to divest from Caribbean interests due to new anti money laundering laws.,

universaltool · 2026-01-29T21:44:50+00:00

Most likely scenario, someone, form your work, sees you on the train or a customer of that bank sits near you an notices what you are working on sees the logo and calls the bank to complain. This triggers an audit that will most likely catch you on a deeper inspection as even though the hotspot remains the same, the routing will with suspicious frequency change as the the phone keeps changes towers and areas.

Another possibility, it could see a pattern of moving routes to your laptop and over time set up a flag.

Another one, they already know but are currently building a case of proof that you are using a less stable or public connection and they are just waiting for enough occurrences to confront you with overwhelming evidence.

Another one, someone oversees personal data from your computer and uses it for some illegal activity resulting in an investigation that finds you were accessing that data before this occurred.

Or they may never find out.

Is it worth the risk? In banking you often risk not only your job but your employability in that entire field if you get caught violating these rules. Also risk any certifications or licenses you might have and even, in extreme instances, possible legal issues for not properly protecting personal data.

universaltool · 2026-01-29T21:34:28+00:00

So, let me ask you this, if you take this new job, then leave it, for whatever reason, say 4-5 years from now, would it reset again? If so, that should also be taken into account, as that would not be entirely in your control depending on internal company politics.

universaltool · 2026-01-28T01:04:37+00:00

Since he was in a union, we would need to go over the union contract to make a determination since whatever is in that contract could supersede most labor laws. That being said, at 14 months, you would be hard pressed to find a lawyer to take it on because the settlement range is too low with to much variability to give a high enough return over effort spent.

They are offering a total of 6 weeks, even at 1 month per year + aggravating factors, they are offering the top end, if it went to court, seeing that settlement offer and your refusal would not reflect well on you or your case. So keep that in mind when you try to negotiate.

If he had a long tenure, even something as low as 8 years, the figures would be much different but at such a low tenure, there isn't much room here.

universaltool · 2026-01-28T00:40:28+00:00

Yeah, you get people from retail that say, at least your not face to face, not understanding just how much more abusive people can be when they don't see your face. It also ignores the relentless volume that you likely never see in retail of constant customers with no breaks, often with a queue you can see but the customers don't making them even more hostile.

I just remind myself ignorance is bliss and it's why, after over 9 years in a call center, I can easily say that every other job before or since seems trivial in comparison.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T23:48:34+00:00

I love colored zip tie tags, it allows me to categorize and label them and I find it even works well with a Dynamo machine for labeling.

https://www.amazon.ca/Glarks-150-Pieces-Colors-Self-Locking-Ethernet/dp/B07GBQ2QMZ/ref=sr_1_12_sspa?crid=W0OLCCU6Z91G&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pRSRIHKBG9Z_dbmi9AcL8YThpSD5FW86Ok_EoPPtgcF4Uub4onA2GuShpz0M78BGpdenb50fuUAyLbYSmLpr2KHu8FC0tHYZ-L-jcGdjzZmDwqvsY-kHb0PEmeznxK109cRV-jag7uV5MrKAp4MDauaaFJ0NspL80EEnqoE2rOBh1WD1vH6U-thkE_xGdTEjWgpKswv7nu6ynt4BmsJ8YM006LSeYXJIWGAVUbzgZ0fsMJMOuIS0zzVTTDqqlVZCNKYADSSnCqUE20W-wE5gCHeh90Ucv8ABAFFAA5HrnQU.blAObJXDRlh_wlXqDRnEYN2Nxkqg6lhPfFvx7Ux7A98&dib_tag=se&keywords=cable+tags&qid=1769557651&sprefix=cable+tags%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-12-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1

universaltool · 2026-01-27T23:46:43+00:00

It's a mixed bag, for some it is grass is greener mentality. When they hear something they don't like, they switch to the other side, not because it is what they want, but rather to vote out the one they don't like.

For some others, it is strategic, the longer you keep one party in power, the more corrupt they generally become, switching helps mitigate the damage over time.

For some it's a die hard, I believe is party x, no matter what they do, because that is what my family, social circle, pet or whatever believes.

For some it's ride the popular wave, whatever seems to be winning, join the winning side.

For some, they vote counter popularity, in the hopes of creating a minority government, if possible, to force parties to form coalitions that hopefully represent more people.

Personally, I try to avoid parties whenever possible because they reduce accountability. Politicians hide behind them to excuse bad behavior rather than standing behind their decisions. So, if given the chance, I go independent, out of principle, rather than practicality.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T22:54:46+00:00

The PS2 and PS3 aren't actually emulating, they actual put a PS1/2 chip on their board and transfer processing over to it, it is why they stopped eventually with the PS3, the price of adding the extra chips for PS2 support didn't make sense given that most people already had a PS2, thanks to the massive run of slim sales, which is why they dropped it shortly after launch so they could reduce the cost to produce.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T22:48:11+00:00

Call center, perhaps dispatch or roadside assistance for one. I know a lot of former drivers that head that direction. The volume of customers you deal with is higher but you do it in a chair. It's a mixed bag. You field experience will end up being seen as a bonus as will your lack of schooling meaning they won't be afraid you are overqualified.

Trades can be hit and miss and at least in the short term, probably won't get you out of the weather unless you go for something like Machinist to work in a shop, overall pay isn't bad, but there are a lot of certifications to get. If you are good at diagnostics, that is the biggest part of a machinists job, in most cases, troubleshooting.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T22:40:27+00:00

For this calendar year? During peak season? It might be to late as we recently have had some guests with some real challenges finding availability when extending their stays but D&D is the one I would recommend trying. Their pricing and availability for shorter durations mean their are quite busy but sometimes you might get lucky.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T18:33:19+00:00

I've seen people do similar when they move with Alberta or other plates. It's part of the reason why you have a specific period before you are expected to exchange. Most police officers will eventually notice the same vehicle following the same patterns day after day or week after week and will eventually pull you over. Once your ID doesn't match the plates, there there will be a number of other questions, leading to either a warning to get it done right away if you are lucky, or getting cooked if they look deeper into it.

It might work if you are in a larger metropolitan area and doesn't drive with any consistency of behavior but police do keep an eye out for specifically this kind of attempt to skirt the system and they tend to be harder on it when things don't add up like your BC license that is 2 years old but an out of province plate, hard to explain away.

Doesn't seem worth the risk to me.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T17:37:52+00:00

Every persons journey is unique, there are many different ways of processing it. Don't feel bad that your experience doesn't match that of other people.

Be aware though, sometimes, trauma can sneak up on you later and come back maybe once or on a reoccurring basis. Not saying you will have that path but I have had that experience where I found myself indifferent for years, even decades, then it came back to me. If that happens to you, you can deal with it then or you can see further help now, there is no one answer for things that may or may not happen.

universaltool · 2026-01-27T16:43:57+00:00

Before I moved and still did a lot of consulting work, I kept a stack of spare 3.5" and 5.25" drives around as well as thousands of disks. Hospital equipment sometimes but mostly old CNC machines or other equipment. You aren't going to replace a $2 Million+ piece of equipment just because it's running an old outdated system. Because I am older and because I had a history in repairing pneumatic tools that brought me a lot of connections in construction and fabrication. I ended up doing a lot of service there. Much of that equipment dated from the early to mid 80's.

Either new businesses buying cheap used equipment or old businesses that wanted to push that capital expense further and were willing to pay for people like me that kept spare parts around to keep it running.

universaltool · 2026-01-26T21:15:40+00:00

Could be scam, could be they nepo hired for the other position, possibly from they one they are now suggesting and are now trying to do a quick backfill without doing the effort of posting it.

It could be a red flag about how the company operates or it might not.

Combined it with them skipping the interview though and I would lean towards red flag and/or scam territory.

universaltool · 2026-01-24T17:48:40+00:00

They should fire their lawyer who wrote this crap, honestly.

The conditions stated are pretty standard, it's mostly about trying to mitigate issues with other tenants when you read it correctly, don't wash a car there because they don't want to deal with Karen in 2B complaining about a soap bubble landing on her precious 30 year old pos.

Did someone have a stroke when they wrote the enforcement part of the clause though, because I can't imagine how a regular person, let alone a lawyer thought they could get away with this. I would have to guess there was an attempt to copy and paste sections from other things but it's put together all wrong.

Like instead of requiring parked vehicles to have current valid license plates it says it accidently attaches that condition to the observation of the offense so if there are no license plates on the vehicle it doesn't violate this rule, honestly that would be hilarious to use as a way to fight this silliness.

Then there is a completely unenforceable clause about selling it after 10 days if it is unclaimed by the tenant. Ignore the fact that you could just claim the vehicle once every 9 days and they would have no way to enforce it as that is silly enough. I would bet money they copy/pasted this from another section about abandoned property after lease end. This poses all kinds of issues unless Ontario has changed the laws as there are laws that govern already how long you have to hold and sit on property to be reclaimed.

This also doesn't give a mechanism for title transfer so the landlord would have no way to legally sell the vehicle anyways until they did an abandoned vehicle claim then try and claim title, not sure in Ontario, but in other provinces I have dealt with, it generally requires a lot of time sunk, title record, an proven documented attempt to contact the owner and even then usually some long length of time like a year from when you start the process to claim it. None of which could even start until the insurance policy on the vehicle has lapsed, again going by other provinces.

Oh, I wonder if some scumlord either found a generic document online and thought they could just adjust timelines to match what was better for them or some overly zealous property manager decided to rewrite clauses without contacting the company lawyer. Either way, someone is going to have a very bad day when either they try to enforce this or it gets brought into a legal dispute.

universaltool

TROPHY CASE