My wife and I purchased our lot in the spring of 2017. We used Margo & Matt Halliday (they are Canadian) as our real estate agents. They are highly regarded and have been selling real estate for the past 17 years. http://www.roatanrealestate.com/margotandmatt.htm
Our lawyer is http://www.tuglianilaw.com/index.php The best law firm on the island.
They are also doing our pension residency.
We started construction in the summer of 2018 of our home which is a triplex, as we are going to AirBnB two units. Our builder is Daniel Parsons. We cannot say enough good things about Daniel. He would send us pictures and video when we were back in Canada as he built our place. There are other builders here who see North Americans as ATM’s and will take advantage of you. As my wife says she would leave her children with Daniel. https://www.facebook.com/daniel.parson.796/photos
We officially retired here in February 2019.
I know that our waterfront lot has increased in price and we were fortunate to negotiate a good deal in December 2016. For the past 18 months the market has been hot. Reasonably priced homes sell.
The question is are you going to loose money? I highly doubt it. Programs like Caribbean Life or whatever is on HGTV give you a good idea. However, by buying a lot and building our triplex we did save money instead of purchasing an existing one.
My wife was reading an article today that Roatan has the most consistent stable weather in the Caribbean. You should also note. that Roatan is not in Hurricane Ally as the other islands are. The last Hurricane was in 1998 and did minimal damage. Hurricanes do not track towards Roatan. Know if you were mean spirited you would wish more hurricanes struck the islands to the east of us like St. Martin, St. Lucia etc. because that may drive the market up here.
This is our place https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2153310128248846&set=pb.100007096383472.-2207520000.1558408284.&type=3&size=960%2C720
We have a 10 x 40 foot deck on each floor. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2131327803780412&set=pb.100007096383472.-2207520000.1558408284.&type=3&size=720%2C960
Each floor is approximately 1,000 sq. ft. plus the deck (400 sq. ft.) Total cost of construction $250,000 USD. The bottom floor is the Bedaga with the utility room which is 330 sq. ft.
I have joined Rotary and my wife and I are taking Spanish lessons. Please email me at jtimlin53@yahoo.ca if you want more info.