Coldwell helps Romanian
acquire land via internet
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten’s allure does not only captivate visitors who see it for the first time. The heart of one Romanian man was lost to the Caribbean island just from viewing it on the internet and doing research on its bustling economy and deep history.
Falling for the island’s charm about a month ago, Nicolae Flavio Finta contacted Violeta Cernica, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent in Romania, and gave her the task of locating the property he had found on the internet and of making an offer to buy.
Using the internet to locate the local Coldwell Banker office, Cernica enlisted the help of owner Brett Mucklow to track down the property that had caught Finta’s eye during his web browsing.
Upon receiving the e-mail enquiry about purchasing land in St. Maarten, Mucklow said he had first thought it was a joke but after checking into to it, he quickly realised that it was a real request and not internet spam.
So a process started to buy a piece of land in Dutch Quarter completely via the internet. The buyer never saw the property other than on the internet and all transactions: from the contact with the buyer, the involvement of the notary, transfer of funds and the completion of the sale, were conducted over the internet.
With a Power of Attorney document, the land was purchased by the local Coldwell Banker agents for Finta from seller Cherise Candlish.
The real estate agency’s first completely internet-based sale was authenticated by Notary Ferd Steeman and Notary Meredith Boekhoudt of Notary Boekhoudt & Steeman.
Finta and his wife are planning to build a house on the land they have only seen via internet photos.
“This is a perfect example of the internet working at its best,” Mucklow said. Normally, the seller and buyer are in the same room for the signing over of the deed, he added. “This was different. The buyer was hundreds of miles away and had never actually seen the land or met the owner.”
