Belize FAQS: A detailed guide for those interested in moving to Belize

I had decided not to publish a separate article on my Belize FAQs book, as I am often reticent about self promotion. However, due to the fact that I have seen a fairly substantial increase in the amount of material recently released, both as blog posts and as new books, concerning moving to Belize, I have changed my mind.

Both when I started the Belize FAQs site and later when I decided to write the book, my goal was to produce a research and experience-based, more realistic view of moving to Belize, as I found that much of the overly rose-colored information available had been produced by folks with financial interests in the Belize real estate market.

Recently, I have also noticed that some new blogs and books concerning moving to Belize are seeking to hook readers with very rosy scenarios.

I do not claim to have all of the answers concerning topics of interest to those who are contemplating a move, but I do feel that over-selling a dream, and perhaps using AI to do so, is a disservice to folks who are looking for fair, accurate, up-to-date reporting of what it takes to move to Belize and to live here.

Belize FAQs: Answering questions common to those who are considering moving to Belize

When I first started the Belize FAQs blog/website, I wanted to produce a site which was dedicated to providing well-researched, accurate information to anyone who was thinking about moving to Belize.

I had spent about a year and a half doing research on Belize while I was considering moving to Belize, and I followed most of the online Belize forums, learning as much as I could from the online groups, Belize-based media, and official government of Belize sources.

As a self-confessed news nerd and research geek, when I decided to look into moving to Belize, I really tried to dig below the surface of some of the rosy real estate postings I saw online. I also spent a good deal of time on the phone with folks in Belize via WhatsApp.

With all of this research on Belize, what I discovered was that many of the sources I had found online, prior to making the move, provided contradictory information, and much of the information was also woefully out of date.

After I made the move to Belize and started working on things like getting the license needed to run vacation rental apartments, getting a permit to operate a golf cart in San Pedro, opening a bank account, getting a Trade License for the rental business, working towards Permanent Residency, and a number of other official things, I quickly realized that a great deal of what I had learned in advance of my move, even from government sites, differed from what actually happens in practice on the ground in Belize.

After I had been in Belize for a couple of years and had grappled with some of the bureaucracy and other challenges I had discovered in San Pedro, I began to share some of my experiences in the most popular Belize-focused Facebook Groups. And I found myself writing long answers to a lot of the same questions over and over again. I also began to receive lots of private messages asking follow-up questions to those which I had tried to answer in the online forums.

Having spent much of my adult life working overseas, I finally decided to publish a Blog, Belize FAQs, sharing what I had learned and offering a minor correction to the overly rosy scenarios about Belize I often saw painted by many who are involved in the real estate business in the country.

With folks enjoying the Belize FAQs blog, why did I feel the need to write and publish a book?

In Belize FAQs: A detailed guide for those interested in moving to Belize, I assemble the several years of research I conducted on all matters concerning moving to, and living in Belize. And I try to answer the most commonly asked questions from potential expats which I have found in the Belize forums online for the past several years.

I also attempt to offer a mix of the official line on many matters concerning moving to Belize, with the experienced reality of having moved to Belize, bought and completely renovated a building in San Pedro, started a business, gained Permanent Residency, sold my first Belize property by owner, subsequently buying a home in Corozal, and moving from an island to the Belize mainland.

In short, as a former writer and editor in the education sector, I guess that I just needed to produce a book, something a bit more organized, that felt more robust than a series of blog posts online, so I have tried to put together the book on moving to Belize that I wish someone had written when I was doing my research before moving here. I hope that you will find it helpful!

Final thoughts on Belize FAQS: A detailed guide for those interesting in moving to Belize

When considering moving to Belize, or to any country for that matter, it is only natural for one to be excited by the prospect of the move, hence, susceptible to overlooking possible challenges that one might encounter.

Even though Belize is the sixth country in which I have lived over the past thirty years or so, I know that I also fell for some of the cheer leading which I had read online.

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy living here, and I have not left the country in five years, yet I still would have made better decisions, and perhaps had some better outcomes, if I had found more accurate, less rosy, information on some matters concerning moving to Belize and living here.

When I was looking into moving to Belize, many of the primary sources of information on moving to Belize had been published by those with interests in the real estate business here. Now, with the omnipresence of AI, it seems that a bit of a Belize-specific blogging and publishing boom has developed, and I find that some of these endeavors have the same slant as that of the players in the real estate business: Tell folks what they want to hear in order to sell a product, rather than produce accurate, up-to-date information to help people make more informed decisions.

Finally, having been a writer and editor in the education sector, and now doing freelance work for several clients in the sector, the Belize FAQs website has been my first real attempt at producing a professional website and promoting it.

I have experienced a bit of a learning curve, as the work on the website has been far more time consuming than I had imagined, and maintaining the site is also quite a bit more expensive than I had thought it would be. Thus, the book is also a means to help support the website so that I am able to continue to produce more journalistic articles on moving to and living in Belize without needing to inundate the site with ads in order to offset the costs involved.

If you are considering a move to Belize, please consider supporting the site by checking out the book which is available on Amazon: Belize FAQs: A detailed guide for those interested in moving to Belize. In the book, there are more than 150 pages of Belize FAQs at your fingertips. And Belize FAQs is available in both paperback and Kindle formats.