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July 2002
 I returned to Brazil in July 2002 to look for some cheap land to buy and to
learn more about the process of buying land in Brazil. I had
gotten a BRAZIL BUSINESS Visa, CPF, and Bank account. I now wanted to learn
the process of how an American can buy land in Brazil.
I had heard rumors that one needed a Brazilian partner. I heard one could
buy 50 hectares( 123 acres) without a Brazilian partner. I had
heard that one needed to be careful of reserve requirements in different
regions of Mato Grosso. Land having clear title in Brazil is only part of
the Due Diligence process. In Brazil one must have clear title and
POSSESSION of the property. As I traveled to the more remote areas outside
of Sorriso and Sinop my learning curve was very steep. I was learning a
whole new vocabulary. I was hearing terms such as “IBAMA”, “INCRA”,
Alqueres, Arroba, Embrapa research. What did this all mean?
I had met an English speaking city engineer in Sinop. He was also a land
realtor on the side. With Maria taking me under her wing we
left Goiânia and flew to Sinop in search of cheap land and adventure. We
spent 10 days in Sinop pounding down dusty, bumpy, RED dirt
roads. We looked at hundreds of thousands of acres of cleared land and drove
through hundreds of kilometers of natural rainforest. At times the small
trail cut through the trees seemed like a TUBE through the forest. The
canopy of the 100 ft plus trees shaded the small trail. At midday it would
be dark driving down these small trails. At times we had no idea where we
were. All we had to go by was GPS coordinates and faith in our guide. We
looked at land for sale ranging is size from 300 acres to 50,000 acres. The
amount of land available was daunting. This was the dry season. Trees that
had been laid down the year before were now being burnt. There was so much
smoke in the air at times it made it hard to breath.
Land prices were on an exponential rise during this timeframe. Land was
quoted for sale at X sacs/hectare on a particular day. If one came back to
the area three months later, the land had risen by 50% again. It was truly a
BOOM period for Mato Grosso. With all of these hands on experiences in the
BUSH, I was trying to get my mind around what it would take to manage a farm
in these remote regions. Typically a farm owner will live in a nearby city
and commute to the farm once a week. A farm manager will live on the farm
with his family and oversee day-to-day operations and be in charge of the
other hired men connected with each farm.
Maria´s education was that of veterinary science. This helped me understand
the livestock aspects of our visits. My English speaking
guide from Sinop was very knowledgeable of the region. The big GAP that was
forming was the inability of my teachers to quickly
breakdown a Brazilian unit of measurement i.e., cost, size or volume, into a
format to which I could quickly understand. After 8 hours
of rough roads and constant information being fed to me in a foreign
language, it was information OVERLOAD. I was completely exhausted after each
excursion. I started to see a market niche for this type of service. If only
I could master the conversions of size, volume and currency exchange, so
that I could quickly convert these items into dollars per acre or dollars
per bushel. Once a person is able to do these conversions in your head, one
can now separate truth from the inaccuracies that someone may tell you
during negotiations. |
