Jen Lytle is a wonderful real estate agent.  I recommend her highly.  She listened to our thoughts, gave great suggestions and made house buying in Mexico a breeze. We first met Jen in 2010 when we decided to buy a house in Merida.  We flew in from Chiapas, saw three houses and bought one.  The one we bought happens to be one of the most lovely homes in town.  It has been used for symphony fund-raisers.  I had watched it on the Tierra Yucatan site for more than a year, after all the problems with the stock market at that time.  We are still very good friends with the guys that built and had lived in the house.  We finally moved down here for good last August. We have 110 meters of ocean front property north of Mahawual, where we had planned to build our retirement house.  But some medical issues helped us decide on Merida, which has superb medical, dental and veterinary care.   We had visited Merida about 5 times since the mid-80’s, and loved the old world feel and gentle way of life here.  It is a wonderful sophisticated colonial city.  We live in a Mexican neighborhood in south Centro, with very few expats.  I love our neighbors!  When we are back in our garden, it is hard to believe that we are in a city of 3/4 of a million people. I love the fact that we can walk to the lady that sells fruits and vegetables under a tarp, across the street from the meat store.  There is a guy we call PULPO MAN on the same block behind our house that sells fresh seafood from the gulf. My garage mechanic is 3/4 of a block away, and he actually fixes things!  My old muffler sounded like a machine gun.  He FIXED it for less than $30!  In the USA, they would have put in a new one and probably charged more than $2,000usd! We have 5 poodles (and currently six 8 day old puppies).  Our vet is wonderful, comes to the house and charges about 75% less than our old vet in NJ.  His groomer is superb, picks up and drops off the dogs, does a fabulous job and the dogs love him.  For all five dogs, I pay about the cost of one of my standard poodles in NJ. Our doctor and dentist are top-notch, and I am a doctor and my husband a dentist.  We have spoken to people who have travelled here for major surgeries and dental procedures.  We would like to volunteer at the medical and dental schools. I do recommend learning Spanish, as it makes life much easier.  I have my housekeeper, pool and garden (and whatever else needs to get done) guy and an iron worker who knows everyone in Merida.  I have had to learn construction Spanish, and I keep a Spanish dictionary nearby. When we bought our house, we used an excellent lawyer in Merida.  His partner had helped us with buying our property on the Caribbean.  Our Merida lawyer is very knowledgeable, knows everybody, thinks outside the box and is a true counselor.  He is so nice, and one time took time out of his day to bring me to his artist wife’s framing/canvas man, when he told me I would never find it. The city is surrounded by many incredible, amazing Mayan archeological sites, ceynotes, haciendas and flamingo breeding grounds.  It is great to go exploring when friends and family with our grandchildren come down.  The Yucatan has an amazing history. There are wonderful restaurants in Merida, from the very elegant to the delicious Cocinas economicas nearby.  Our favorite place is nearby and has great food.  They catered a party of 12 once for $62! Perhaps, most importantly, it is a very SAFE city, allegedly the safest in Mexico.  We have Mexican friends who have moved here from elsewhere in Mexico because of serious safety issues.  I feel safer walking around Merida in the evening than I did in our town in rural NJ which really was the boonies.  Our neighbors watch out for one another here, not that we have had any issues. When I need a pick-me-up, I go to the Tierra Yucatan site.  I love looking at the unrestored haciendas and villas in town, as well as those that have been restored.  I wish I had billions of dollars to restore every one! Sometimes I call Jenn just to schmooze about some of her listings.  She is a lovely, intelligent and an honorable realtor and I would recommend her very highly to anyone interested in a vacation home, or relocating.
—Joanne Liegner