The In-Depth Answer

Creating a power of attorney (POA), which gives someone else the authority to sign for the purchase or sale of a property on your behalf, requires several steps.

1) We always recommend that the POA be drafted by the notario who will close your transaction, or one of the attorneys in his office, so that the language used will be acceptable to the notario when it's time to close.

2) If you are in San Miguel de Allende, the notario’s office can draft the POA for you and you will just have to go into their office to sign it. The document will be in Spanish, but if you do not speak Spanish, a translator will be called in to translate it for you on the day you sign. For both buyers and sellers, it will probably include language giving the person with the POA the ability to sign not only the deed but also the distribution of funds from the escrow company.

3) If you are not in San Miguel, after the document has been drafted by the notario, it will be sent to you and

a. if you are American or from a country that signed the Hague Convention, you will have it notarized and apostilled

b. if you are Canadian, from a non-Hague Convention country, or live near a Mexican embassy or consulate, you will take it to the Mexican embassy or consulate and sign before a consulate representative.

4) For buyers who are outside of Mexico and did not sign the application for a SRE permit while in San Miguel, the POA will probably also include giving someone else the authority to sign the SRE permit application on your behalf.

For more details, see "What is an apostille?", and/or "How do I authenticate, or apostille a document when I'm outside of Mexico?" for a more detailed explanation of the process of obtaining state authenticated documents outside of Mexico.