Expat Life In Panama City

So It Goes In Paradise…

Aug. 23, 2009
Panama City, Panama

PLUS: Reefs, Ruins, Rivers, And Rain Forest In Belize...Asia's English-Speaking Surprise...How To Play Singapore...

AND: Yields Are The Name Of The Global Property Game Right Now...Here's What You Need To Know...

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FINAL WEEK TO CLAIM YOUR EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT
For Lief Simon's Third Annual Global Real Estate Profits Summit

This is the best time in 10 years to be a buyer. Over two days in October, Lief Simon and 12 other international real estate investing pros are convening in Panama City to discuss where and how to position yourself in world property markets for profit. You want to be in the room.

Special Early Bird Registration Discount available through Aug. 31 only.

Other important discounts also available now.

Details here.

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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

A friend from the States has decided to divide his time between California and Panama City. He was in town this week outfitting his new apartment, and he needed cash, for the deposit, for new furniture, etc.

So he went to the Panama City bank where he has held an account for more than a year to make a withdrawal. Alas, he'd forgotten his checkbook back in the States. No check, no cash, the bank teller explained.

"What do you mean?" our friend asked incredulously. "I have money in my account. I'd like to withdraw some of it, please."

Finally, an option. Go stand in that line over there, the teller suggested, and get a cashier's check. Our friend did as instructed. He waited an hour-and-a-half to pay US$10 for a cashier's check drawn on his own account.

Then he stood another 30 minutes in another line to cash it.

"Maybe you should move your account to another bank?" I suggested when he told me his sad tale.

"Oh, no, no, this is the best bank in the city."

Lief just burst into the office dripping wet.

"The window in my taxi was broken," he explained. "A few minutes after I got in, the skies opened. It began raining buckets. I tried to close my window, but the handle didn't work. The driver reached back to hand me a pair of pliers. I tried again to close the window using the pliers, but the driver began shouting at me in Spanish: 'Not like that, not like that!' I wasn't doing it right, I guess.

"Never did manage to get the window to close. Rain poured in on me all the way over here..."

Lief was returning from our new home in Casco Viejo, where he'd gone to meet the Cable & Wireless fellow who has been promising to install Internet for us for the past two weeks.

"The guy kept insisting that the only way for us to have Internet would be to run a cable from our neighbor's place along the sidewalk in between the two houses.

"I was trying to explain to him that that sounded like a ridiculous strategy to me, when our neighbor on the other side, who happened to be sitting outside on his balcony at the time, spoke up.

"'Your house is already wired,' he explained. "It was wired at the same time as my house. The cables were run underground. I have a copy of the schematic. I'll go get it...'

"The Cable & Wireless guy was dumbfounded by this news. Finally, he left in a huff. Our neighbor says not to worry, though, because he has a friend at Cable & Wireless who should be able to sort us out. He thinks that guy is away on vacation next week, though."

So it goes in Paradise...

Kathleen Peddicord

P.S. What else this week?

• Three insiders speak candidly about the state of the Panama property market...

• Reefs, ruins, rivers, and rain forest...discovering Belize...

• "I haven't paid much attention to rental investments throughout my real estate investing career," explained a reader who contacted Lief recently. "But I'm interested in understanding current opportunities worldwide right now, because, in the current climate, a reliable 5% net annual yield sounds pretty good. What do you advise?"
  
  Here's Lief's counsel...

• Asia's English-speaking surprise...

• How to play Singapore...