How To Buy Real Estate Overseas
How To Vet A Foreign Real Estate Buy
Jan. 3, 2010
Chicago, Illinois
PLUS: The Best Time To Retire Overseas Is Right Now!...Make 2010 The Year You Make Your Move...This Other World Is Way More Fun...How To Filter The Best Real Estate Investment Opportunities Of This New Year...
AND: The World's Top 20 Places To Live, Retire, And Invest Overseas In 2010
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New Year, New Life, New World
2010 is your chance. 2010 is your year.
This is a great big world bursting with opportunity. Seize it.
Here's the help you need to get started, the reassurance and expertise to launch your journey overseas. This is the best resource available anywhere to help you map out a plan for your new life in the overseas haven with your name on it.
Where should you be thinking about heading this New Year 2010?
We've identified the top and best-value options for living, investing, and retiring in all corners of this big, wonderful world, and the Overseas Retirement Letter is going to introduce you to every one of them with thoughtful, in-depth coverage written not by journalists or desk-side editors but longtime expats and correspondents who know each locale from firsthand experience.
We'll bring you the most appealing beachside communities...mountain escapes...vineyard retreats...and everything in between...from Argentina to Belize, from Croatia to the Dominican Republic, from France to Malaysia, from Panama to Uruguay, from Chile to Vietnam...and beyond...
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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,
"Once you understand why you're interested in buying a piece of real estate in another country," writes resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon, picking up where he left off yesterday, "and where you want to own, you're ready to launch your overseas property search.
"Here are the key factors to keep in mind as you scout opportunities:
- The real estate agents you encounter may not be licensed, and they may have next-to-no relevant experience (maybe they were travel agents or mechanical engineers in previous lives...I've known real estate agents in emerging markets who were both those things as recently as two weeks before I made their acquaintance)...
- The real estate agent you decide to work with probably isn't working for you. In emerging and unregulated markets (like the ones I direct you to regularly), the property agents don't work for the buyer, and they don't work for the seller. They work for the commission, which they want to be a big as possible...
- This can lead to something called "net commissions," whereby the seller tells the real estate agent what he wants to net from the sale. The agent sells for whatever he can sell for. Then the agent pockets the difference (which can be substantial, as much as 20%, 30%, 40% or more)...
- Likewise, in the markets where I direct you, you'll typically find no multiple listing service and no tradition of shared listings...
- Don't take clean title for granted. Invest in title insurance where it's available. I recommend First American Title Insurance, www.firstam.com...
- In particular, be careful about purchasing ejido land, cooperative land, or rights of possession property...
- Don't take the seller (be he local or gringo) at his word. Maybe he owns the land he's offering to sell you, maybe he doesn't...maybe the right-of-way through the neighbor's property has been agreed in writing, maybe it hasn't...maybe the boundaries are drawn where he says they are, and maybe they're not... You want to verify all important points of fact with the help of your own independent attorney...
- Which means that you need to: Engage your own independent attorney. Don't use the seller's attorney and don't use the developer's attorney...
- Buy what you see. If electrical lines have been run to the property, then you're buying with electricity. If a clubhouse has been built, then you're buying into a community with a clubhouse. If you don't see a marina, don't count on a marina...even if it's promised and pictured in all the developer's materials...
- Research restrictions related to foreign ownership of property, particularly in Asian markets...
- If you're buying on the water, understand restrictions on ownership of beachfront property. In most countries, you cannot own the stretch where the water actually meets the land. This strip is called different things in different markets, and it's measured in different ways (typically working from the high-tide line). My point is, don't believe someone who tells you that you can "own" it, because, in most cases, you can't. It's owned by the state...
- Understand all costs of acquisition. These can go well beyond the agent fees. Remember transfer taxes (sometimes called 'stamp duty'), titling fees, registration fees, attorney or notary fees, etc. These fees are not all relevant in all markets, but you want to understand, up front, which ones you'll be responsible for paying and include those costs in both your purchase budget and your projections for investment return...
- Think through what will be required to accomplish whatever you are hoping to accomplish with the property you're looking to buy. If you intend to rent it out when you're not in residence, you'll need rental and property management. If you intend to be in residence only part of the year but don't want to rent while you're away, you'll need a full-time caretaker on-site. Again, include these costs in your budgeting and your ROI projections...
Kathleen Peddicord
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P.S. What else this week?
- What if you could go anywhere, do anything, spend your time and your money any way you wanted? My question is not rhetorical, for, indeed, you could go anywhere, you could do anything, and you could spend your days and invest your capital however strikes your fancy. All you have to do is to open your mind to the possibilities...
- What would your cost of living be Anywhere In The World? The only honest answer is, I have no idea.
One section of the book I've written for Penguin called How To Retire Overseas is given over to detailed budgets for living in the world's top 14 retirement havens. According to these budgets I've compiled (with help from contacts living in each place), Ecuador and Thailand are the most affordable of the countries I consider in the book, Argentina (specifically, Buenos Aires) and Belize the most expensive.
My publisher at Penguin may not appreciate my making this point, but, the truth is, these budgets, and any others you might come across for living anywhere in the world, are almost meaningless. At best, they're guidelines, starting points. Don't interpret them literally and don't bet your entire future on any promise they may seem to hold out.
I've covered this ground so many times that, here, I'm going to shortcut to the point: You can spend as much or as little as you want to live almost anywhere in the world you choose. Some places are generally more affordable than others, and a handful of places are absolutely cheap. But globalization means you can enjoy more or less any standard of living you want to more or less anywhere on earth, if you're willing to pay for it...
PLUS: The World's Top Havens For New Year 2010?
Here are the world's top 10 overseas retirement havens as we move toward New Year 2010:
And here are my top 10 runners-up:
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