• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result

Real Estate Investing In Paris

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jan 24, 2011
in Investing
0
A view from a paris appartment over the rooftops and to the Eiffel Tower in the distance
208
SHARES
3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

This Retirement Nest Egg Has Doubled In Value In The Past Six Years…Now What?

Resident global real estate investing expert (and my husband) Lief Simon and I have been investing in global real estate for more than 17 years. We’ve bought, sold, rented, renovated, and rehabbed in 20 countries. We’ve made money…and we’ve lost some…

And here’s the best piece of advice I can offer based on all that experience.

Buy what you like.

Like all investors, our portfolios have been affected by the events of the past few years. We’re taking stock right now, as we’re preparing to make some new buys in some new markets. What has worked, we’re asking ourselves? Where and how have we made the greatest profits?

Lief and I make a good team when it comes to property investing. Lief brings a refined market-, research, numbers-based perspective to the table and stays focused on the bottom line. He wants to double his money every three to five years, and he’s able to take in all relevant data and to determine the chances of achieving that objective at any time in any market. He filters and synthesizes and comes to a clear conclusion.

Buy…don’t buy…move on…for Lief, it’s all about the numbers.

For me, it’s about the lifestyle.

When I consider a real estate purchase, I try to process how the property will fit itself into our lives, both right now and long term.

First I wonder about the property itself. Does it have good bones, some intrinsic historic or architectural value that will allow us to make a project of it?

Second, is it located in a place that we’ll look for excuses to visit? A place I can imagine Lief and I seeking out in our golden years…and the kids going out of their way to return to?

Unless the property is at least one of those things, I can’t get excited about it.

That’s not to say we haven’t bought many pieces of real estate that were neither fun renovation projects for me nor fun holiday venues for the children. Years ago, we bought a condo pre-construction on the Costa del Sol, for example. Nothing fun (in my opinion) about that. A boxy, nondescript apartment unit in a trashy tourist town.

The kids and I never saw the place, but Lief flipped it after two years for an annualized return on investment of about 35%. Had he held the place for three years, he would have doubled his money…meaning, for Lief, this was a successful buy.

However, what we’re realizing as we review all investments to date to determine our next steps is that the most successful buys so far have been those that have met both Lief and my criteria. Perhaps coincidentally, our biggest profit hits have come from properties we’ve bought together…properties that we wanted to own, profit targets notwithstanding.

One of our most successful purchases has been our apartment in Paris.

When we set out on the search for this pied-a-terre in the City of Light, Lief did his market value research as always, determined where he wanted to buy and how much he wanted to pay per square meter, taking into consideration realistic rental rates, the costs of acquisition, the ongoing expenses of owning property in this city, and historic data on property appreciation rates arrondissement by arrondissement. Then he lined up viewings.

Every apartment we saw met Lief’s criteria, more or less, and we could have bought any one of them and made money over time.

However, we weren’t buying this apartment for the profit potential. At least not entirely. We were shopping for somewhere to park some capital, in a hard asset that could reasonably be expected to grow in value over the long term, yes. And Lief was looking forward to the possibility of owning a rental in one of the world’s most active rental markets.

However, we were also buying a place where we—Lief, me, the kids, and, eventually, the grandkids—would look forward to returning at every opportunity. A place we could make our own.

We were looking to make an investment that would, quite literally, become part of our retirement plan, as it’d eventually be at least our part-time retirement home.

I knew it the instant we walked through the front door. Un coup de coeur, the French call it, a heartfelt recognition that you’ve found home.

Now, six years later, as we regroup on our global real estate investing track record and current portfolio, we realize that this little 300-year-old apartment is worth at least twice what we paid for it. Some valuations right now have it worth two-and-a-half times as much.

I’ve reluctantly passed these appraisals along to Lief…

“If that’s true, then we should sell!” he has replied. “We could buy a fixer-upper for what we paid six years ago for this place…and diversify the profits elsewhere. Or maybe buy two apartments today in Paris with the proceeds from the sale of this one!”

“Yes…yes…you’re right, dear…”

This was a team buy. What to do now that one member of the team is ready to execute an exit strategy…while the other continues to day-dream about her next return visit to the apartment that has so captured her heart and taken such a front-and-center position in her long-term retirement plan?

The debate (with my fickle teammate) continues…

Kathleen Peddicord

Comments

Tags: 'Global Property Investing''Real Estate In Paris'
Share83Tweet52
Previous Post

How To Retire Overseas

Next Post

Retire To The Tropics To Escape Winter

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

Related Posts

Panama City Skyline from Cinta Costera Park, Panama City, Panama.
Investing

How Panama Became A Great Economic Success Story

by Kathleen Peddicord
January 19, 2021
0

Last week we held the biggest Live and Invest in Panama Conference in our history, with more attendees and more...

Read more
Panama City, Panama.

The Real Estate Market In Panama Is Recession-Proof, Take Advantage Of It Now

November 27, 2020
Investments and asset allocation concept.

Diversifying Your Investments And Customizing Your Plan B

November 19, 2020
Businessperson's Hand Holding Arrow Over Stacked Coins With House Models. Real estate investment concept.

How Diversifying Into Real Estate Can Help Your Portfolio

November 17, 2020
Real estate concept with icons of location, contract and price diagram

11 Questions You Need To Ask Before An Overseas Property Purchase

November 15, 2020
Clipboard with LLC operating agreement and pen on wooden desk background.

Reasons To Establish An Offshore Corporation

November 5, 2020
Real estate during COVID

Where To Buy Real Estate Post-Pandemic?

October 31, 2020
Next Post
house in the snow

Retire To The Tropics To Escape Winter

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

how to retire overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2021

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.