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    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
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  • Home
  • Countries

    Top Destinations:

    Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Panama
    • Belize
    • Colombia
    • Cyprus
    • Mexico
    • France
    • Montenegro
    • Browse All Countries

    Best For:

    • The Best Places To Retire
    • Health Care Abroad
    • Cost Of Living
    • Investing in Real Estate
    • Establishing Residency
    • Gun Laws In The World
    • English-Speaking Countries
    • Safest Places For Retirement
    • Best Places In Latin America
  • Budgets

    How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

    The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

    Super Cheap

    • Chitré, Panama
    • Santa Marta, Colombia
    • Phuket, Thailand
    • Dumaguete, The Philippines

    Cheap

    • Medellin, Colombia
    • Boquete, Panama
    • Kyrenia, Cyprus
    • Hua Hin, Thailand
    • The Algarve, Portugal

    Affordable

    • Valencia, Spain
    • Cascais, Portugal
    • Las Terrenas, The DR
    • Pisa, Italy
    • La Rochelle, France
    • Mazatlán, Mexico

    Luxury

    • Ambergris Caye, Belize
    • Kotor, Montenegro
    • The Panama City Beaches
    • Paris, France
  • Resources

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    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore & Diversification

    Making Money

    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing

    Follow Us:

    • Meet Our Experts
  • Real Estate

    Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

    • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

    Explore Our Latest Posts

    • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

    Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

    • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
  • Conferences

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    • Explore Our Events Site

    Live and Invest In Spain Conference

    Offshore Wealth Summit

    Greece Workshop

    VALENCIA, SPAIN

    Sep. 17-19, 2025

    PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

    Oct. 15-17, 2025

    VIRTUAL

    Nov. 13, 2025

    Learn More About This Event
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
    Learn More About This Event
    PRE-REGISTER
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    Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
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    From Outside North America:
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    Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

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Live and Invest Overseas
 Homes Under $100k
The World’s Cheapest Real Estate Investments In 2025 Revealed
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Home Investing

One Big Downside With Real Estate

by Lief Simon
Apr 18, 2025
in Investing
0 0
Colorful homes in Mediterranean village of Villajoyosa

AdobeStock/Lux Blue

One big downside with real estate is that it’s relatively illiquid.

You can sell a stock, bond, or mutual fund instantly (albeit maybe not at the price you want). Metals and coins can generally be sold within a few days.

Numismatic coins that are more niche may need to go to auction but aren’t likely to be sitting around for seven years or more once you decide to sell them.

Seven years is what a real estate agent once told me a house he listed had been on the market for. The owner had tried agent after agent, as well as listing it himself.

The house is in a remote area of Panama, and Panama is a place where even the local city agents don’t work too hard. They’re happy to take a listing, but don’t put much effort into marketing.

This house wasn’t bought as an investment property, but rather a place to live. Nevertheless, it makes the point that you must consider the sale when you’re making the purchase.

A more famous property that proved difficult to sell in the United States was Michael Jordan’s house in Highland Park, Illinois. Highland Park is an upscale town north of Chicago with plenty of multi-million-dollar houses. However, the median sale price for 2024 was just $765,000.

Jordan’s house was first listed in 2012 for $29 million.

Being the most expensive house in the neighborhood is generally a tough position when selling.

In the case of Jordan’s house, it was not only the most expensive in the area, but also highly personalized. With an indoor basketball court and gym that puts most professional gyms to shame, it’s a house that required the right buyer… And it took more than 12 years for that buyer to be found.

Finally, at the end of last year, it sold for the knockdown price of $9.5 million. It’s now available as a rental at $150,000 a month.

It just goes to show that even at a greatly reduced price, a unique property or one in a remote area may still not sell quickly.

As an investor, you need to take resale into consideration when you’re buying.

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A great rental property may become less of a good rental property over time. For a residential rental, you can always sell it to someone who just wants to live on the property if the property is in the right neighborhood.

A lot of triple net lease standalone retail properties were great investments in the States until the tenant moved out. Without a tenant, selling such a property is difficult.

Overseas, the liquidity question starts with the market and who the buyers are for the product you’re looking to invest in. You have three main categories: local buyers, international buyers, and markets with both local and international buyers.

Belize is a good example of an international-only market for most properties on Ambergris Caye. The beachfront condos on Ambergris Caye are, unfortunately, out of the reach of most locals.

Most buyers for Belize come from North America and Europe. How the local economy in Belize is doing doesn’t affect the real estate market on Ambergris Caye. As the saying goes, if the United States catches a cold, country X gets the flu.

Paris, on the other hand, has both locals who live and work there who buy and rent, as well as an international market that includes buyers from every continent. Paris apartments, even in a slow market, don’t stay on the market for years unless there is something seriously wrong with them that requires renovation and repairs.

If you’re buying for pure investment purposes for a rental yield, you can be in any of the three types of markets and expect reasonable liquidity.

Once you move on the scale away from pure investment towards personal use, even a property that you just want to use for a vacation once a year and rent out the rest of the year requires more attention to your intended hold period and exit strategy.

The more you personalize a property, like Michael Jordan did with his house north of Chicago, the harder it will be to not only sell, but to get a return on the cost of personalization.

Once you’ve decided to sell, your liquidity for an overseas property will be improved by listing with as many active real estate agents you can find in the market, as well as pricing the property correctly when you list.

The guy with the house in Panama didn’t stand a chance on selling his property quickly, but it shouldn’t be on the market seven years later. He didn’t list with multiple agents when he first listed. He relied on one local agent who wanted exclusivity.

Don’t sign an exclusivity agreement with an agent overseas. It’s as simple as that.

The agent wants exclusivity, but they aren’t going to work for it.

Lief Simon signature

Lief Simon
Editor, Offshore Living Letter

Tags: 'global real estate investing''real estate markets'International Property Summit
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Lief Simon

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked in 7 countries on 5 continents and traveled to more than 75 countries. His real estate investment career began with a $5,000 down payment on a three-flat building in Chicago. Less than three years later, Lief sold the building for a leveraged return of 3,000%—$150,000 in profit after closing costs and commissions.

From there, he turned his attention overseas and has bought property in 24 countries including France, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Belize, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, Romania, and beyond. Thanks to his decades-long career as a global property investor, Lief has built a multi-million-dollar portfolio that includes rental properties, significant land holdings, and 7 personal residences.

Lief has established residency in 3 countries and acquired a second passport from Ireland.

In 2008 Lief and wife Kathleen Peddicord made the most important investment of their lives—a 215-acre oceanside finca, known as Los Islotes. There, on Panama’s largely undiscovered Veraguas coast, they’ve installed underground electricity, water, and internet and built a forever family home that sits at the heart of their ultimate vision: a gold standard private residential community for those in search of a true safe haven escape.

Lief’s latest book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer,” collects all the wisdom he has learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.

He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches. For real estate investment opportunities, check out his monthly Global Property Advisor service.

If you’d like to meet Lief in person, join him for one of our upcoming in-country conferences. You’ll find further details here.

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HOME

Top Countries

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Panama
  • Belize
  • Colombia
  • Cyprus
  • Mexico
  • France
  • Montenegro

Best For:

  • Health Care Abroad
  • Retirement Living
  • Cost Of Living
  • Investing in Real Estate
  • Establishing Residency
  • Gun Ownership
  • English Speakers
  • Safety
BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

Budgets

How Much Will It Cost
To Live Overseas?

Super Cheap

  • Chitré, Panama
  • Santa Marta, Colombia
  • Phuket, Thailand
  • Dumaguete, The Philippines

Cheap

  • Medellin, Colombia
  • Boquete, Panama
  • Kyrenia, Cyprus
  • Hua Hin, Thailand
  • The Algarve, Portugal

Affordable

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Cascais, Portugal
  • Las Terrenas, The DR
  • Pisa, Italy
  • La Rochelle, France
  • Mazatlán, Mexico

Luxury

  • Ambergris Caye, Belize
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • The Panama City Beaches
  • Paris, France

Resources

Global Living

  • Living & Retiring Overseas
  • Raising A Family Abroad
  • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
  • Offshore & Diversification

Making Money

  • International Real Estate
  • Banking
  • Employment
  • Investing
Meet Our Experts

Real Estate

Overseas Property Alert 

 

How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams

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Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

READ MORE

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Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

EXPLORE

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VALENCIA, SPAIN Sep. 17-19, 2025
Learn More About This Event

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PANAMA CITY, PANAMA Oct. 15-17, 2025
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PRE-REGISTER

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VIRTUAL Nov. 13, 2025
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MORE EVENTS

Contact Our Events Team:

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From Outside North America:
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Working Hours
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Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

Store

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Lahardan Books

  • Titles on living and investing around the world

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