Investing In Property Abroad
What in the world are you going to do with your money now?
“I don’t have a huge amount,” explained an old friend over lunch yesterday, “but I’ve got some, and I’ve got to do something with it. But gold? The stock market? Nothing makes any sense anymore.”
“Land,” we replied. “Land and other property with intrinsic value.”Yes, yes,” I agree, replied my friend. “But where? It’s hard now even to feel confident about that.”
In fact, as you read this, market events are creating particular and, in some cases, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that are too tempting to be ignored by anyone paying attention.
In key markets around the world, investors and property owners are panicking. They hold contracts for pre-construction buys they now can’t afford to close on. They own houses with mortgages they can no longer service. They’re carrying properties with ongoing costs they don’t want to continue to shoulder.
They want out…before their property holdings lose even more value thanks to market slides and currency falls…and they want to cover losses they’re taking elsewhere. More liquid investments are down by even greater margins, in some cases, and, in some places, property-holders are keen to get what cash they can out of their hard real estate assets.
“Time to go scouting?” wrote a friend Friday evening.
We’re on it. Scouts have been dispatched. We’re preparing a special Where To Buy Now global real estate crisis investing report, in which we will show you not only where but also how and for how much you could (and, we’d argue, should) be investing.
What in the world are you going to do with your money in the current global market climate? This report holds the answer. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the kinds of buy opportunities we’re hearing about in our offices right now (and that we’ll feature in this special opportunity report) come along once in a lifetime. We’re working as fast as we can to pull the intelligence together. Watch this space for more details soon.
Meantime, as we’ve tried to remind you this past week, beyond the current global market meltdowns, life goes on…
Ever-roving friends and Correspondents Paul and Vicki Terhorst are enjoying the good life at the beach in Kovalum, Kerala, in south India.
“All along the coast,” Paul writes, “we see sea eagles, huge reddish-brown birds with white heads and chests. They glide over the water looking for something to eat. Magnificent.
“We’ve enjoyed Kovalam so much,” Paul continues, “that we decided to stay on for a week. We asked our innkeeper how much for a seven-day stay, and he promptly dropped the price from US$9 a night to US$6…”
Guatemala Correspondent Michael Paladin writes with more on his favorite overseas retirement haven: Antigua.
“Antigua has been described as one of the world’s best-preserved cities. It is also called the Land of Eternal Spring. The rains start in May and end in October, and, for these six months, the surrounding valleys and mountains are lush with vegetation. The city is situated at 4,500 feet, so there’s little or no humidity, and temperatures are a perfect 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit year-round…”
Readers, friends, and family from the States are writing regularly to ask about options. They’re ready to pull the trigger, they say. They want out…
Paul and Vicki…Michael Paladin…indeed, Lief and I…we’re already out, as it were.
I’ll speak only for Lief and me when I say, we’re no smarter than the next guy (or gal). The difference is we’ve been brave enough…and maybe foolish enough…to act. To get up and to make the move.
Do you want out? Do you want to make a change? To start over? Try something new? Move on?
Get up and make the move.
Woody Allen once said that 80% of life is showing up.
Ten years ago, we showed up…first, in Waterford, Ireland…a few years later, in Paris, France…three months ago, we showed up here, in Panama City…
Are we better off for all this?
As I explained earlier this week, we aren’t where we set out to go, because we didn’t know where that was.
Instead, we’re where we are. And I can tell you this this morning, from my vantage point of this high-rise condo tower overlooking the Bay of Panama:
I’d do it all again.
Only I’d start the whole adventure sooner.
Kathleen Peddicord
