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      Super Cheap

      • Chitré, Panama
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      • Phuket, Thailand
      • Dumaguete, The Philippines

      Cheap

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

      Affordable

      • Valencia, Spain
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      • Las Terrenas, The DR
      • Pisa, Italy
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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

        Global Living

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

        Making Money

        • International Real Estate
        • Banking
        • Employment
        • Investing

        Follow Us:

        • Meet Our Experts
      • Real Estate

        Join our Weekly Newsletter
        Overseas Property Alert

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive expert insights on the best international real estate investment opportunities.






          We Value Your Privacy! We will not share your email address with anyone else, period.

          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

          Upcoming Events

          • Explore Our Events Site

          International Property Summit

          Caribbean Virtual Conference

          Live and Invest In Spain Conference

          PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

          June 18-20, 2025

          VIRTUAL

          July 17-19, 2025

          Valencia, Spain

          Sep. 17-19, 2025

          LEARN MORE
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          • MORE EVENTS

          Contact Our Events Team

          Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
          1 (888) 627 8834
          From Outside North America:
          1 (443) 599 1221
          Working Hours
          Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

          Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

        • Store

          Unlock The World

          • Access Your Library

          Overseas Havens Reports

          • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

          Conference Kits

          • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

          Lahardan Books

          • Titles on living and investing around the world
          • Explore Our Store
          Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

          Services

          overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
          The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
          Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

          Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

        • My Library
        Live and Invest Overseas
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          Home Lifestyle

          A Trip Down Memory Lane

          Real Estate Agents In Their Underwear… And Other Risks Of Shopping For Property Overseas

          by Kathleen Peddicord
          Mar 27, 2024
          in Lifestyle, Retirement, Travel
          0 0
          Aerial view of Playa Langosta, in Costa Rica

          AdobeStock/ErlenJose

          This week, as we celebrate Live And Invest Overseas’ 16th anniversary, we’ve been taking a stroll down memory lane, remembering who we are and where we’ve come from.

          Thinking about stories from my getting-started years, I can’t resist sharing a couple…

          I hosted the first conference of my career more than 30 years ago in Costa Rica.

          It was a tour, too. The group spent a few days in San José and then a few days on the coast at Guanacaste.

          My co-hostess for the event was a friend and colleague at the time named Josianne.

          Our first morning at the hotel in Guanacaste, Josianne and I woke early and walked over to the hotel’s open-air dining room on the beach. The door to the kitchen behind it was locked. Looking through the windows, we could see inside. The tiny kitchen was dark and empty. Where was the staff? The cook? Our group would be arriving for breakfast anytime.

          At this time on this coast, options—for everything, including dining—were limited. Our group needed a morning meal, and there was nowhere other than the dining room of the hotel where we were staying for them to get one.

          Josianne and I walked back to the hotel lobby. The young girl at the front desk didn’t know where the kitchen staff was or why they were late showing up to work. She did, though, have a key to the kitchen.

          By now, a couple of our tour-goers had found their way to the dining room. They had seated themselves and were looking a bit annoyed. No wait staff in sight, and the air was hot and still. The control for the ceiling fans was inside the locked kitchen.

          Making Do With What We Had

          Josianne and I unlocked the kitchen door, turned on the lights and the ceiling fans, and took inventory. We had eggs, butter, bread, and orange juice. There were tea bags but no coffee… sugar but no cream… pepper but no salt.

          “Do you want to cook or serve?” Josianne asked.

          “I’ll serve,” I replied, reaching for a towel to tie around my waist as an apron and a pitcher to fill with water.

          By now the dining room was full, and our tour-goers were obviously unhappy.

          I set the tables as quick as I could with the mismatched china we found in the kitchen cabinet, poured water all around, and took orders (fried versus scrambled), while Josianne fired up the gas stove.

          We served eggs, toast, juice, and tea that morning to our 40 guests and made it out the door in time to meet the bus scheduled to take us on our first property-viewing appointment of the day.

          If you were among the 40 participants at that long-ago event, thank you… and I’m sorry. You’re a good sport.

          Start Your New Life Today, Overseas






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            The Adventures Of The Belize Conference

            Palm tree and thatched roof hut on beach in Placencia, Belize
            Alamy/Peter Donaldson

            I hosted the second conference of my career a year later in Belize. Again, Josianne was my cohort.

            Infrastructure isn’t Belize’s strong suit, even today. But 30 years ago this was a seriously undeveloped, unappointed little country. After two days of meetings in Belize City, we wanted to take the group south along the coast to look at beachfront lots and houses for sale. We needed a bus to transport the 50 of us.

            The bus we’d organized in advance was promised to be “modern” (that was the actual description on the invoice). The bus that showed up outside the Fort George Hotel to collect us that morning was an old U.S. school bus with broken windows, torn seats, and balding tires.

            The best thing that could be said about the bus was that it was there, on the scene, as expected, at 8 o’clock that morning. The same was not true for the real estate agent who was to act as our tour guide for the day. The guy finally showed up an hour-and-a-half late and, Josianne and I realized quickly, drunk.

            We knew Belize well enough to know that substitutions were not an option. The bus was the bus and the agent was the agent. We either went off with them for the day or we canceled the day.

            We loaded the group and set off.

            The road we traveled was dirt (today it’s paved). As the bus had no air conditioning, we opened the windows for ventilation. With the windows open, the bus filled with dust from the road. With the windows closed, temperatures became unbearable. So we pushed the windows down when the air became stiflingly hot and back up when the air became stiflingly dusty.

            Josianne and I reviewed an itinerary for the day with our agent guide, who we positioned in the front seat so he could give instructions to the driver. Then we wandered up and down the aisle chatting with our tour-goers, trying to keep spirits up in spite of the transportation discomforts.

            The things I didn’t know back then about managing conferences and leading tours could have filled an encyclopedia. One of the things I didn’t know but have learned since, for example, is that you don’t, at any time, hand over control of the group to a drunk real estate agent.

            After an hour had passed, Josianne and I became concerned and walked up front to check in with our intoxicated friend. The guy had passed out. We shook him awake and asked how much longer until we’d arrive at our destination.

            The guy looked at us, at the driver, at his lap, out the window…

            After a few long minutes, something finally registered and the guy began shouting at the driver. We’d missed our turn, Josianne and I came to understand, which was 45 minutes back up the dusty road we’d just traveled down.

            Now what? Turn around? No. Better to continue on to our next stop. This, the agent explained, was another hour in a different direction.

            “Where can we go for refreshments?” I asked the guy. “We need to take the group somewhere they can use a bathroom and have a drink and a snack.”

            He knew a place, he said, and gave the driver new instructions. About 20 minutes later, we pulled up to a roadside shack alongside a river. We unloaded the bus. Our group used the facilities and ordered bottles of Coke and water, then stood in the shade of a mango tree. The morning had been a bust, but the drinks and the shady respite cooled and calmed everyone down.

            Onward.

            But where was the real estate agent? He wasn’t in the shop. Our male tour-goers assured us he wasn’t in the bathroom.

            Josianne and I stood, with the group, at the door to the bus trying to figure out what we’d do if we’d lost our guide altogether.

            Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy walking toward us. He was stripped down to his underpants and dripping wet. He’d gone for a swim in the river.

            The agent, carrying his clothes, climbed back on the bus and took his seat. Josianne and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and followed our guide back inside the vehicle, along with the rest of the group.

            By the time we arrived at our next destination, the guy had put his pants back on and sobered up enough to explain to us all what we were looking at. We toured for several more hours that day then returned late, dusty, and exhausted to our hotel in Belize City.

            Josianne and I went on to lead tours and conferences together for several years, in Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, and Argentina.

            I have more stories from those early years. Ask me about them next time you see me.

            Some are best told over a cold rum and Coke while watching the sunset…

            Until next time,
            Kathleen Peddicord
            Kathleen Peddicord
            Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter

            Tags: 'Argentina''Belize'belize citycosta ricaGuanacasteKathleen PeddicordLive abroadlive and invest overseas conferenceMexico'Move abroad
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            Kathleen Peddicord

            Kathleen Peddicord

            Kathleen Peddicord has reported on opportunities for Americans to live, retire, and do business overseas for 40 years. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 24, established businesses in 7, renovated and built properties in 6, and educated her children in 5.

            Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets from the east coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland, then to Paris, France, and finally to Panama City, Panama, where she has based her Live And Invest Overseas business. Peddicord and her husband, Lief Simon, now divide their time between Panama and Paris.

            Peddicord was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. She opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Waterford, Ireland; Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France. Peddicord launched Live And Invest Overseas group in 2008 and has built it into a successful multimillion-dollar business. Today, she shares her firsthand experience of expat life with more than 500,000 readers of her publications, including Overseas Opportunity Letter and Overseas Living Letter.

            Kathleen has been featured often in The New York Times, MSNBC, AARP, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and more and writes monthly about expat matters, international real estate, and offshore diversification for Forbes and U.S. News.

            Kathleen has written several books including the memoirs “At Home In Ireland” and “At Home At Los Islotes” and her latest title “At Home Abroad,” all published by Lahardan Books. Her best-selling "How To Retire Overseas: Everything You Need To Know To Live Well (For Less) Abroad” was published by Penguin Random House in 2018 and her “Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)” was published by Wiley in August 2020.

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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

                  VISIT SITE

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                  Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

                  READ MORE

                  Explore Our Latest Posts

                   

                  Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

                  EXPLORE

                  Conferences

                  INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY SUMMIT

                  PANAMA CITY, PANAMA June 18-20, 2025
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                  CARIBBEAN VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

                  VIRTUAL July 17-19, 2025
                  LEARN MORE
                  PRE-REGISTER

                  Live and Invest In Spain Conference

                  Valencia, Spain Sep. 17-19, 2025
                  LEARN MORE
                  PRE-REGISTER
                  MORE EVENTS

                  Contact Our Events Team:

                  Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
                  1 (888) 627 8834

                  From Outside North America:
                  1 (443) 599 1221

                  Working Hours
                  Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

                  Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

                  Store

                  Overseas Havens Reports

                  • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

                  Conference Kits

                  • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

                  Lahardan Books

                  • Titles on living and investing around the world

                  Services

                  • Overseas Living Letter: Affordable Retirement Guidance
                  • The Simon Letter: Wealth Protection Insights
                  • Global Property Advisor: Global Investment Opportunitites
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                  THE 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE IN 2025

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