Friday, December 10, 2021
Dear Your Overseas Dream Home Reader,
It happened fast. I was clinging to the dune buggy, then pow! I was catapulting through the air…
In the years since my narrow escape from death on the beaches of Northeast Brazil I’ve come to realize just how dangerous dune buggies can be…
Especially when driven by a lunatic Dutch porn mogul.
I’ve learned a whole lot more than this besides…
I’ll explain in just a moment, first…
As I’ve been telling you this week, today will be the last Your Overseas Dream Home e-letter. It’s nothing personal. I’m just ending the e-letter to focus on other things.
But, if you’ve been enjoying what I’ve been sending you in this e-letter, then fear not. This doesn’t have to be goodbye.
If you still want to follow my scouting adventures around the world, and learn about the amazing real estate opportunities I find, you can do that in International Living’s Dream Home Letter (all the details for getting your hands on it is here).
The primary goal of this daily e-letter is to help you pinpoint affordable properties you can actually buy right now in the best countries around the world for living, retiring, and investing in overseas real estate…like Mexico, Portugal, Costa Rica and more…
(In case you’re not familiar with International Living, they have been the number 1 authority on living, retiring, and investing overseas for over 40 years. I’ve been a part of the IL family, contributing regularly to their publications and attending their events, for almost 20 years…more on that below).
But what has any of this to do with dune buggies and porn moguls?
I’ve been living the International Living life for nearly two decades now. It’s proved to be every bit the adventure I went looking for…
On a wintery morning in 2003 I walked into an office in Waterford City in southern Ireland to interview for a job with a company I knew nothing about.
It was called International Living and my life was about to change…
I had a degree in Finance. My resumé boasted entrepreneurial roles in successful tech start-ups. The traditional path for me was to follow friends on various routes to high-flying corporate careers in London, New York and elsewhere.
But I didn’t want to.
I was already investing in real estate and I had the travel bug bad. From a very young age the only subjects in school that fascinated me were economics and geography. I remember flicking through the pages of an atlas, landing on strange and fascinating countries, Chile… Nepal…New Zealand…and wondering what it was like living there.
So, when I saw an ad for an international real estate scout, I jumped at it…
I was intrigued by the idea of international travel and even then, I felt strongly that when you look everywhere, there is always opportunity somewhere.
Now after nearly two decades of traveling the world looking for opportunity as a real estate scout, I can confirm it. In fact, there has never been a better time to look beyond your home borders.
It’s certainly worked out for me.
Today I own property in six countries, I have residence or citizenship in five. I spend my time traveling between my international bases. I never have to endure cold, or heat…I time my travels to make the most of perfect weather.
And these days I head up a team of scouts…you’ve already heard from them here in Your Overseas Dream Home over the few months. Each one of them is dedicated to helping you find your ideal international life and share amazing properties with you, at the best price possible (you’ll be shocked at how much just $100k buys you overseas… and how easy it is to get financing at ridiculously low rates…).
The world is packed with real estate opportunities if you know where to look, how to look, and how to act when the time is right.
Having a team enables me to bring you so much more in IL’s Dream Home Letter. From bargains by a tropical beach to village homes in Europe.
I didn’t always have a team to put at your disposal. I did a lot of the “hard travel” myself in the early days.
That’s when the porn mogul nearly killed me…
On one of my early scouting assignments I found myself on the beaches of northeast Brazil.
A huge roll out of infrastructure and investment was creating incredible opportunities. The beaches here are some of the most amazing in the world.
I found real estate that doubled in value in the space of a few months and I brought those opportunities to my elite Real Estate Trend Alert group.
But, there was a challenge in those early days of my scouting career. I had to rely more heavily on a few contacts. (These days, like I say, I have an entire team of scouts working with me and a massive rolodex of established contacts.)
One of my contacts hooked me up with a Dutch guy about whom I didn’t know much. But he said he was developing some beachfront land so…let’s go take a look I thought.
The Dutch guy turned out to be a real “Flash Harry.” A go-go guy, all Boogie Nights bling. I later learned he made his money as a major player in the porn industry.
Anyhow…so we got into his high-powered dune buggy and flew off down the sand.
The beaches in this part of Brazil are backed by huge Sahara-like dunes. It’s a truly magnificent place, wildly beautiful…but hard to enjoy when the guy with you is driving like a maniac.
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Pow! The buggy flips and out we fly…mercifully saved by the soft sand landing.
Once I’d recovered from the shock, I realized we were in a spot of bother. We had no water and it was hot. And we were miles from a road.
What do you do?
You start walking. Drenched in sweat and panting we eventually made it to a road where a surprised local guy on a motorbike kindly ferried us back to town one by one…
I was back in the hotel in time for sunset cocktails on the beach. With a story to tell, even if—this time—no real estate opportunity.
My scouting has taken to me to strange places and put me in the company of some interesting people. I remember all my adventures fondly. The good, bad and scary, they have all led me to where I am today.
Living this international life has helped me create an incredible lifestyle of freedom, travel, and fun. It has delivered a lifestyle I couldn’t have dreamed of back then.
I’ve been helping you to do the same here in this e-letter…and I want to continue to do so with IL’s Dream Home Letter. It’s where my team and I will be focusing all our energies as we come into 2022.
We’ll bring you…
- Regular, real time updates on our real estate scouting trips…you’ve already had a taste of that with our recent trips to Portugal, Italy, Croatia, and Mexico. There’s much more of that to come as we head into a new year.
- The best dream home real estate opportunities we uncover from around the world, like cottages in Ireland, condos in Mexico, castles in Italy…
- The chance to get in on actionable deals from my rolodex of real estate insiders all-over the world.
- Each month you’ll also get my Dream Home Digest—a publication dedicated to the hunt for incredible real estate all over the world. Each month we deep dive in a stunning location overseas bringing you the best bargains and advice, tips, and intelligence.
This Dream Home Letter e-letter is exclusive to subscribers of the International Living magazine.
As a thank you for coming on this Your Overseas Dream Home journey with me, you can get a subscription to International Living today for just $17.
Not only will you get the IL Dream Home Letter (packed with all the overseas real estate intelligence I listed above), you’ll also receive International Living magazine each month.
It’s full of fantastic practical info on moving and living abroad from experts on the ground who have already made the move. (You’ll also find articles from me in there every month too.) All the details for subscribing are here.
You have until midnight tonight to take me up on this offer…and to continue to hear from me and my team, as we explore the world looking for the best real estate opportunities out there.
And so, for the final time from Your Overseas Dream Home…
I wish you good real estate investing. And I hope to speak to you again soon!
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Ronan McMahon, Real Estate Trend Alert
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