Weekly Wrap-Up
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Dear Your Overseas Dream Home Reader,
Welcome to your Saturday Wrap-Up!
Street music…fairy lights…gelato…tacos…and lots of art…
On Thursday night I joined a visiting contact and major developer to see the Art Walk in San José del Cabo. It’s a weekly event that runs November through June. Organized by the Gallery District Association, the idea is to draw art lovers and tourists away from the main square and into the color-filled side streets.
The town was full with artists and artisans, street performers, and bands.
Pedestrian-only streets were busy with folks spilling in and out of bars and soaking up the ambience… Restaurants seamlessly flowed into the street party…and into galleries and boutiques. It was a menagerie of colour and sound.
While the artists showcase their work, the Art Walk showcases the entire town. And it’s looking great…
In the past, I’ve often breezed past San José del Cabo to focus on Cabo San Lucas and the corridor in between.
I’m still focused on those opportunities…but San José is now also on my radar.
You can check out the street scenes here:
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My Travels in Pictures
During the week, you guys swamped my inbox with suggestions for where in the world my team and I should search for real estate opportunities.
Thank you again.
As I travel in the coming months I’ll share with you my ideas and what I find out there on the road.
If you’re a RETA member you’ll get all the deals and actionable opportunities in your RETA alerts. (If you’re not a member of RETA you’ll miss out.)
And, if you’re one of those who mentioned following my Instagram account, you’ll see the photos and videos I share there, too.
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I started sharing photos and videos from my travels on Instagram as a way to keep in touch with family and friends. Scouting trips are fast-paced affairs. The easy way to show the folks back home where I am and what I’m doing is to snap a photo on my phone and throw it into WhatsApp or Instagram.
From your emails, it appears some of you have found me on the photo-sharing service and are tuning in to keep tabs.
So I thought I’d just extend an invite to everyone…
If you have Instagram and want to check out my personal photos and videos from the road click here.
Let’s Find Your Dream Home
I love your feedback…hearing your thoughts, concerns and plans…I could read and talk about real estate all day long. (Keep it coming here. Drop me a line.)
I love real estate. I love travel. I have bought and sold property all over the world. I don’t own stocks—not a single one—nor crypto.
I put my money in real estate. I’m 100% about the search for profitable real estate. I like tangible assets I can understand. And I like traveling the world to find the best opportunities. Because, let’s face it, they are rarely down the street.
Of course, there are lots of variables, first and foremost of which is what YOU want…
For instance, you need to decide if you are purchasing as an investment or buying a second/retirement home. You need to begin at the beginning…by carefully mapping out your criteria.
This is fun, and it’s fairly easy. But more importantly, it’s the critical tool you’ll use to find the overseas real estate that’s right for you, be it a bargain dream home in Europe or a vast income-producing property portfolio.
A lot of properties I own are for pure investment…a chance to double my money. Others help me fulfil a promise I made to myself years ago.
I vowed to live a life of travel punctuated with enjoyable stays in properties I owned, doing things I loved. I swore to seek out perfect weather and a strong income from each property.
By having bases in different parts of the world, I can have exactly the lifestyle I want…and by choosing those properties carefully, I can make money from them. These properties are my bases when I’m not traveling and scouting. I apply my personal criteria…
- Perfect weather for when I want to be there—no heating nor air-con needed.
- Golf close by and accessible, affordable public courses.
- Near, or close to, the water.
- Close to an airport.
- Income producing.
- Relatively hassle free.
- Quiet and serene but with good food and a vibrant town accessible.
Here’s an email from a couple of fellow readers of Your Overseas Dream Home:
“We have been surprised at the relative affordability of some of the properties featured in your newsletters. We are interested in finding out more, but don’t know where to start. Is there a directory or website of attorneys who specialize in overseas sales, and all the factors that must be considered?
Now might not be the time for us to do this, if we do it at all, but there is no harm in becoming educated on this topic.
Also, we are not interested in joining a monthly program at this time, but if you have any books or resources that talk about both prepping as well as potential pitfalls, let us know.”
I think Pam sums things up for a lot of fellow readers here…
So okay, where do you start? Take out a pen and paper, or open up that laptop…smartphone…just something to write on.
Then start writing down your personal criteria. Weather…language…distance from home…beach, city or mountain view…just get it all down on that list.
You also need to find out what kind of investor you are. Even if you aren’t buying for investment, you should do this…
Although there are hundreds of factors that will eventually go into your final decision there are six fundamentals to help you get started on discovering what kind of investor you are:
- Your reasons for making the investment.
- Your tolerance for risk, and how much you have to invest.
- How you intend to finance the property.
- The needs of your existing portfolio.
- Your level of experience in the market.
- The level of involvement you want to have managing the property.
There’s a lot more I could say on this topic…so, how about this, send my team and I your personal criteria here. Email us your list. And then next weekend I’ll send you guys a full report on the steps to finding your overseas dream home for fun and profit. Including a detailed breakdown of how to assess what kind of investor you are.
In the meantime, this might be useful: My Roadmap to a RETA deal which is my guide to how I find and bring deals to Real Estate Trend Alert.
And if you are already a RETA member, remember you have my entire Rolodex of contacts at your fingertips right here on Realestatetrendalert.com.
My Base in Portugal
On Monday I sent you a video of the renovation progress of my new condo on Portugal’s Algarve.
I’ve bought two properties in Portugal and that’s where I’m heading in less than two weeks. My Algarve condo was a killer deal, a bank fire-sale and a serious profit play.
On this trip, I’ll be staying at my new condo on the Silver Coast north of Lisbon.
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I bought my Silver Coast condo as a personal base for the spring and early summer. But I’ll still be able to rent it when I travel during the peak summer months, which will help cover the nominal holding costs—the mortgage plus holding costs is less than what the property taxes alone would be for a beachfront condo like this in a place like California.
With this buy on the Silver Coast I applied my own personal criteria, I’m clear on what kind of investor I am (a conversative one) and what kind of investment I was making.
I’m excited to see those long, golden sandy beaches; taste the magnificent sea food; stroll idly through charming historic villages…
And I’m excited to get my condo furnished and set up as a home and a base.
For most RETA members who have bought in Portugal though, it’s still the Algarve that meets all their personal and investment criteria. In particular, one special beach town which my senior researcher, Margaret Summerfield, told you about on Tuesday.
Read Margaret’s e-letter here.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
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Ronan McMahon, Real Estate Trend Alert
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