RETA

Real Estate Trend Alert

By Ronan McMahon

Scouting the World for Dream Homes

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Ronan McMahonDear Your Overseas Dream Home Reader,

By the time you read this, I’ll have crossed the Atlantic and landed in Mexico. From there I’ll be heading to Costa Rica before I get back to my base in Cabo.

I’ll miss my sunset strolls on the beaches of Portugal’s Silver Coast but I’m excited to be back in Latin America. Keep an eye out for updates from me right here in your e-letter.

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Click on the image above for a short video of one of my last Silver Coast sunset strolls of this year.

In the last few weeks here in Portugal, my wife and I have been on the hunt for a new home on the Silver Coast. After spending a few months here we’ve decided that this is where we want to set up a permanent base.

The two-bed, beachfront condo that I own in the Praia D’El Rey Golf and Beach Resort was only ever meant for part-time living. It’s not the full-time home we want now. Even though we love the condo, it’s not cut out for long-term living. We want a larger home. Space for an office, space for visiting friends and family, and as well as private outdoor space.

And so the hunt is now on for a new home…read more about how that’s going and some bargain homes I found while searching, here .

More Bargain Homes From Around the World

Boots on the ground. That is how my team and I uncovered the best real estate opportunities from around the world.

And over the past three months or so we have been making up for lost time and hitting the ground all over my international real estate beat.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that my team member Paul O’Sullivan has been pounding the streets of cities and towns all around Italy in search of bargain homes. If you missed any of his reports from the last few weeks, you’ll find them in the Your Overseas Dream Home archive.

This week, I shared a dispatch from Paul from the Apennines in Italy. He explored a town that was home to the man who turned Italy from a nation of empire builders into a nation of lovers. He literally wrote the handbook on how to seduce, deceive, and make love!

It’s a quiet, laidback historic town where life moves at a slow pace. It’s a place that’s perfect for nature lovers and outdoor sports enthusiasts with hiking and skiing nearby but you’re also only about 50 minutes from the beaches of the Adriatic.

And Paul found homes here from as little as €65,000. You can read his full report here.

And over in Mexico…

Colonial cities have a particular type of charm. And the city of Guanajuato, in Mexico’s colonial highlands, is full of it. It’s a city with a European flavor—no surprise as the architecture and layout was modeled on Spain—with a distinct Latin edge.

And if you’ve got your heart set on a colonial home in the heart of a colonial city, this is a good place to start your search. Colonial homes are utterly unique, their one-of-a-kind features inscribed in the historic register. These are pieces of art that cannot be reproduced…but they often come with high price tags.

Another of my team members, Jason, scouted Guanajuato in search of colonial homes that you could live in…but that you could also make some money from by renting out to visitors.

You can read my full report on colonial homes in Guanajuato here.

Friendly Chats About International Real Estate

I recently had a chat about all things international real estate with a good friend of mine, Joel Bowman. Joel hosts the Bonner Private Research podcast and is Bill Bonner’s editor…many of you will know that Bill founded International Living back in the late 1970s.

When I spoke to Joel he was actually in Cabo San Lucas. Joel is a bit of a nomad, like myself, and he travels where and when he pleases.

We talked about the “Zoom Town” phenomenon…traveling during the pandemic…the next big “Path of Progress” might be and more.

You can listen in to that podcast here.

Wishing you good real estate investing,

Ronan

Ronan McMahon, Real Estate Trend Alert


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Your Comments and Questions

Anna says: Good Afternoon. When I visited Costa Rica early in 2019 I noticed a development that had been started but looked abandoned. Is this the kind of opportunity that you would consider following up on when you visit Costa Rica?

Please let me know if this is a possibility.

Thanks for your insights into real estate around the world! I am really hoping for the right deal for my retirement home in Costa Rica.

Ronan says: Hi Anna. Yes, this is the type of opportunity I dig deep on all the time. Sometimes the problems are unfixable. Other times, us Real Estate Trend Alert members can use our group buying power to negotiate a killer deal thanks to the crisis situation. Sometimes I speak with investors who buy failed projects, finish them and then we come in a buy the finished units from the investors, who give us a great deal in return for a quick exit. So, absolutely…yes. When I see an abandoned project, I think opportunity.

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