What Is The Next “Guru Training” Shiny Object to Watch For This Year?
Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes
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What Is The Next “Guru Training” Shiny Object to Watch For This Year?
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Don KonipolBusiness Member
Investor · The Woodlands TX / Avon, CT · Member since 2009 · 6k+ posts · 10k+ votesQuote from @Chris Seveney:
If you look at prior years, the pattern is pretty clear.
1. Subject-to was repackaged as new, while the real risks around due-on-sale, insurance, and long-term liability were rarely emphasized, also highlighted as "creative finance".
2. Short-term rental arbitrage was sold as controlling assets with no capital, until regulation, lease enforcement, and seasonality showed up, especially during covid.
3.Wholesaling on the MLS promised volume over skill, as quick dollars.
None of these were new strategies. They were timing plays, marketed hardest to rookies about "anyone can do this with no money"
What will it be this year. My guess: this year’s version will likely be the same strategies with a new wrapper: AI-powered real estate investing.
Expect claims around AI finding deals, underwriting instantly, or replacing experience with automation. Tools can improve efficiency, but they do not change risk, capital costs, or market cycles. Bad assumptions move faster with software.
The constant is that real estate rewards discipline, capital structure, and downside management. Shiny objects tend to reward marketing skill instead.
If a training avoids discussing what happens when a deal underperforms, that is usually the real signal to avoid.
What’s really interesting is that the basics of all these “strategies” were being taught by “gurus” in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s.
In 1959 William (Bill) Nickerson, a former telephone lineman who had begun investing in real estate right after World War II, wrote and had published a book “How I turned $5,000 into $1,000,000 by Investing in Real Estate in my Spare Time. The book was based on Nickerson personal investing, starting with a duplex in poor shape, using his own labor and negotiating skills to move the property from C status to B, and either buying the next property or exchanging for a larger property. This was all residential real estate. Nickerson, shortly followed by George Brockl, a real estate broker out of Wisconsin, were the first to suggest that investing in real estate, outside of a personal residence, was possible for the average person.
whatever the “next new thing” taught by an actor/personality disguised as a real estate investor is, it will follow the “tried and true” formula when it hits Bigger Pockets
1. Someone with 2 posts will post about how “awesome” the guru program is, and ask a question that they hope will lead to them “signing people up “ so they can collect referral fees from the guru
2. Experienced BP posters will answer questioning the viability of the strategy, the experience of the guru, and the outrageous cost of the program
3. The OP will go on the attack, using personal insults, challenges to responders “manhood”, implication of bias, and attempts to “control the conversation” in response to information/opinions he doesn’t want to hear.
4. James Wise will call the OP an idiot; post about the subject guru’s past legal problems, and in general incite the OP into insanity.
5. Jay Hendricks will tell us that the subject guru strategy is illegal in Washington and Oregon, and requires a real estate broker license in California.
6, Chris Seveney will attempt to respond on a professional level, avoiding any personal issues, personal bias, or negative information in general. This will actually incite the OP even more, convinced Chris is doing this just to “mock” him, and despite Chris’ effort at professionalism, the OP will attack Chris personally and just as vehemently as he does with everyone else.
7. Stuart Udis will offer a learned and researched legal opinion of the legal compliance of the subject strategy, which the OP will, despite his entire legal education consisting of watching reruns of Law and Order, declare to be totally stupid and incorrect based on the “if that were true I’d be in jail” Hilary Clinton theory of legal liability.
8. 3 new posters with a total of 2 previous posts total will post about how adherence to the Guru’s teachings changed their life.
82 Replies
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
I'm originally bicultural (no connection to Spain) and then I've had the chance to live in multiple countries and continents and do work across the world with people from all sorts of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. One thing I've learned is to be very cautious when talking about such topics. I don't know if it has anything to do with what you refer as lazy but, when I ask Americans living in Europe what's the main difference between the US and Europe, they invariably reply that the US is more about money and Europe is more about quality of life.
Yes, it's not new that some American retirees who have a sense of adventure or want to get their dollars stretched further have moved overseas but what's happening today is totally different in size. For example, between 2017 and 2024, the number of Americans moving to Portugal has grown by 626%. The main force is the wealthy people, who have the choice to leave wherever they want pack their bags and leave. The reason they give me correspond to what I can read in the news: they do it for lifestyle and personal safety. Nothing to do with the euro exchange rate against the dollar, which fluctuates anyway. Then, you have the lower end of the wealth spectrum who moves to have a better lifestyle too, including a lower cost of living.I was having lunch yesterday with a very switched on real estate professional in the Costa del Sol. Like others, he told me that there's a huge amount of US money getting invested in the local real estate. They've never seen anything like this. And that's not only lifestyle. It's due in part because, real estate is booming here and also because the smart money understands that US real estate isn't the great investment it used to be given the the artificially low interest rate party in the US is now over while, in Spain, interest rates are structurally low.
I never worked for any Spanish banks. Banco Santander and BBVA used to be clients (bank lend between themselves and it's big business). I loved doing business with them; they are real pros. By the way, Banco Santander is recognized as one of the best banks in the world and widely acclaimed CEO Ana Botin has worked very hard to get there.
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
@Remington Lyman I’d tend to agree with what you wrote.
I’m terms of property purchases for you, I’d do it in opposite order because:
1- You’ll have to pay cash in Central and South America but you can get a 70% mortgage at an interest rate that could be down to below 3%.
2- Property prices are likely going to appreciate much more in Spain so you’re going to miss on a huge amount of leveraged appreciation and you’ll going to have to pay much more
- 9moRemington LymanBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 6k+ posts · 7k+ votes
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
@Remington Lyman I’d tend to agree with what you wrote.
I’m terms of property purchases for you, I’d do it in opposite order because:
1- You’ll have to pay cash in Central and South America but you can get a 70% mortgage at an interest rate that could be down to below 3%.
2- Property prices are likely going to appreciate much more in Spain so you’re going to miss on a huge amount of leveraged appreciation and you’ll going to have to pay much more
1- You’ll have to pay cash in Central and South America but you can get a 70% mortgage at an interest rate that could be down to below 3%.
This does not make any sense to me. If I get a mortgage then why do I need to pay cash?
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
- 9moRemington LymanBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 6k+ posts · 7k+ votes
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
It seems that the very limited research I did (60 seconds) you can get a mortgage in Columbia - Property Investment in Colombia: Foreigner’s Guide (2025)
Seems like a similar process I have worked through with foreigners buying in the US
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Remington Lyman:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
It seems that the very limited research I did (60 seconds) you can get a mortgage in Columbia - Property Investment in Colombia: Foreigner’s Guide (2025)
Seems like a similar process I have worked through with foreigners buying in the US
There are a lot of untrustworthy sources online and that one contains a lot of information that, put in the right context, is either inaccurate or misleading. What they wrote is pure theory and makes no sense whatsoever. What they should have written/added is the following:
The general rule is that banks only give mortgage to resident of their countries but there are exceptions and US banks granting mortgages to some foreigners under certain conditions is one of them. Americans can get mortgages in certain countries, which gives them access to the best mortgages in the world in countries like Spain and Portugal. But you can forget about Colombia.
Getting a mortgage in Colombia as a foreigner is extremely hard. You'd likely have to:
1. Be a resident with a valid visa
2. You'd need a local credit history
3. You'd need to earn local income to qualify
and even then it's hard.Now, assume that you hypothetically would qualify, interest rates in Colombia are between 10 and 17%! As a foreigner, you'd likely pay the top. That makes no economical sense whatsoever. Can you imagine how expensive that cheap property would become?
- 9moRemington LymanBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 6k+ posts · 7k+ votes
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Remington Lyman:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
It seems that the very limited research I did (60 seconds) you can get a mortgage in Columbia - Property Investment in Colombia: Foreigner’s Guide (2025)
Seems like a similar process I have worked through with foreigners buying in the US
There are a lot of untrustworthy sources online and that one contains a lot of information that, put in the right context, is either inaccurate or misleading. What they wrote is pure theory and makes no sense whatsoever. What they should have written/added is the following:
The general rule is that banks only give mortgage to resident of their countries but there are exceptions and US banks granting mortgages to some foreigners under certain conditions is one of them. Americans can get mortgages in certain countries, which gives them access to the best mortgages in the world in countries like Spain and Portugal. But you can forget about Colombia.
Getting a mortgage in Colombia as a foreigner is extremely hard. You'd likely have to:
1. Be a resident with a valid visa
2. You'd need a local credit history
3. You'd need to earn local income to qualify.Now, assume that you hypothetically would qualify, interest rate in Colombia are between 10 and 17%! As a foreigner, you'd likely pay the top. That makes no economical sense whatsoever. Can you imagine how expensive the property would be.
I guess I will just have to keep renting from the airbnbs then!
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Remington Lyman:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Remington Lyman:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
It seems that the very limited research I did (60 seconds) you can get a mortgage in Columbia - Property Investment in Colombia: Foreigner’s Guide (2025)
Seems like a similar process I have worked through with foreigners buying in the US
There are a lot of untrustworthy sources online and that one contains a lot of information that, put in the right context, is either inaccurate or misleading. What they wrote is pure theory and makes no sense whatsoever. What they should have written/added is the following:
The general rule is that banks only give mortgage to resident of their countries but there are exceptions and US banks granting mortgages to some foreigners under certain conditions is one of them. Americans can get mortgages in certain countries, which gives them access to the best mortgages in the world in countries like Spain and Portugal. But you can forget about Colombia.
Getting a mortgage in Colombia as a foreigner is extremely hard. You'd likely have to:
1. Be a resident with a valid visa
2. You'd need a local credit history
3. You'd need to earn local income to qualify.Now, assume that you hypothetically would qualify, interest rate in Colombia are between 10 and 17%! As a foreigner, you'd likely pay the top. That makes no economical sense whatsoever. Can you imagine how expensive the property would be.
I guess I will just have to keep renting from the airbnbs then!
Well not necessarily. With the right property in the right location that you'd presumably rent most of the time when you're not there, you could at the very least cover your costs and possibly even have a higher cash-on-cash return than you can get with a mortgage at home.
- you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
Are there banks in Spain that would lend to US citizens or would US citizens have to find a US bank that would lend in Spain? - 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Joe S.:
you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
Are there banks in Spain that would lend to US citizens or would US citizens have to find a US bank that would lend in Spain?Forget cross-border lending. No US bank will lend in Spain. Most Spanish banks, especially the larger ones, will lend to US citizens. There are also some non-bank lenders. Depending on what you want to buy where and your (financial) situation, some will have better terms and conditions than others. Some might be more conservative with the LTV but the interest rate will be similar.
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Joe S.:
you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
Are there banks in Spain that would lend to US citizens or would US citizens have to find a US bank that would lend in Spain?Forget cross-border lending. No US bank will lend in Spain. Most Spanish banks, especially the larger ones, will lend to US citizens. There are also some non-bank lenders. Depending on what you want to buy where and your (financial) situation, some will have better terms and conditions than others. Some might be more conservative with the LTV but the interest rate will be similar.
Most Spanish banks, especially the larger ones, will lend to US citizens
What kind of hoops will US citizens have to jump through?
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Joe S.:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Joe S.:
you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Sorry I meant to write that you'd have to pay cash in Central and South America while you could get a 70% LTV mortgage in Spain at a very low interest rate, which is one of the reasons why so many Americans are buying in Spain.
Are there banks in Spain that would lend to US citizens or would US citizens have to find a US bank that would lend in Spain?Forget cross-border lending. No US bank will lend in Spain. Most Spanish banks, especially the larger ones, will lend to US citizens. There are also some non-bank lenders. Depending on what you want to buy where and your (financial) situation, some will have better terms and conditions than others. Some might be more conservative with the LTV but the interest rate will be similar.
Most Spanish banks, especially the larger ones, will lend to US citizens
What kind of hoops will US citizens have to jump through?
They don't discriminate but you'll typically get maxed at 70% LTV instead of 80%, you could pay a slightly higher interest rate, which will still be super low and they might be a bit more conservative in their underwriting. The main thing is to satisfy their DTI ratio. If you're high net worth, you could get the red carpet treatment if you bring some money over and other things can be done.
- Real Estate Broker · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2011 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes9mo
@Chris Seveney with the administrations focus on home ownership and "making homes affordable again" for 2026, I'd say that's telegraphing a building boom.
With a building boom, whichever way it's facilitated, I see that realm being the next guru-boom. My spiddy-sense says something in the land sphere, given the lower $-outlay and more fertile to sell hopeium dreams of getting something under contract for next to nothing (Purchase Options) and selling for BIG profits (some iteration of how to just work the paperwork, and not actual investment to make the land more valuable, which can get spendy).
ai will be a play for sure, but selling dreams of "you too can be the next bazillionaire real estate developer..... with no $, credit or intelligence at all...." seems a bit more tangible and relatable for those chasing rainbows. They have seen developments, feel someone is making millions on each deal, and would want the "secret" of how to get-in......
@Chris Seveney my local REIA just announced ticket sales to a master class on creative finance with a prolific wholesaler. Reading further it looks like primarily subject to and lease options.
- Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes9mo
Quote from @Jon K.:
@Chris Seveney my local REIA just announced ticket sales to a master class on creative finance with a prolific wholesaler. Reading further it looks like primarily subject to and lease options.
I would be curious to ask that individual how many students have paid for their training and do they keep a list of how many properties people closed subto or lease option? My guess is more than 50% never closed a deal and 95% never closed more than 1 deal. The number of subto and lease options deals available to people are so small. Of course they will also tell you how easy it is and how you can retire in 3 years.
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- 9moShiloh LundahlPro MemberRental Property Investor · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
@Chris Seveney I share with you one that will have an emotional charge for some people. It's the guru who teaches other people to be gurus. I'm part of that group.
@Mike Lambert I have had a few friends and family members move to Portugal, Spain and France from the US in the past few years. However once they found out about the wealth taxes in these countries that heavily tax all of your global assets not just the property you buy there, they all abruptly left and cancelled their plans of becoming long-term residents. I could see taxing people to death with wealth taxes being a limit to the growth potential of these markets.
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Steve K.:
@Mike Lambert I have had a few friends and family members move to Portugal, Spain and France from the US in the past few years. However once they found out about the wealth taxes in these countries that heavily tax all of your global assets not just the property you buy there, they all abruptly left and cancelled their plans of becoming long-term residents. I could see taxing people to death with wealth taxes being a limit to the growth potential of these markets.
I don't buy that kind of argument for a second. With all due respect, I firstly don't understand why your friends wouldn't have checked something like that before moving. Then, the question is whether they've been properly advised if they did. The majority of people who do this kind of move tend to actually be in the higher tax brackets both in the US and Europe so they have access to the proper info (as everybody does with a bit of research these days) and the right professionals when needed. Not that many Americans would move and bring their money with them for some if that was such an issue. And anyway, a huge proportion of Americans who buy there don't necessarily move there. They make investments and/or buy vacation homes and then only get taxed on the real estate (minimal compared to the US) and the income generated by the real estate. That's it so, no, I don't see taxes as an issue.
Moreover, one of the things I learned a long time ago not to make investment decisions based (solely) on taxation because the more taxes I pay, the more profit I get. In the US, you borrow at a very high interest rate and you have little appreciation and cash flow. In Spain, you can borrow as low as sub 3%, you can get very high appreciation and cash flow as well. I don't know about you but I rather get that and pay higher taxes, if that was the price. And then, as an American, you get diversification in terms of geography and currency. What more can you ask? Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Steve K.:
@Mike Lambert I have had a few friends and family members move to Portugal, Spain and France from the US in the past few years. However once they found out about the wealth taxes in these countries that heavily tax all of your global assets not just the property you buy there, they all abruptly left and cancelled their plans of becoming long-term residents. I could see taxing people to death with wealth taxes being a limit to the growth potential of these markets.
I don't buy that kind of argument for a second. With all due respect, I firstly don't understand why your friends wouldn't have checked something like that before moving. Then, the question is whether they've been properly advised if they did. The majority of people who do this kind of move tend to actually be in the higher tax brackets both in the US and Europe so they have access to the proper info (as everybody does with a bit of research these days) and the right professionals when needed. Not that many Americans would move and bring their money with them for some if that was such an issue. And anyway, a huge proportion of Americans who buy there don't necessarily move there. They make investments and/or buy vacation homes and then only get taxed on the real estate (minimal compared to the US) and the income generated by the real estate. That's it so, no, I don't see taxes as an issue.
Moreover, one of the things I learned a long time ago not to make investment decisions based (solely) on taxation because the more taxes I pay, the more profit I get. In the US, you borrow at a very high interest rate and you have little appreciation and cash flow. In Spain, you can borrow as low as sub 3%, you can get very high appreciation and cash flow as well. I don't know about you but I rather get that and pay higher taxes, if that was the price. And then, as an American, you get diversification in terms of geography and currency. What more can you ask?The problem that these folks I know ran into was that once these governments found out they were spending a certain amount of time living there, they started getting into needing to apply for residency etc. in order to stay legally. These governments started asking about all of the assets that they had and wanted to tax them on not only their property there overseas but also all of their assets back home even real estate and stocks owned back in the states, and the percentage was quite large. It didn't matter if they brought their money with them or not because they tax you on all of your global assets. That is absolutely a huge issue and a deal-breaker for certain people with high net worth who aren't used to being taxed like that. You're correct that they should have looked into this piece earlier but they didn't because it was basically a trial period based on lifestyle choices moreso than investing, which ended up being a long enough time period living there that the tax situation came into play and when they found out how they would be taxed in these countries, they got out of there promptly.
- Real Estate Broker · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2011 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes9mo
Quote from @Steve K.:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Steve K.:
@Mike Lambert I have had a few friends and family members move to Portugal, Spain and France from the US in the past few years. However once they found out about the wealth taxes in these countries that heavily tax all of your global assets not just the property you buy there, they all abruptly left and cancelled their plans of becoming long-term residents. I could see taxing people to death with wealth taxes being a limit to the growth potential of these markets.
I don't buy that kind of argument for a second. With all due respect, I firstly don't understand why your friends wouldn't have checked something like that before moving. Then, the question is whether they've been properly advised if they did. The majority of people who do this kind of move tend to actually be in the higher tax brackets both in the US and Europe so they have access to the proper info (as everybody does with a bit of research these days) and the right professionals when needed. Not that many Americans would move and bring their money with them for some if that was such an issue. And anyway, a huge proportion of Americans who buy there don't necessarily move there. They make investments and/or buy vacation homes and then only get taxed on the real estate (minimal compared to the US) and the income generated by the real estate. That's it so, no, I don't see taxes as an issue.
Moreover, one of the things I learned a long time ago not to make investment decisions based (solely) on taxation because the more taxes I pay, the more profit I get. In the US, you borrow at a very high interest rate and you have little appreciation and cash flow. In Spain, you can borrow as low as sub 3%, you can get very high appreciation and cash flow as well. I don't know about you but I rather get that and pay higher taxes, if that was the price. And then, as an American, you get diversification in terms of geography and currency. What more can you ask?The problem that these folks I know ran into was that once these governments found out they were spending a certain amount of time living there, they started getting into needing to apply for residency etc. in order to stay legally. These governments started asking about all of the assets that they had and wanted to tax them on not only their property there overseas but also all of their assets back home even real estate and stocks owned back in the states, and the percentage was quite large. It didn't matter if they brought their money with them or not because they tax you on all of your global assets. That is absolutely a huge issue and a deal-breaker for certain people with high net worth who aren't used to being taxed like that. You're correct that they should have looked into this piece earlier but they didn't because it was basically a trial period based on lifestyle choices moreso than investing, which ended up being a long enough time period living there that the tax situation came into play and when they found out how they would be taxed in these countries, they got out of there promptly.
I have to agree this sounds shockingly ignorant too a point of hard to believe.
As an international person, that's top 3 of the to-do's when exploring an area for potential investment; getting to know the legal and tax ramifications inside and out.
And many of the countries inviting such foreign investment, have a slew of resources readily available to advise and inform of the in's and out's, for example Mauritius. So it's not even difficult to find the info or someone in the know, it's readily presented free of charge.
It seems exceptionally odd to me that a person of financial capacity to do such, would be so nonchalant on such basic fundamentals. Maybe I and circles I've been in are just different, who knows, but these are top-line questions I have when I do my boots-on phase of things.
- 9moMike LambertPro MemberInvestor · The Americas and Europe · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Quote from @Steve K.:
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Quote from @Steve K.:
@Mike Lambert I have had a few friends and family members move to Portugal, Spain and France from the US in the past few years. However once they found out about the wealth taxes in these countries that heavily tax all of your global assets not just the property you buy there, they all abruptly left and cancelled their plans of becoming long-term residents. I could see taxing people to death with wealth taxes being a limit to the growth potential of these markets.
I don't buy that kind of argument for a second. With all due respect, I firstly don't understand why your friends wouldn't have checked something like that before moving. Then, the question is whether they've been properly advised if they did. The majority of people who do this kind of move tend to actually be in the higher tax brackets both in the US and Europe so they have access to the proper info (as everybody does with a bit of research these days) and the right professionals when needed. Not that many Americans would move and bring their money with them for some if that was such an issue. And anyway, a huge proportion of Americans who buy there don't necessarily move there. They make investments and/or buy vacation homes and then only get taxed on the real estate (minimal compared to the US) and the income generated by the real estate. That's it so, no, I don't see taxes as an issue.
Moreover, one of the things I learned a long time ago not to make investment decisions based (solely) on taxation because the more taxes I pay, the more profit I get. In the US, you borrow at a very high interest rate and you have little appreciation and cash flow. In Spain, you can borrow as low as sub 3%, you can get very high appreciation and cash flow as well. I don't know about you but I rather get that and pay higher taxes, if that was the price. And then, as an American, you get diversification in terms of geography and currency. What more can you ask?The problem that these folks I know ran into was that once these governments found out they were spending a certain amount of time living there, they started getting into needing to apply for residency etc. in order to stay legally. These governments started asking about all of the assets that they had and wanted to tax them on not only their property there overseas but also all of their assets back home even real estate and stocks owned back in the states, and the percentage was quite large. It didn't matter if they brought their money with them or not because they tax you on all of your global assets. That is absolutely a huge issue and a deal-breaker for certain people with high net worth who aren't used to being taxed like that. You're correct that they should have looked into this piece earlier but they didn't because it was basically a trial period based on lifestyle choices moreso than investing, which ended up being a long enough time period living there that the tax situation came into play and when they found out how they would be taxed in these countries, they got out of there promptly.
I don't understand what their issue was. If they stayed long enough that they needed to legalize their status, it means that they were de facto residing there. So they were residents and tax residents there for all intents and purposes and it was just fair that they paid the same taxes as all other residents in the same economic conditions. All countries in the world except tax havens tax their residents on their worldwide income. I don't think anybody thinks that Spain is a tax haven. It isn't and nor is the United States, who also taxes its residents, citizens or not, on their worldwide income, as you know better than me. Moreover, the US and Eritrea are the only two countries that taxes their citizens on the basis of their nationality, not their residence (so tax havens are actually useless to Americans, unless they cheat).
This has nothing to do with Spain and is actually their problem. They might be thinking something like "We're already taxed by the US on our worldwide income so why should Spain do the same?". Logically and, everywhere in the world (again except the US and Eritrea), it's the country where you reside that has priority and taxes you on your worldwide income. Mind you, you might avoid being double taxed by virtue of the tax treaty between the US ad Spain for the avoidance of double taxation, assuming that there is one, which I imagine would be the case (basically you'd credit Spanish taxes against the relevant US taxes). I suppose that's why some Americans give up their US citizenship.
By the way, even if the US wouldn't tax non-resident Americans, those who move to Spain would likely pay more taxes because the tax rates are typically higher, especially for wealthy people. Of course, the overall majority knows it and they still move. Why? They can afford it and, in their eyes, it's a small price to pay for a better lifestyle and better (physical) security. And, more importantly even, the cost of living in Spain is significantly lower so they might still be better off financially when moving. Of course, to understand all of this, you need to do your homework, especially before taking such important life-changing decisions.
Finally, regardless of the explanations I gave, the statistics don't lie and my large anecdotal evidence doesn't either. People move and in still greater numbers so, again, I don't buy that argumentation, which is likely based on isolated cases.
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