I've invested in Costa Rica as I am still learning lessons every year. I would say the first thing that is important is to create a very trusted team on the ground to help you. That is the first and foremost important thing to do before investing internationally. Connecting with other investors to see what they are doing and how they are doing it and what to look out for will lesson the number of surprises and it will help adjust expectations.
I've invested in Costa Rica as I am still learning lessons every year. I would say the first thing that is important is to create a very trusted team on the ground to help you. That is the first and foremost important thing to do before investing internationally. Connecting with other investors to see what they are doing and how they are doing it and what to look out for will lesson the number of surprises and it will help adjust expectations.
How are you hedging economic risk in international real estate deals outside the US? Where did you start from and what are the lessons learnt?
Well there is so much risk, most people won't do it.
Currency risks
Political risks
Bias against foreigners risk
Eviction/payment/title/legal risks
Language risks
Low return risks
Cash only risks/no leverage
It's not to say money can't be made, it's just that there is probably so much opportunity in the US in so many different ways and places, that most people can't even start to calculate the risks or want to take them on.
I think you're looking at things upside down. If, like most Americans, your sources of income and all your assets are in the US, you are completely dependent on one government and one currency. If we learned anything during Covid, it's that this could be a big mistake and that's the risk you probably should be hedging again, precisely by adding international assets and exposure, for which you're already hedged by your US assets.
This being said, I saw another post of you in which you were talking about investing in Sub-Saharan Africa. That's very risky so you might want to hedge indeed but there are many "mainstream" markets for which hedging wouldn't be necessary, especially since some of them are less risky than the US today.
Personally, I have diversified across four categories by investing in only two asset classes. I wanted to be invested in stocks and real estate, which are my specialties in the two main asset classes. when it comes to stocks, the best markets is the US so I invest in US stocks. When it comes to real estate, the US used to be a great market when interest rates were maintained artificially low. Now that they're back to normal level, there are better opportunities overseas so I invest in real estate outside of North America.