Ecuador
I am considering gettting my feet wet with rental ownership - beach front (or nearly so) Ecuador. I have been along time subscriber to international living, and it's been a dream for a long time! Ecuador stands out, but so do Italy and France, as long as it's near the ocean. I've been to Costa Rica, and my guess is that though there are still opportunities, it's not quite the "retire comfortably on $5 a day" country it used to be.
Obviously, if my family and I are going to use this property, we'd need it to be a transient rental vs. full time -- Or perhaps I'd forego using it for a few years and just rent it out full time, then go to transient later? Just thinking out loud.
I'm a bit nervous about starting. I am leaning toward ecuador, but are there better countries -- we have a 7 year old little girl and I want to own in a safe country, obviously, and one that isn't going to be safe this year, and have revolutionaries storming the embassy 3 years from now.
So I'd love to hear some feedback on how to get started. My guess is to vacation to where we are considering owning, obviously, for starters.