All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Now whatever I am about to say, you heard me right.  This will be the first Real Estate point (1) to buy in Belize.

See the picture above.  You see several Teak trees and Ramon.  It is what you expect to see in the picture, because that is what I told you.  What you don't see is:

a.  All of the trees are the "Same" tree.

b.  Ramon is 68 years old and the father of 58 kids.  Not "Grand Kids".  As I told him several times being Latin and with the name Ramon, of course he would have a lot of kids, but 58?  He is also our Mayan Priest.  I have him bless all of the major projects we do.  Do I believe in Mayan Gods? No.  Makes him know I feel he is important.  He is in charge of the Teak trees.  Which are more important to me than the house and land.  We are compadres.

When you go to any overseas place on vacation, you are going to see what "you see".  You have your Vacation eyes on.  Recommend you vacation there several times.  Get with different Realtors and see several properties.  Stay at AirBNB's similar to what you would buy.

We made about 6 trips.  Two of the trips were a week long each and we toured several areas and looked at many properties, around 50 to some degree.

Concepts:

1.  All "Expats" will go home at some point.  Divorce, cancer, heart problems, grandkids, the dream is not the dream, no retirement homes in Belize, etc.

2.  There are basically no "Buyers".  Belizeans don't have the money.  Very few Canadians, US, English will ever buy in Belize.  Don't plan to "Make" money.  Making money should not be your objective.  But hey, I'm a business guy, enjoyment and make a profit.

3.  Money is "King".  Use its power.  If they say $500,000; you say $300,000 and move on to the next property.

4.  Buy what is available and fix it, versus trying to build exactly what you want.  Building overseas is totally different than the US.  If you want a Curved Glass Shower door, you will need to custom order.  If not scheduled correctly the contractors can only build around an item for so long.  If the item gets damaged or lost, you have another lead time.  Again, the contractors have to move on.  You might end up with 2 or 3 crews working on your project.  If your doing this, do your really want to wait 2 to 3 years to build your dream house, or do you want to live here?

5.  The Most important decision as you are buying a building or location is the "Caretaker".  Do not buy a place unless it is a Gated Condo, unless you have the caretaker figured out.  See picture at bottom.

6.  Make sure they actually own the land.  Forget Title insurance.  Had a guy show me a place.  Told him how would we contract.  He said his Dad would have to buy it first?????

7.  Remember 1 above.  When you go looking for a property tell the realtor you want to look at the "Oldest" listings first.  It will take the prior owner about 1 to 2 years to come to the realization, there really isn't a market, but they have to go back to the US/England/Canada.  Now they are ready to bargain. Don't look at properties that have just (6 months or less) been listed.  Again, make an offer and move on to your next selection.  Our property was on the Market for 15 years.

Remember Item 5 above.  People used to live in this house.

Actually started this venture about 3 years ago.  I might get some activities out of time sequence.  Sit back and grab some popcorn.

I will chop this up into smaller segments, so each one isn't too long of a read and has a central theme.

Both Retiring and doing Self Storage, we hit the mark where we both had the funding and the time to invest overseas.  My wife has never had a specific place in mind, so got to do my choice.  Have always been interested in Aust, NZ, Brazil, India and Belize.  Have travelled to South Korea, Mexico, France, Canada, Maui and Italy. 

Decided on Belize.  Currency pegged $2BZD to $1USD (low inflation issues), Official language is English since it was a British Commonwealth, Property rights and laws are basically the same as the US since English based, 2nd/3rd world thus still Rough which I like (has flavor), 2 hour flight from Houston/Dallas connections, land is relatively inexpensive. These all play into the "type" of investment we wanted to do.

We are in Iowa where December thru March can be cold and windy.  Belize dry season (less humidity) is January thru May.  Great overlap.

Labor for a great skilled worker is about BZD $30 to $50 per day or USD $15 to $25.  Laborer is around USD $25 per day.  This is good pay for them.  Glad to have the work.  They also have an illegal migrant issue.  You could get workers for USD $3 per day to cut brush.

Local produce is relatively cheap.  Rock crab for USD $3 per pound.  Red Snapper, grouper, barracuda for USD $4 per pound.  Anything imported is really expensive.  Gas $10 per gallon.  Can of Spam might be $8.  Yep a Can of Spam can cost more than Rock Crab or Red Snapper.  I actually like Spam though.

Health care is both very inexpensive and for higher end issues, non-existent.  Most US prescription drugs can be bought over the counter from the Pharmacist.  Broken leg $50.  Cancer/heart need to fly home.

Over the course of this post will cover the following Real Estate angles.  Teak, buying property, building house, few buyers, real estate "fronts", preppers, as an Expat "you" will move back at some point, and "Yes" sometimes means "I don't know".

Below is Ramon, checking on Teak trees.  These are 11 months since transplanted, from about 10 inches tall.

@Anthony Hicks

Two posts and I’m answering both. You didn’t respond to the last, but I will still give you this one.

Go to your tax accountant and ask them about “2 out of five years”. You won’t need to pay any taxes. 

Find any bank that does apartment complexes and they can get their head around it easy.  Its about Market analysis, Occupancy and Rent up Phase.

They will be a little leery if you don't have experience in that asset class.  More so if your developing than buying.  Its not about you have the experience developing, its more about the new asset class for you.  First time out it may be better to buy a small location.  Then come right back a year later and develop.  Financially it is better to build right now, but I would still recommend buying a small existing location and developing a system.

@Mike Reynolds

Existing location should be relatively “normal”.   Since existing cash flow.  No development issues  

Developing will be harder.  How good are your estimates.  Banker likes experience.  How do you know your market?  What cash or collateral do you have?   Banker will be more hesitant.  Start small. This will make it easier for everyone. 

Texas. No zoning in the counties. This makes it easier to find a location. Really bad since competitors can move in any time. 

Day two.  Building one.  The folks are flying.  They should put on the door jambs and headers on the other side.  Ends.  Then they will put the doors in next, before they do the roof. Easier to stand above the doors to both lift/maneuver and to bolt in. Inside walls will normally go in last, so they can move easier putting on the doors and roof first.  Putting on the roof depends if its two windy.  The light weight insulation is hard to put up in the wind.

Beautiful Texas sky.

Look who pulled in the driveway.  Building manufacturer three trucks showed up at 8 am.  Rented Telehandler loader was dropped off at 9am.  Contract Erector crew of 4 showed up at 10 am and started unloading.  There will be three buildings.  Two of them were delivered for now.  Fence and gate is already in place so they can lock down the jobsite.  This is not our project.  Helping my brother get started in Self Storage.  

The building erected below is a 40 footer.  The support posts are 5 feet apart with 5 feet on each side.  Have a separate post "Day in the Life, building a Storage location" that shows all of the detail of building a location.  So won't go in detail on this location.

The three buildings should be erected in 6 weeks.

Had to pay the "delivery payment" to the trucker before they unloaded.

In the background:  Working on contracts, ordering unit numbers, order locks, set up security system, find insurance company for storage units, have one during construction already.

Bought a separate building for office and house.  Paying a contractor to assemble this, versus us doing it.

@Andy Bhuchar

Normal

We bought 8 acres for $200,000.  Appraised at $220,000.  He said he was pushing it to do that.  Told him it should appraise for $100,000 per acre.  Said he couldn’t do that

2 years later after we cleaned the land up and put a commercial building on the property the same appraiser did $120,000 per acre.  

Do improvements.  Get renters. Etc.  Then go for appraisal. 

Don’t remember the slope

Single both on the 30 and 40.  Drainage faces the sun for winter.  If snow is on the shady side it will freeze thaw freeze thaw for a week and leave sheet ice every night.  Facing the sun the roof snow will melt off in about two days and the concrete road has no ice