All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

@Jeff Ashachik

Not to dash a dream, but I would stay away from Belize, unless you have straight up cash in hand.

No US bank is going to loan in Belize.  You will need to collateralize with a US located asset, if you work with a US bank.

Covid.  This is the perfect time to buy in Belize since the Airbnb business is being hammered.  About 2/3 of the homes in Placencia on the coast are for sale.  A lot of UK and Canadian owners can't go there.  Plus low level of tourist.  Do you have the Cash to ride this out and take any future Covid hits?

Where are you wanting to invest?  If San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, I would really study the infrastructure (water/sewer).

Groundskeeper or Gated Condo.  The first consideration of any property, anywhere in Belize is security for the property.  You either must have a live on site groundskeeper, or be in a Patrolled Gated Community.

Real Estate Market.  

a.  There is no market in Belize for Real Estate. Do not plan on making money buying and selling.  Realize you are talking rental/vacation.  Belizeans don't have this kind of money.  A normal person makes maybe $40 Belize a day, which is USD $20.  So your market is another foreign investor.  Not that many people out there like that.  

b.  Vacation- lets say you have $250,000 for the condo.  At say 5% interest on $250,000 whether you are paying interest on a loan, or could have invested elsewhere, that is $12,500 per year.  For $5,000 per week, I can rent the "best" bnb house on the ocean side.  If I don't like that house or Belize, I can take my $12,500 somewhere else.  Change the figures as you see fit.  Point is, I wouldn't buy a Condo for a vacation spot in Belize.  Even if BNB.

c.  BNB- very little property tax in Belize.  Example on $1,000,000 property you might pay $200 per year.  Very little other cost other than the unit itself.  What is your breakeven in rental days?  Can you sustain no rent for a year depending on Covid.  To me at this time unless you have the cash to float, this is gambling.

d.  You still want to buy.  Then.  Remember CASH is KING in Belize.  You have to be more ruthless than ever in your life.  If they say $250k, you say $150k.  If they say Seller finance, you say interest only for 2 years while riding out Covid.  If they say 25% down, you say 15% down.  If they say 5 year balloon payment, you say 10 year.  Remember their money is tied up and Covid has nailed them.  Your helping them out.  They don't bite, go to the next Condo developer.  I would be looking for a Condo that has already been sold and the owner is selling.  Normally all the furniture, golf cart, bicycles, boats, etc go with the property.  Its not worth hauling back to the US/Canada/UK.  If you buy new imported furniture expect to pay 75% or more import tax.

e.  Buy what you can adjust, not what you want.  With the above approach, your not going to buy your perfect situation, your looking for a deal.  Buy what you can adjust later.  You hate the bathroom you can adjust.  You have to have a top floor, you cant adjust later, buy it.

f.  Realtors.  Working with a realtor tell them what your looking for.  Then tell them you want to look at their oldest listings first and in that order.  For "d" above to work, the owner has to have had there property on the market for 2 years or more.  They have to come to the realization, there is no market in Belize, and they will have to reduce their price.  Don't work with a NEW seller.  They haven't come to the realization, they have to take a shave.  You need to realize that already on the backend.

Remember the first consideration is a "Groundskeeper", otherwise your house will get stolen.  The first thing we did was to build a Groundskeeper's house, not in the picture.  This property which is 50 acres was on the market for 15 years.  They reduced the price by about half, then a year later, we offered about half of that.  The last thing we want is a 3 story house, but we adapted.  Entire third floor will be a Veranda.  Front of 1st and 2nd floors will be porches.

Belize is great.  Lobster season.  Lobster ceviche, cakes, quesadilla and tacos.

Go to the city Zoning department.  Or go on line.

You can also use a GIS tax map, and look up the ownership and zoning for the property.

Still talk with the Zoning department.  Tell them the property number and what you would like to do with the property.

Lets say it is not allowed.

Ask for their "future" zoning map and see if it is allowed.  Easier to get an approved zoning change or special use variance.

Also look at the existing zoning map, and see if any of the next door properties are zoned the way you need.  Then it is easier to either request a zoning change or special use variance.

Might not be your cup of tea, but rent a skidsteer with grapple hooks and a tooth bucket.  If bigger trees you can use a smaller front end excavator to dig around and push down.  Watch out for powerlines, next door neighbor houses and do an 811 underground locate.  This is actually a lot of fun.  These machines are all of the power you need.

Line up ahead of time either a dumpster of trucking company to haul away waste.

Just back from Belize. Some times you have to remember why your pushing and what Storage can do for you. Maracas in Orange Walk on the river. Its lobster season. These dishes are lobster. Ceviche, rolls, tacos and quesadillas. Actually didn't sell whole lobster.

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Teak seedlings from last year are doing great. About 5 feet tall. Same as the replacement ones in the pickup, the original planting was I believe around October of last year. By December the old trees should be about 15 feet tall, from their current 5 feet. Had a historic flood last year due to two back to back hurricanes and killed about 2/3 of the seedlings, thus replacing.

Been moving ahead. Last two pad sites need to be poured. One is framed and will be ready next Wednesday. Then they will start the last pad. Road crew will come back and start paving around the pads.

For the city we broke this site into 3 Inspection or occupancy phases. Phase 1 is at 45% occupancy on 45 units. These are the small buildings at entrance. Phase 2 will have about 88 units, which are the two long buildings in the middle. Just need to finish electric next week and get inspection. Phase 3 which are the pad sites will have around 200 units. These pads should get finished in about 1 1/2 weeks. Then roads and run conduit under ground. Buildings are supposed to come in late August and start erecting Phase 3. Fence folks came out after they pulled off for 3 weeks and I told Sales person to set a meeting at their office so I could come yell in their faces in 2 hours. Original install was for December. Got a call 15 minutes later, saying team was coming out the next morning.

Continuing to work on sign. These blocks need to be cut down since they are supposed to be "staggered", but come in a perfect square. Thus the guys are measuring and cutting down. Told them $1,000 they can split versus per hour, to build sign base. Amazing how things get knocked out. Saves me cost and waiting on contractors.

To get Phase 2 inspected, we need to put up fire extinguishers. Had Fire marshal come out and pick locations for access and distance. Have about 15 of these to install. Just had our annual inspection at our other location for those extinguishers. Our security systems person also does extinguishers.

We do U-Haul at one of our 8 locations. Since we do self service Self Storage, it does not work to do U-Haul at all of our locations. There is a Self Service U-Haul option, but we don’t use.

The one location is about 2 miles away from our house. We started U-Haul at this location since the location was brand new and we wanted to “Stir the pot up”.

A. U-Haul, by itself is not worth it, unless you are there already.

B. Don't sell packaging unless you are onsite all of the time; not worth it. Although you can/will make 100% profit on these items, its not worth my time to meet someone.

C. There is no direct correlation between renting U-Hauls and renting Storage units. In 5 years, I know of about 4 of our Storage units rented due to our U-Haul rentals.

D. With the above said, I think U-Haul is great for Stirring the pot in public. If your by yourself with no other U-Haul location, then you are the "U-Haul" location that people mention and refer to. This sends people towards you, even if you don't know it was U-Haul related. At 90 to 95% capacity I would question doing U-Haul. I let my neighbor, “stay at home mom” take care of our U-Haul and she gets 100% of the income.

E. Financial- We are a small market of about 10,000 people. We average about $6,000 profit per year.

F. Headaches- people parking at the entrance, parking in the driveways, hitting bollards, bad reviews don’t flow over to Storage, etc. Out of vehicles, to many vehicles, etc.

G. Internet- U-Haul has great pull. As soon as you sign up with them, your at the tops in your local searches under U-Haul.

Summary:

U-Haul has a lot of negatives.

If I had a managed Self Storage location, I would definitely do U-Haul to offset the cost and to add value to the position.

For a new location, I would definitely do U-Haul. Gives you free advertising and “presence” immediately.

@Eddie L.  Please read my post;  Self Storage- new investors.  Good luck.

Remember in Texas counties there is no zoning.  All of your neighbors can do self storage and RV parking.  If in cities, check zoning.

@Stephen Cucc

I would develop around San Diego. Or any of those larger cities.

Get outside the city limits along major roads.

Find county or small town municipalities within 1 to 10 miles of the San Diego City limits.

Learn their zoning and zoning map.

Look for the biggest/nastiest piece of ground that you can bulldoze and flatten.  2 acres or greater.

Do two business models.  A.  They bring their stuff and store., B.  You have a depot in the larger town where they take their items to portable storage units and then you haul to your storage location.

Why would they go to small town USA 20 miles away?   Traditional Self Storage logic says your market is 1 to 3 miles.  Think about it.  Check your potential rental rates.  Storage availability.

Another option for land purchase is to find Railroad ground available for sale.  Look along the rail lines for suitable ground.  Ask them to sale.  Almost all RE people drive by this every day, not knowing it is for sale.  Don't worry it is zoned Residential.  If you find it, contact me and I will tell you how to get it re-zoned.

Remember the harder it is to find a location, the better investment it is.  Harder for competition to build next to you.

@Stephen Cucc

Most of that market is $5mm and up; controlled climate and your playing with the REITS.  As long as you have a strong RE and financial background; you might jump in the ring.  Usually I tell people to Start Small and Make Their Big Mistakes Early.

You might look back at some of the responses I have given around San Diego to get started.  There are several opportunities I would look at around there.

 1.  Check your zoning.

2.  Check asbestos or other items.

3.  Check for a flat floor.  If not, then walk away.

4.  Market size or capacity needed, relative to your new location?

5.  Call Trachte, give them the dimensions and layout your looking at.

6.  Determine how you plan to manage.  If its small you will need to do self-service.

7.  Why do a one off?  Why not stay in your lane, versus learning a new RE product?  Even if it is successful.

Recommend you start with Trailers.

Check them out as your first investment and possibly stick with that.  This is more scalable.