All Forum Posts by: Dominic Jones

$15,000 with $500 average rent?! That cap rate is incredible. 

@Dominic Jones

I've read that article you are talking about actually and I have to disagree with it. I've put different prices trying it out and it doesn't matter what price it still gets sold. Haha

@Dominic Jones

I've read that article you are talking about actually and I have to disagree with it. I've put different prices trying it out and it doesn't matter what price it still gets sold. Haha

@Dominic Jones

I've never purchased or thought about investing in Korea, so I'm not sure.. @Jacob Michaels has and he's part of our meetup. I know a few others have as well.

The real estate agent - Jeff Yu - probably best to contact him through our meetup site. 

You can, however, to answer your question, buy a place, and rent it out, and get key money from the new renter. That's what a lot of investors do. 

You can also 'buy' a place by putting down ernest money, market the place for key money, find a new tenant, use his key money to help pay the owner the money you owe, and make up the difference out of pocket. It's a creative way to get into a property.. but something you'd have to talk to other investors about because I don't know all the ins and outs.

In Korea, the landlords want rent nowadays because sticking the key money in bank isn't returning a lot of returns because interest rates are low. For renters, they'd rather put down the key money because they don't want to pay monthly rent.

Anyways, these are just strategies that I've heard about and I'm no expert. ^^

But I've heard from different Koreans that this is "not unusual" among investors.

@Fred Heller

Yeah.. The system heavily favors the landlord in Korea. I had to pay to replace a thermostat while living in an apt and a lot of maintenance items are the tenants responsibility. Not to mention, there are great tax advantages as well  

 BsAs- Buenos Aires.

As for Belize, yeah I guess you can say we have dedicated people on the ground; my parents bought a property there on the beach after they visited in the early 2000's. But they're looking to move back at this point; even though Belize is practically right next door, getting in and out is amazingly expensive. It's so much cheaper to fly into Cancun that they'd rather spend 12 hours on a bus to fly out of Mexico than to deal with the expense of going through Belize International.

As far as avoiding Argentina Uruguay or Chile, I'm merely speaking from a distance perspective. It's a long long long flight down, and expensive (although not as expensive as flights into Brasil). Personally, I wouldn't mind retiring in Patagonia in Argentina, but that would mean living down there full time.

That being said, the Argentine government and economy is in full-blown collapse mode, so you might be able to find some amazing deals... I remember reading a story about one investor who got his start when he purchased a 200+ room hotel in Buenos Aires for a song when the economy last collapsed.. that was about ten years ago.

Chile has the strongest economy in all of South America, and Montevideo has the highest quality of life of any South American city... 

"I struggle with my focus sometimes and I know that this is detrimental to running any kind of business. You stretch yourself too thin and are becoming the prototypical "jack of all trades but master of none," which you don't want. Or another way to look at it is, being "good in a lot of things but great at none."'

Amen to that @Dominic Jones, I'm in the same boat. I'm going to wait until I ramp up my business in the US prior to starting internationally. I would prefer to flip land abroad in areas about to develop or that are developing. 

@Ken Badziak, thanks for pointing that out about owning in Mexico, I didn't know that. It has kindof been a daydream of mine for a bit. I also have some good friends around Mexico City that may be interested in partnering, would probably have to talk to a lawyer to get details of how that would work out. 

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll keep you posted if I move forward. @Dominic Jones, I'd be happy to chat at some point about this as well, even if it is to just kick around ideas.

Mexico does not allow foreign ownership of real estate. They will let you sign a 99 year lease, however the property will never be yours. So marry a Mexican! (unless the laws have changed- this was the case 7 years ago or so...)

Belize is great. My family has owned property there for over a decade. The time to buy was about 10 years ago. Just kidding; Corozal is expanding rapidly, and there's lots of developments popping up everywhere. However, the government is corrupt and not very business friendly. Nothing ever works properly, and its hard to get good help. Very much a place where you basically have to be there all the time to make sure things get done right. And on the coast, because of the coral reef off the coast, everything rusts. And I mean EVERYthing. Plastic rusts. It's a constant battle to keep things operating. Belize International looks like an African third world airport, whereas Cancun looks and feels like any major airport in the US. Leonardo Dicaprio is building an "eco-friendly" resort on his island. The Belizian government sadly gives a rat's behind about their ecology and their history; they're selling off the country to anyone with money, and destroying the amazing natural wonders in the process.

Costa Rica is good; a family friend went down there 10 years ago for a visit. When he came back home he sold his business and real estate holdings in Chicago, packed his bags and has rarely been seen since. He bought and developed property, quite successfully.

Although Montevideo, BsAs and Santiago are my three favorite cities in all of South America, I'd avoid Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, simply because they're quite far away. BsAs is a 9 hour flight from Miami.

I'd recommend Central America; Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua are all places that keep popping up in conversations. Plus, they're all within a three hour flight from Florida or Texas.