Thread: Who's Investing Where?

We continue to invest close to where we live, which means near a main arterial, close to the CBD but with parks and universities near by.

The key, for us, is to invest where people want to live, and where they will want to live in 10 years time.

what do you think of offshore pre-construction projects - condos and the like?

Offshore = new laws, new construction practices, new risk

There's a scam down here with pre construction projects which works like this.

• Developer buys land
• Bank says they'll lend the construction $ if the develop has sold x% of the apartments/condos/etc - small deposit ok, they just want to see contracts
• Developer sells apartments for the market rate
• Developer builds apartments but they're late, ofcourse
• The market is roaring ahead and the price the buyers have agreed to now looks like a great deal
• Developer finishes work and now has to get "title" from the council before he can hand over the properties and collect the $
• Developer delays getting "title" using delaying tactics
• Council deems original contracts to be null and void
• Developer resells the apartments and the new, higher price

the clause to let the buyer out of the contract is to protect the buyer if the developer can't finish the job. However it is being used by developers as a way to get finance and then get a good price at the end.

A huge amount of effort has gone into selling the properties each time and it seems unbelievable that people could still profit after all of that but it's been proven over and over to be happening.

While this might not happen if you buy pre-construction offshore, are you really up on the play with the local hijinks?

I hear ya...Florida is rife with builders pulling tricks like that. I have seen so many people screwed in the last year I couldn't recomend anyone to think of buying new construction in FL - all the builders are getting into it...and the big ones are just as bad as the little...

...They don't care if they get sued some of the time as the profits are so huge!

If they can bump your contract and sell the place for hundreds of thousands or even a million more what do they care if they have to shell out a few bucks now and again...

On a positive note

There are lots of great deals offshore. There are many countries booming right now or about to boom where appreciation far exceeds most of the US right now, with quality construction and great management.

Why wouldn't you want to own a couple places overseas that you can go and spend a few weeks in a year and then have a professional management company run it the rest of the time with a Guaranteed Rental Return?

so where are the places to buy and have prop management for when you're not around to manage the property?

New Zealand?

It can be done and you can get good/excellent property managers but even then I'd still want to be able to do a drive by from time to time.

Again it comes down to how different the place is from where you live. You may come down here and find we get up to all sorts of "unreasonable" practices. Such as weekly rent payments. Often it's fortnightly but it's rare for a tenant to pay monthly. In the states I believe it's rare for rent not to be monthly.

Try Dubai, Bulgaria, Brazil and the caribbean...to name a few

I have heard some great things about Panama. My husband and I were considering it but we were worried about the popularity of investing there. It seems when an area becomes popular for building or rather living, all the scams can be found lurking in the dark. That's one reason why Florida is so bad. So many people are coming to live here and it is disgusting to see how many people take advantage of that desire.

At any rate, does anyone have any opinions on Panama? Or possibly Costa Rica? We are looking for a place to go in a couple of years and escape the mayhem here.