One of the benefits of hosting conferences around the world is the chance they give me to spend focused time with key contacts in key markets. It’s at our conferences that I find out about ear-to-the-ground kinds of opportunities that usually don’t make it beyond a small circle of investor-friends. This week in Medellin, for […]
The first viewing was a one-bedroom, two-bath apartment with a den on Avenida Balboa. The den could be converted into a small bedroom to make the unit a two-bedroom. Why did the developer not package the property this way in the first place? Probably due to concerns over zoning density. Other apartments along Avenida Balboa […]
I usually ignore foreign exchange rates. You can’t predict them and trying to time them when making a real estate investment is a crap shoot. If you wait too long for an exchange rate to get where you want it to be before sending your money for a real estate purchase, the opportunity can disappear. […]
“I don’t care why you’re here this week looking at Panama,” David Stubbs told the room full of Live and Invest in Panama Conference attendees this morning. “Whatever your interests in Panama, the economics of the country are important to you. Even if you’re just here for a vacation, this is stuff you should be […]
Panama is truly a convenient place to live if you want to travel around Latin America. A recent flight from Panama City to Santiago, Chile, for example, wasn’t short (at seven hours), but it was painless. On-time departure from Tocumen International…good service from Copa in the air…on-time arrival at Arturo Merino Benitez…then a quick, efficient, […]
The number of opportunities coming across my desk has increased dramatically lately. The global property marketplace is active right now, meaning we global property buyers have an interesting 2014 to look forward to. Most new opportunities coming on to my radar are agricultural, but one new development I’ve reviewed recently is residential. Not pre-construction residential […]
As the year comes to an end, I’m reviewing the 2013 investment plan I had for myself. On the list of countries I wanted to research and perhaps invest in last year were Ireland, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Peru. How did I do with the objectives I set out for this past year? I didn’t […]
A reader chastised me a few months ago for not having reported on Bitcoin in this e-letter (or anywhere, for that matter). Of course, I’d heard about Bitcoin, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it…until the reader’s comment.Since then, I’ve taken a closer look. My conclusion? Tulipmania.In Amsterdam between November 1636 and February 1637, […]
An important question came up during the Offshore Summit I hosted in Panama City last week. The question was to do with if and how Americans must report non-U.S. real estate holdings to the IRS. Specifically, this is the question: Must an American report foreign real estate he owns on the new Form 8938?
Kathleen and I were in Medellin for the weekend taking time to clean up some administrative things to do with our apartment there and also helping our kids, Kaitlin and Jackson, connect with local contacts for their emerging Trader Jack’s Bazaar business. The continued vibrancy of the city (well, at least of its El Poblado […]