CRG Consumer Resource Guide GLOBAL PROPERTY RESOURCE KIT ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 2 WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS DOCUMENT MICHAEL K. COBB DEAR FELLOW I have created this Consumer Resource CHAIRMAN & CEO ADVENTURERS, Guide to Investing in Property Overseas. ECI DEVELOPMENT This is a resource that you’ll want to keep close at hand and reference often during the Congratulations. You are embarking on a purchase process. fabulous journey. This should be exciting and fun. It will be if you keep your wits Make copies and use the checklist included about you and remember just three on page 21 when you evaluate properties. simple steps. With more than 23 years of experience in the world of overseas real estate and You are pursuing a home or investment finance, I’ve made a ton of mistakes along property ownership overseas. Your vision the way. You don’t have to. This guide is for international diversification is prudent the distillate of my hard-earned experience, in these exciting and challenging times. right here in just a few short pages. Use it. You are wise to be exploring and expanding your horizons outside of North America. You may have heard that once you leave North America, it’s “Buyer Beware.” The There are so many excellent reasons to customary rules and regulations that you’ve be looking globally. The key to making it become used to at home don’t always exist in happen is to take action. “Action is the true other regions of the world. measure of intelligence,” Napoleon Hill frequently said. And he’s right. Nothing It’s up to you, the buyer, to do your due happens until you do something. But please, diligence, to ask the right questions, and “Measure twice. Cut once,” to use an old to be aware of what you are investing in. carpenter’s saying. Take the time to learn how to efficiently and effectively evaluate a property or home Or as I like to say, “We don’t know what overseas. It’s a significant investment in your we don’t know.” Think about that again. future and happiness. Find a developer that Because we can’t know what we don’t know, ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 3 is reliable and already delivering on those promises he do better and do more. Imagine the years of fun you’ll made. You’ll be glad you did. have with the kids and grandkids, enjoying year-round warm weather, swimming in the ocean, beach combing If you are planning a property purchase overseas, this for shells, teaching them how to ride a horse, gardening, resource guide will become your immediate go-to snorkeling, sailing, golfing, fishing, exploring 400-year-old reference during the process of evaluating real estate cities, hiking in the rain forest, or just kicking back and opportunities. The 15 Critical “Must Ask” Questions reading Dr. Seuss to them under the shade of a palm tree. Before Buying Property Overseas begin on Page 7. The choices are nearly boundless, and the opportunity These are the important questions that you need to ask to create a unique and exciting set of memories for your during your due diligence; family will become part of your questions you might not think legacy gift to them. It can be a gift to ask. The questions boil IT’S UP TO that they will tell their kids and down to three very simple YOU, THE BUYER, grandkids about too. My advice is steps you can take. Just 3 to pursue your dreams, but keep TO DO YOUR easy things to remember both eyes open and your brain and do. Believe me, I didn’t DUE DILIGENCE, turned on. Be smart about the know what to ask on many AND decisions you make, but please occasions and paid dearly ASK THE take action and do something. when I didn’t. You can RIGHT QUESTIONS. The fun only starts once you do. do better. Lastly, be in touch. I hope to meet You already know about you during your travels south of the enchanting quality of life experience waiting for you the border and hear your success story. If we can be of any overseas. It’s fantastic. Let me assure you. I have been assistance with your planning, reach out. We are here for living it every day for more than 2 decades now. You you, and have many other complimentary resources we will absolutely enjoy your new home and perhaps even can offer you as well. your “Golden Years” in a fashion most folks never consider possible. Enjoy the Adventure! Be sure to check out the “Are You Ready to Live Overseas” tool on Page 6 as well. It’s fun and incredibly accurate for such a short quiz. This reference guide also includes country profiles for four popular Latin American MICHAEL K. COBB countries, as well as noteworthy articles about moving Chairman and CEO ECI Development, Ltd. overseas and investing offshore. A set of tools to help you ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 4 CONTENTS 6 “ARE YOU READY TO LIVE OVERSEAS?” QUIZ 7 15 CRITICAL “MUST ASK” QUESTIONS WHEN BUYING REAL ESTATE OVERSEAS 21 PROPERTY OWNERSHIP CHECKLIST 22 RETIREES IN PERIL: A SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS AT HAND 25 RISK & THE PERCEPTION OF RISK ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS & THE INVESTMENT/ RETURN CURVE 29 WEALTH MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF THE ULTRA-RICH & HOW THEY CAN BENEFIT YOU 34 DEMOGRAPHICS & SCARCITY 40 WHAT IS THE REAL COST? 43 BELIZE COUNTRY INFORMATION 47 NICARAGUA COUNTRY INFORMATION 53 COSTA RICA COUNTRY INFORMATION 57 PANAMA COUNTRY INFORMATION 61 ARGENTINA COUNTRY INFORMATION 67 ECUADOR COUNTRY INFORMATION 71 QUIZ RESULTS 72 ECI DEVELOPMENT - CREATING COMMUNITY SOUTH OF THE BORDER ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 5 ARE YOU READY TO LIVE OVERSEAS? TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ TO RATE YOUR ABILITY TO MANAGE AND ADAPT TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY. ASK YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER TO TAKE THIS QUIZ SEPARATELY. BE HONEST! THE RESULTS MAY SURPRISE YOU. _____ Are you usually one of _____ Are you comfortable being RATING SCALE the first to try new things, a “visible minority” in a new foods, and new new country? experiences? 1 POINT = _____ Are you easy-going NO/BELOW AVERAGE _____ Are you able to relax, enough to deal with long lines/delays/bureaucratic willing to adapt to a 2 POINTS = slower, easier delays? going pace? SOMETIMES/AVERAGE _____ Are you genuinely _____ Are you a self-starter who interested in getting 3 POINTS = doesn’t wait for someone involved in a new else to get things done? community/join clubs/ YES/ABOVE AVERAGE activities? _____ Are you willing to learn ADD UP YOUR SCORES & the basic phrases of a new _____ When faced with CONSULT THE EVALUATION GUIDE AT THE END language? problems, are you OF THIS DOCUMENT. creative in figuring _____ Do you make new out how to get things friends easily? done? _____ Are you an optimistic/ _____ Do you respect different glass half-full kind cultures and realize that of person? you are moving to THEIR country? _____ Are you financially secure enough that you do not _____ Are you healthy enough need to work? (both mentally and physically) that you do _____ Are you open to new not need constant medical adventures, new attention? activities? _____ TOTAL POINTS _____ Do you have a hobby or interest you really want to pursue? ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 6 15 CRITICAL WHEN BUYING “MUST ASK” REAL ESTATE QUESTIONS OVERSEAS Everyone buying property outside of North America needs to remember the famous words from The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy says to Toto, “I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore.” When going offshore, especially to places that feel familiar, we must be very, very careful. In fact, the more familiar it seems, the more cautious we should be. But how do we do that? TAKE A LOOK AT A FAVORITE SAYING OF MINE, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW.” Please stop and re-read that… Is it possible to know what we don’t know? Not really. But we can be open to new possibilities and realities that vary greatly from our assumptions. ECIDEVELOPMENT.COM 7 IT ALL STARTS WITH HUMILITY Humility is the one attribute that really helps us chief filtering mechanism. It hears and senses to be open to the fact that we don’t know what we literally everything. We receive billions of sensations don’t know. It gives us a willingness to listen, to per second, yet our conscious mind gets only about hear what doesn’t make sense, and to acknowledge 1% of that information because that is all the what is real, and try to fit that reality into our conscious “I” can handle and process. analysis. It also allows us to ask others with more experience to guide us in this unknown territory. A good example is when you have a small baby in The choice is humility or tuition. the house. It is possible to sleep through a raging thunderstorm, but a tiny squeak from a newborn will An analogy that makes sense here is one of a radar rouse the mother instantly (and dad sometimes). This screen. A small radar screen is easy to manage. In the is the Thalamus hard at work, sorting out the needed world of “North American normal,” we can get away from the not needed. This filtering mechanism lets us with that and make assumptions. But overseas, a larger live our lives. If we had to pay attention to every radar screen serves us well. We must expand it greatly noise, movement, and sensation around us, we’d be so that anomalies are picked up way out, not close in.