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Panama City has been my base since January 2007. Prior to that my shortlist included Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, even Roatan, Honduras...but I chose Panama City. I made the right choice. It's safe and stable and the weather is tropical and gorgeously warm all year round...
For most folks, the perfect way to start a day is with a stroll on the sand or a dip in the ocean. Owning a beach home so that they can do it every day is at the top of many wish lists. Many people think they can't afford to do that. Understandable: When you take the limited supply of beach property and combine it with strong demand, what do you get? Sky-high sticker prices. But you can still bag a beach bargain in some overseas destinations
Something strange happens when you’re buying property overseas. It happens to cautious folks, wary folks, even savvy folks that are seasoned pros when it comes to buying real estate. It’s something you need to watch out for. It’s getting caught up in the fine details of your contract…and, in doing so, losing sight of the forest for the trees.
I spend up to two weeks a month scouting out the best real estate opportunities for Pathfinder. It's part of my job. And I enjoy every minute of it. Because I spend so much time on the road, I'm a huge fan of vacation rentals. I get more space than a hotel room and a lot more privacy. And I get to experience life as a local, buying groceries and eating at cafés and restaurants close by.
Most folks think that finding a property overseas that fits their tastes and budget is tough. In fact, it's much easier than they think. There's plenty of opportunity out there when you know where to look, even when you're on a tight budget.
Nancy's dream is a simple one. She wants to live by the beach. She approached me at an IL conference, concerned that she couldn't afford her dream lifestyle on her small budget. She's had it with the freezing winters back home, she told me. She's done with shoveling snow and scraping windshields and worrying about heating bills. She'll wave goodbye to winter by moving overseas.
This west-coast destination in Mexico hit the headlines in 1963. John Huston filmed part of Night of the Iguana in Vallarta. The world’s press descended on the town to follow the romance between Richard Burton, a star in the movie, and Elizabeth Taylor. Many viewers simply wanted the real skinny on the famous Hollywood stars. But others were grabbed by Vallarta’s colonial architecture and sun-drenched beaches. Tourists and expats started to flock to this little fishing village. Today, around 50,000 North Americans live in Vallarta...
This Caribbean island covers less than 19,000 square miles...not quite twice the size of New Hampshire. Popular for decades with Europeans, it’s finally getting the attention it deserves from Americans.
We’d finished dinner almost an hour earlier. But we were still in the restaurant. Our host was back after a few weeks away and it seemed the whole town wanted to catch up.
I get asked all kinds of property-related questions by readers. But one question keeps cropping up. It happened again recently. A reader told me that she loved the idea of a low-priced condo I wrote about. And she’d happily swap the dreary winter weather back home for blue skies and sunshine. "But is there a trade-off?" she asked.