Newbie - Analyzing an Overseas Vacation Rental Property

[Ryan Cramer]

I am an architect in New York and pretty much a beginner in Real Estate investing and development. My fiance, who is from Ireland, bought a derelict home on an ocean front property in her hometown of Sligo, Ireland. It is a coveted property, as they no longer allow building on that side of the road anymore, but we can demolish the existing house and build new so long as it stays the same size as the current building on the property.

My question is really how do I even get started in analyzing the property - is there a specific tool to assess overseas rental / vacation properties? She has about 40,000 Euro of the 90,000 Euro cost of the land/current property already paid off. Based on research, we anticipate it will cost about 300,000 to 350,000 Euro to demolish the existing house and build a new one in its place.  I am doing all of the drawings and design for the home and have had some communication with the Planning Department there. We have a rough idea of how much it will cost to build, and what income we can get from it (as her family has another holiday home they rent out just down the road that is similar size). How can I assess this to know if it is a good deal, or what tweaks we may need to make to the design or construction budget to ensure that it is?

Really just looking for any advice in general as to how to best approach this project from an investment / developer perspective. It is really my first project and want to ensure that we approach it and do it the right way. Recommendations on how to analyze the project, approaches to getting financing to build (this one seems to be a challenge), etc would all be much appreciated!