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Updated 7 months ago, 05/05/2024
Have any of you worked with RETA/International Living?
I’ve been looking into RETA deals (Real Estate Trend Alert) from International Living. The lead guy, Ronan McMahon, presents some compelling deals. I am curious though, if these deals are as sweet as they sound...
I’m also curious to hear about the complications of owning/investing overseas?
I just checked out a few developments today in Tulum that were similar to my RETA Samsura deal, and they were all over $300,000 USD for a similar product. I paid $212,300 USD. Maybe not all deals from RETA are amazing, but I am pretty happy with the deal I just got with my 3 other friends. So as always do lots of due diligence.
We’re colleagues now. Sorry I had forgotten to confirm your request.
Again, I hate to be the party pooper I don’t agree that comparables sell for $300,000. That’s what they do. They bring you “convenient” comparables that’s aren’t real ones. The market in the area doesn’t work like that. I’ve been getting opportunities from realtors for years and not any really knowledgeable one has ever sent me US-style comparables. There are reasons for that.
I don’t know if that’s what you were planning to send me but, if you want, DM me your comparables and I’ll explain to you why they’re not comparables.
Have enjoyed this thread.
would love to touch base with you @Mike after December 1st
Very strongly advise you to avoid RETA.
I bought one through them, dreadful experience. No phone number to call them and no response from RETA in spite of numerous emails to them when development hadn't been started a year after it was due. No contact whatsoever from the non-English speaking developer about the delay. This was in spite of stage payments having been taken. It was like Ronan didn't actually exist. Needless to say, I didn't renew my membership. Plus, when released to the public, it became clear we hadn't gotten any discount at all, prices to public were exactly the same as we paid. We lost out on the opportunity cost of having tied up our money in exchange for no price advantage.
Another member has had his face handed to him on furnishing costs on 3 separate properties.
Also, when boasting about gains, Ronan takes the original cost of the cheapest unit at the time of purchase, and compares it to the current value of the most expensive, and claims it as the capital gain. Totally bogus, deceptive nonsense.
He promotes what are clearly problem properties in Portugal. I came across a property he was promoting, that had been a going concern for years, on Trip Advisor. People commented mostly on how empty and dreary it felt.
AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.
Is anyone familiar with the Portugal Lagos location of RETA's latest offering?
No worries found it. This is a really good location:)
I briefly subscribed to RETA and then asked for my money back. Here are a couple of my blog posts about it in my International Appraiser blog (www.InternationalAppraiser.com).
https://www.internationalappra...
https://www.internationalappra...
As a reader of International Living, I have yet to see an article entitled "Ronan McMahon made me rich!"
Follow up on my past posts. I did end up buying in Lagos, Portugal. Two amazing condos with some friends. Not through RETA but I got lots of great info from RETA on the Algarve. That helped pull the trigger for me. After another friend and I bought Tao Gardens (RETA DEAL) in Puerto Vallarta, we really did some serious research. The lot is a bit steep in PV but I am confident Tao Gardens will be a winner for us. Again RETA sparked my interest. Now our family plan is to buy on a golf course just outside of PV (we found our spot, just not the unit) which we will use as STR and several months personally each year. The conclusion from our research is some RETA deals are pretty good and some maybe not so much.
They have a deal coming up on furnished studios in Playa del Carmen for around $118,000, I would buy one, but we are committed to developing a resort into bareland strata in interior British Columbia.
Not every deal is good, depends on what you want and why. Do your research and on the journey you may find what you really want.
I have found Nancy the RETA concierge really awesome and responds to questions quickly. If you have questions ask.
Good luck finding your place in the sun. Our plan is 10 STR all over the world. 5 down 5 to go. Next up Rome, Croatia/Montenegro, Mexico, Costa Rica and the US. Travel the world and have others pay us for taking action.
Have you ever thought about asking them to promote their products? You'd probably make more money doing so than through buying their condos.
Now, seriously, a few comments here:
1. I'm not sure it's right to "promote" them on the BP forums if you haven't taken possession of any property they market, let alone made a single dollar in income or capital gains from such properties. It's akin to making a booking at a restaurant and writing a positive review before you even get to the restaurant, experience the ambience or taste the food. While it's awesome that you contribute to the forum and share what you're doing, how would you feel if readers end up falling for their marketing as well, buying their deals and they end up losing money?
2. You mentioned Playa del Carmen, an area that I know very well. They have been promoting/selling hundreds of properties there and in the Riviera Maya over the last decade there. As a result, I have inevitably bumped into many of their members who have bought property there. Get this. While the real estate market in Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya has been booming over the last decade, I haven't met a single one that has made anything close to the promised rental income or capital gain and who was happy with their purchase. Out of all their past and present buyers, I haven't found anyone on the web whose made the promised returns either.
3. In their marketing literature, they use what I call pseudo-testimonials. They invariably use the same copy/pasted sentence that reads like "members are sitting on paper gains of...". Two things here: they never put the name of at least the initials of the people giving a testimonial. More importantly, get this. Over the last 10 years, Playa del Carmen has been booming and they've been selling hundreds of condos there. Yet, they haven't been able to come up with a single testimonial of anybody who has made the promised rental income or capital appreciation. This is because, as @Vernon Martin explains, the math doesn't work.
4. Continuing on their sales copy, one of their other favorite copy/pasted sentence reads like "I expect we'll never see a deal that good again in ... (insert the name of the city where the current deal is". Yet, invariably, a few months ago, they come up with an almost identical deal. And then another one. And another one.
5. There are logical reasons why buyers don't make the promised returns and why they keep coming up with another similar deal over and over again. And it doesn't take a PhD to figure it out. The model is totally flawed. Let me take the most egregious example, Playa Caracol in Panama. They're selling an entire little city built by the developer in the middle of nowhere. The units are marketed as rentals even though there's nothing else out there and there are no rental figures to support their claims. They come up with a deal and then, because they can't sell (enough) to the general public, they create another deal to sell to their members and so forth. That's the problem, entire buildings end up being sold to their members, who will end up renting the same cookie cutter condo with the same overpriced furniture package (on which the developer takes a huge cut) and managed by the same people. Even in a place as popular as Playa del Carmen, you'll have the same problem with their deals obviously. How can you make serious money when you rent in such circumstances, And then, when you want to sell, how can you get the promised capital gain when you constantly will have a flow of sellers, especially if they're dissatisfied with their rental returns all at once. This explains why you can't find any positive testimonial or why their many members I've met haven't ever made any money close to what was "promised" to them.
6. There's at least one deal I know about for which the construction was interrupted for 3 years! This reflects the quality of the due diligence or lack thereof. Not making much rental income and not making any capital gain when selling is one thing. Losing your capital is another one. So, not only can these deals be unprofitable; they are risky as well.
7. You mention you did some serious research on their PV deal (on which I negatively commented above this thread). Really? When you buy a property, especially overseas, you need to take your time doing a proper due diligence. If they were really interested in the (financial) success of their readers, they would try to educate them just that instead of trying to milk as much money from them as possible. Instead of that, what do they do? They withhold the information on the deal until a week prior to the release of the deal so that you precisely don't have the time to do your own due diligence. And then, they bombard you with the same cool aid and the same copy/pasted content day after day during that week saying why it's supposedly the best deal in the world. They also keep repeating that "all the condos were sold with two hours of the deal being launched" to add additional buying pressure. BP is all about education so I'm surprised that any BP member would fall for a scheme like that and, hopefully, my little contribution helps open people's eyes, alongside others like Vernon Martin. In this respect, it's high time that some of the many disgruntled people who have bought into their deals swallow their pride and speak up so that others don't make the same mistake they did.
8. I wish you all the best with your properties. If you manage to make anything close to the rental return they promise, especially on a regular, maybe you could consider starting a property management business because it'll mean you're very good. An average property manager would never make these figures.
Finally, I'm a positive person and I hate to be the party pooper so let's focus on the positive to conclude. While I don't know anything about the deals you bought in Lagos, it's awesome that you ended up buying your own deals and that at least they inspired you to look at the area. Mind you, it's kind of common knowledge and all over that Portugal can be a place for lifestyle or investment so you needn't them for that. With the Puerto Vallarta deal you're looking for, it's awesome that you're now looking at your own deal too so it looks like you're moving towards that direction. Also, through your journey, you're acquiring knowledge and you're taking action on top of that. You learn and will learn more, including from mistakes and it sounds you'll end up doing fine overall as your portfolio will be made up of properties that you find by yourself. And, as a fellow Canuck, I love your plan of accumulating places in the sun :-).
I short what everyone seems to be saying is RETA is a real estate marketing company that works for developers and uses creative math.
Duly noted.
So buyer beware and do your due diligence.
Great to have a resource where we can chat about these/all areas of real estate. Thanks, BP for the venue. Always lots to learn.
Yes, BP is a great resource and you kind of nailed it. Let me summarize the main issues here for everyone's benefit. As I usually do, I'll limit myself to give facts and figures and let people draw their own conclusions, especially since I think the conclusions are pretty obvious here.
1. They're part of a well-oiled marketing machine. That's what they're doing and have been doing for years. While they make it sound like they look after your interests, they are after the commissions. They never mention that, except in the small print. the small print is like this: "We like to be transparent. Therefore, we think you should know that we may receive an advertising fee should you purchase one of the properties advertised...". They mention this because they legally have to but then they pretend that they want to be transparent and yet they mention it in the small print they know nobody reads. That should tell you enough but then, on top of that, they may receive an advertising fee, with an emphasis on the "may". Again this is meant to mislead. They systematically receive a fee. Buy writing that they "may", it sounds like it might just happen from that to time and it certainly doesn't suggest that that's the main way they make their money (more on that below).
2. For all intents and purposes, they're selling real estate and making commission without having a real estate license, as far as I know. In a country like Mexico, I believe it is illegal. If that is the case, they either use a loophole or are trying to do it under the radar. Real estate agents who know about these schemes generally hate their guts and for good reasons. That is unfair competition plain and simple.
3. Obviously, I haven't had a look at their income statements but I'd guess they make 5% of their income from people like you and 95% from the commissions or something like that. How would I know? Apart from the fact that it's common sense, one of my friends who was developing in The Dominican Republic was talking to them (before knowing about their business practices) and they were asking for outrageous commissions (way higher than what a real estate agent would get).
4. We're on BP here. We know we can do anything but we have to work hard or smart to get it. Do we rely believe that we can sit in our chair and get a great deal overseas served on a plateau without having to do anything?
5. I left this for the end but this is the most important point. They have a blatant conflict of interest. Indeed, you and the developer have conflicting interests. You want the best possible deal and the cheapest price while the developer want the highest price and, as intermediates. they want the highest possible price too because it means higher commissions for them. Now think about this. Supposedly, they defend your interests to give you a great deal but they get their income from the developer. So guess which side they're really on? Have you ever heard of a situation when somebody is paid by one party to defend the interests of the opposing party? I haven't.
If this doesn't make people get it, I'm not sure what will!
This being said, Andrew, you're looking for your own deals now and doing your own due diligence so, as I mentioned in my previous reply, I'm not worrying about you. You'll do just fine!
Just an update to my previous posts on RETA.
I have found the RETA info to be really enlightening, the two RETA projects I purchased last year are already up $80,000 plus based on product hitting the market from the same development.
I have talked to several developers and they all say the same thing, RETA/Ronan seems to be able to get the volume they desire and thus they are willing to pass on great pricing.
So for me, I am happy to do my own searching/research, but RETA is another good resource for me.
Like all deals make sure you do your due diligence.
Of couse the developers love it! It helps them sell overpriced merchandise at a fake discount. Let's take the example of one of the deals you bought in. Through a proper due diligence, you would know that the markets you've been buying into are very hot. A developer who offers good product at a fair price should have no problems selling out. So, have you ever wondered why they'd agree and need too give a supposedly high discount when they should be able to get full price?
One of the deals you bought into is a typical example of that. When you initially bought, you were told that you'd never seen such a good deal ever again. Then several months ago, they come back with the exact same deal, saying that the developer is about to go retail at a much higher price. It happens all the time. When the deal comes back, you're being told that the developer is about to go retail but he'd be happy to sell to you at a hugely discounted price instead. You believe that? Obviously, if the developer could sell everything at that higher retail price, he would. When he realizes that he won't be able to sell at the overinflated prices, he goes back to you, pretending to give you a discount.
Go on and sell your condos and only then we'll see if you have an $80,000 profit. Mind you given where you bought, your should get a profit and it has nothing to do with the supposedly special deal you got. It is because:
1. With any pre-construction deal you buy into, you're getting a discount and, the earlier you buy, the higher the discount. You don't need them to get a deal like that.
2. The markets you bought into are hot at the moment.
Is it proper due diligence to talk to the developers they're in bed with? Have you talked to the other developers who don't do business with them? Have you ever wondered why they keep doing business with the same two or three developers? They pretend they are the best. They aren't. The other (better) developers know they can sell by themselves and don't want or need to pay outrageous commissions to get their deals marketed.
So basically, you're getting a discount on a purposefully engineered overpriced retail price. Speaking of which, pretty much anybody can get a discount on retail and I bet I got much larger discounts on market price than you've got.
Have you ever wondered why, amid the hundreds or thousands of subscribers they have, they always come up email after email with the same success stories that you can count on the palm of your hands?
Worse, I have regularly mentioned their shameless recourse to the white lies they tell the unsuspecting buyers. But they've gone one step further with outright lies. In their latest offering, they supposedly offer you an exclusive killer deal before it hits the market and everybody gets access. So, they pressure you to buy quickly, leaving you very little time to do any due diligence. They show you a video of the property that I quote "my scout **** shot when he was there just a few weeks ago".
In reality, these are outright lies:
1. That video was shot by a real estate agent in 2020 and is actually posted on YouTube. I'm happy to send you the link if you don't believe me.
2. The condos on which you supposedly get first dibs and exclusivity on are already on the website of the said real estate agent. I can send you the links too. So basically, it looks like these are condos they couldn't sell and now they bring and repackage them as a supposedly killer deal to unsuspecting buyers, suggesting to you they're given a chance to buy before anybody else.
Obviously it's your best right to deal with them in spite of the evidence but is it wise to promote them? I'm not so sure about that.
Finally, I'm not sure what you do for due diligence but I can tell you what I do. I don't believe and hope that I can just be sitting on my couch at home and being served the best overseas deal on a plateau. Does anybody on BiggerPockets believe that? Thankfully, I'm wise enough and have been around long enough to know that it doesn't work like that. Last month, I did my due diligence on a place in Mexico that I already knew. I literally spent 4 full days walking around everywhere and talking to the right people. When I talked to real estate agents, they wondered why I knew what I knew that they didn't knew. The reality is that doing proper due diligence overseas takes hard word and the right connections. Would you do something like that, you'd realize that those deals are not the good deals that you think they are.
Yet, let's finish this off an a positive note, as I hate to be negative or a party pooper. As David Greene oftentimes mentions in the podcast, the great thing about investing in real estate is that times bail you out. Even if you bought a bad or average deal, you could ultimately be fine as capital appreciation does its work over time. That is provided that you buy in the right countries and cities but the good thing is that that's exactly what you did.
Quote from @Mike Lambert:
Yes, BP is a great resource and you kind of nailed it. Let me summarize the main issues here for everyone's benefit. As I usually do, I'll limit myself to give facts and figures and let people draw their own conclusions, especially since I think the conclusions are pretty obvious here.
1. They're part of a well-oiled marketing machine. That's what they're doing and have been doing for years. While they make it sound like they look after your interests, they are after the commissions. They never mention that, except in the small print. the small print is like this: "We like to be transparent. Therefore, we think you should know that we may receive an advertising fee should you purchase one of the properties advertised...". They mention this because they legally have to but then they pretend that they want to be transparent and yet they mention it in the small print they know nobody reads. That should tell you enough but then, on top of that, they may receive an advertising fee, with an emphasis on the "may". Again this is meant to mislead. They systematically receive a fee. Buy writing that they "may", it sounds like it might just happen from that to time and it certainly doesn't suggest that that's the main way they make their money (more on that below).
2. For all intents and purposes, they're selling real estate and making commission without having a real estate license, as far as I know. In a country like Mexico, I believe it is illegal. If that is the case, they either use a loophole or are trying to do it under the radar. Real estate agents who know about these schemes generally hate their guts and for good reasons. That is unfair competition plain and simple.
3. Obviously, I haven't had a look at their income statements but I'd guess they make 5% of their income from people like you and 95% from the commissions or something like that. How would I know? Apart from the fact that it's common sense, one of my friends who was developing in The Dominican Republic was talking to them (before knowing about their business practices) and they were asking for outrageous commissions (way higher than what a real estate agent would get).
4. We're on BP here. We know we can do anything but we have to work hard or smart to get it. Do we rely believe that we can sit in our chair and get a great deal overseas served on a plateau without having to do anything?
5. I left this for the end but this is the most important point. They have a blatant conflict of interest. Indeed, you and the developer have conflicting interests. You want the best possible deal and the cheapest price while the developer want the highest price and, as intermediates. they want the highest possible price too because it means higher commissions for them. Now think about this. Supposedly, they defend your interests to give you a great deal but they get their income from the developer. So guess which side they're really on? Have you ever heard of a situation when somebody is paid by one party to defend the interests of the opposing party? I haven't.
If this doesn't make people get it, I'm not sure what will!
This being said, Andrew, you're looking for your own deals now and doing your own due diligence so, as I mentioned in my previous reply, I'm not worrying about you. You'll do just fine!
Quote from @Andrew Taylor:
I short what everyone seems to be saying is RETA is a real estate marketing company that works for developers and uses creative math.
Duly noted.
So buyer beware and do your due diligence.
Great to have a resource where we can chat about these/all areas of real estate. Thanks, BP for the venue. Always lots to learn.
Andrew,
I have purchased a few RETA deals recently (Mexico and Portugal). Where did you end up buying in the ALgarve?
Thanks,
Mike
Quote from @Nadja Leblanc:
We bought a 2 bd condo 1000 square feet preconstruction. Ronan can sell the developers inventory very fast therefore the steep discount.. We have a beach condo in Panama for 137K furniture included. We visited the area and the builds are top notch. Ronan looks out for his investors He's kind of a wholesaler in a way so he shouldn't be ashamed to take a bit of a profit . He gets good deals. We am happy with RETA.
I has been a little while since this post- and I'd love to know if there are any updates. I'm looking to find anyone ... anyone at all... who has actually finished a deal, post-build, and has had the experience of good or bad returns to share. So hard to find information on RETA and McMahan that isn't either based on suspicion (but not data) or is produced by McMahan or one of his affiliates themselves.
Quote from @Mike Julius:
Andrew,
I have purchased a few RETA deals recently (Mexico and Portugal). Where did you end up buying in the ALgarve?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike
In March 2020 a few friends and I decided the time was right to start buying international properties. One reason was the Covid shutdown. We felt deals would be everywhere. The other reason was we were looking to invest outside of Canada using the STR strategy. We decided to buy 10 properties over the course of a few years. Currently, we are at 7. Two were RETA deals. We are going to Portugal for the month of September to scout out more deals and get the lay of the land. Currently, we have bought two units in Lagos, and we are now looking for other locations in the Algarve. We are also looking at Spain. I think of RETA as a great source of info and deals, just like Bigger Pockets. We bought land in Moab and are now building townhomes, bought in Costa Rica, bought in Mexico, and Portugal. Other friends are building a resort in Bali. Go explore, make lots of offers and don't expect the deal of the century to fall into your lap. Use RETA as a resource just not your only one.
While I have explained at length in this thread while the business model is about lining up their own pockets and those of some developers at the expense of paying members, you bring a great point to the conversation. What about the track record and it's not very flattering.
They constantly boast and mislead about their track record. If you read their sales litterature, you'll see that, when they boast about their track record, they most of the time talk about supposed paper gains. They hardly ever talk about real gains made or real rental income earned by real people. There is only one exception to that. They regularly point to a few members making big gains by buying foreclosure deals in Spain in the early 2010s. Well, guess what. Anybody who bought foreclosures in Spain at that time would have made a fortune. And anybody who bought foreclosures in the US made way more money so there was no need to go to Spain for that. I don't know how many thousands of subscribers they have but after so many supposedly killer deals, all they can come up with is the profits realized by the same handful of people from last decade?
Let's look at the reality now and let's take an example in a market I know very well Mexico. A friend of mine is a member and she will never again buy anything with them and, for good reason. Back 5 years ago, she bought a pre-construction condo in one of their so-called killer pre-construction deals. She paid $142,700. They wrote at the time and I quote from their emails "I expect the condos that members locked down here will see capital appreciation of $106,200 in just three years." Guess what. We're five years later and one of these condos sold for $163,000. So, basically, the seller made a profit of $20,300 in 5 years instead of $106,200 in just three years. That's a profit of just 14% over 5 years on a pre-construction deal in a booming market. Members basically got a discount over an overpriced deal. My friend's problem is that they got sold so many of these condos sold to their members, many of them can't wait to sell and throw the towel if the price ever goes up a little bit. Therefore, her prospects of making a decent return anytime soon is dim.
Sadly, this example is one among so many. The whole premise here is that you can make money buying internationally by doing nothing. Yet, all the members would need to do would be to go look at their archives and look at the predicted gains and check if they occurred in reality and they'd find out easily that my example above is typical.
There are countless people in that same situation situation and, in my humble opinion, it's about time that they swallow their pride (for having fallen for their marketing tricks) and speak up so that other people don't have to experience the same situation in the future.
If I was the owner of BiggerPockets, I wouldn't be happy of being compared to them that way. Two things here:
1. In their analysis, there is never anything negative. There are never any problems or any risks. BiggerPockets tells you the positives and negatives because, unlike them, BiggerPockets has your interests at heart and isn't trying to sell you anything.
2. BiggerPockets isn't arranging deals with developers and isn't getting paid by them for doing while selling its audience these deals by pretending that they are great for them. Mind you, BiggerPockets could do that but they probably don't because they have ethical standards.
Thanks for above. Not having boots on the ground or knowing anyone personally in the area, all I've been able to do is look at listings in the area to see what is the asking price (wish I could see actual selling prices) and also look at the inventory levels and maps, as well as the listings on AirBnB and etc. to see if their rental estimates are reasonable.
What I see is: 1- a very large supply in that area of both units to buy and to rent. 2- the developer's one site shows units listed at much higher prices (asking) so that part jives with the idea of a negotiated rate 3- too careful language around paper gains v record. 4- scouring the internet, very few records of actual returns.
So I'm going to pass on this.
You're welcome. Considering your lack of boots on the ground, you're doing a pretty good job!
A few additional points:
1. The prices advertised by the developers are often not the prices at which they sell.
2. There's no MLS so be careful comparing properties that aren't comparable.
3. A discount on an overpriced property isn't a real discount. If the market price is $100k and I market a property at $150k and give you a $25k discount, you're still better off buying the $100k property with no discount. Developers are not stupid. They're not going to give real discounts on a large scale in a hot market.
Typically, they come with a supposedly killer deal that they say you're unlikely to ever see again. Then, they're supposed to go and sell retail at a (much) higher price. Then, whether they knew it or not, because there is no retail appetite for the deal at that supposedly higher price, they come back several months or even a year later and offer you the same deal that you weren't gonna see ever again.
Whichever way you look at those deals, their tactics are so obvious if you take the time to think about the way the whole thing works. Yet, so many people still fall for them. Yet, I don't know about you but, when I receive a scam email, I always wonder why people get caught given that it's so obvious to me that it's a scam. Well I guess it's not obvious to everyone otherwise they would stop sending those emails.
Quote from @Mike Julius:
Andrew,
I have purchased a few RETA deals recently (Mexico and Portugal). Where did you end up buying in the ALgarve?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike
Lagos in Portugal, two units. We met with the builder, lawyer and the real estate team in the Algarve and they spent the whole day with us. We toured previous construction projects by the builder and we went to the Dona Ana location in Lagos. We also stayed 4 nights in a brand new build by the developer near the marina in Lagos. The building quality is 5-6 star. I made a point of meeting with different realtors and they raved about the builder and one realtor was living in a condo development that the builder had completed in 2017. RETA did introduce me to Ideal Homes in Portugal and I am really happy they did. We also bought a RETA foreclosure deal on penthouses in Marbella, Spain. This foreclosure sale was a flash sale and done through a government agency. We had to fly to Marbella to get all the legal paperwork done. We stayed in the condo complex and got a good a feeling about the property. The deal was so good we bought 3 penthouse units and instantly made 200,000 on each unit if we decided to flip them. We won't we fell in love with the area. Don't get me wrong I am an investor from Port Moody, BC, Canada. I don't work for RETA, but like I keep saying RETA is just another resource of deals, not the only one. Mike, I hope you are in Lagos, we can head out for Octopus at my fave restaurant EASY BAR.
Cheers,
Andrew
Quote from @Andrew Taylor:
Quote from @Mike Julius:
Andrew,
I have purchased a few RETA deals recently (Mexico and Portugal). Where did you end up buying in the ALgarve?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike
In March 2020 a few friends and I decided the time was right to start buying international properties. One reason was the Covid shutdown. We felt deals would be everywhere. The other reason was we were looking to invest outside of Canada using the STR strategy. We decided to buy 10 properties over the course of a few years. Currently, we are at 7. Two were RETA deals. We are going to Portugal for the month of September to scout out more deals and get the lay of the land. Currently, we have bought two units in Lagos, and we are now looking for other locations in the Algarve. We are also looking at Spain. I think of RETA as a great source of info and deals, just like Bigger Pockets. We bought land in Moab and are now building townhomes, bought in Costa Rica, bought in Mexico, and Portugal. Other friends are building a resort in Bali. Go explore, make lots of offers and don't expect the deal of the century to fall into your lap. Use RETA as a resource just not your only one.
Update: We decided to stop buying International Properties for the rest of the year as I hit 12 in June 2022. The last one was in Cabo we grabbed that unit in June. My friends loved the project so much that they bought 4 units themselves. Now we have a small Cabo fishing and golfing community. Well, we will in 2024.
I have experience with RETA. I'm typing this from inside my new property in Lagos, Portugal right now, July 2022. Found the deal via RETA and Ronan and couldn't be happier.
Discovered the deal in May 2021. Closed in November 2021, deal was Santa Maria. The transaction went very smooth and I'm beyond delighted with the work of the developer.
And we purchased this property having never stepped foot in Portugal before. To say we were a bit nervous is an understatement but I felt very comfortable with both RETA and the Ideal Homes team who facilitated the transaction.
Could I have gotten a better deal if I came here and did boots on the ground research? Who knows. But I wouldn't even have considered Lagos or Portugal had it not been for my initial conversations with Ronan.
In fact, after first discovering international living and Real Estate Trend Alert, I invited Ronan to be on my podcast (it allowed me to get more comfortable before making a decision).
You can watch both my interview with Ronan 9 months before closing and a second video I filmed yesterday sitting in our new condo by going here: https://baconwrappedbusiness.c...
FYI there are no affiliate links or any other payments I receive on that page.
Just sharing my love for this process.