Creative INTERNATIONAL Real Estate Financing/Strategies

[Daniel Dawson]

Hi there! If there's a better forum to discuss international real estate, please let me know.

I'm a new homeowner of just over a year now. I own a condo in coastal North Carolina which is perfect for my semi-nomadic, low-maintenance lifestyle and use it as a home base right now. Fortunately, because of the market, it's appreciated about $40k over the last year. 

Anyway, I live half the year (4-6 mo) every year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and would love the opportunity to own a condo there for both my own use and as a vacation rental. There are tons of pre-construction and renovation projects and also more traditional houses/villas/condos on the market. I think it's a great market for vacation investment and have only seen it grow tremendously over the last few years. 

I'm looking for advice on international home ownership and financing. For the range I'm looking at ($150 - $250k), having enough liquid cash is holding me back. Even for pre-construction of lower $100k (which are few and far between) I feel just out of reach for the amount of cash needed for developer financing options. By comparison, I could easily put 20% down and get a traditional 30-year loan here in the US for the same price range with the cash I have now. I haven't heard of many financing options for international properties besides a HELOC, and my current property just wouldn't provide as much as I need.

I would love to hear advice from anyone who has been in a similar position, any other financing options I may be missing because of inexperience or generally chat about international real estate. Again, if there's a better forum please let me know!

Thank you!