New from New York and interested in Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Panama

[Mike Waltman]

Hello to everyone here on bigger pockets. My name is Mike Waltman, I'm 24, and originally from Long Island New York. I graduated with a teaching degree a few years ago and decided it wasn't for me. After that realization, I decided to spend the next few years traveling, working as a deck hand on a luxury/adventure charter sailing yacht in South East Asia, a caretaker for a multi-millionaire's estate in South East Florida and lifeguard/host to (non-paying) guests during the summer months at my campsite next to the beach in Montauk, New York. My experiences have made me realize that I enjoy and am competent at providing fun and unique vacation experiences for guests in places that I have local knowledge of.

I'm interested in investing in vacation rental properties and constructing eco-friendly rental units on undeveloped land. The areas that I am interested in are surf tourism destinations (primarily focused on Rincon/Aguadilla/Isabella, Puerto Rico but also interested in various areas of Nicaragua, and Panama). I have a passion for surf, the outdoors, hospitality and real estate. It is my hope to combine these passions with the money I have saved and the connections I have made in order to establish a well balanced life through vacation rental management and real estate investment.

By the way, the podcast is great. INCREDIBLY helpful and entertaining. Really opened up a new world to me so thanks to Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner for doing what you guys do.

[Ali Boone]

Hey Mike! Wow, you sound amazing. I can't help with what you want to do, but I used to work a lot of real estate stuff in Nicaragua and I'm obsessed with the country still. I LOVE it there. Wish I was going back more often. So thought I'd say hi anyway :)

[Larry Fried]

@Mike Waltman

Hi and welcome to BP! I am fascinated by what you want to do, especially that you want to do eco-friendly rental units. Investing in green building would be my ideal and my long term REI goals. Unfortunately I am not there yet.

[Maura Paler]

Love the idea! We are in process of closing on our 4th vacation rental, I manage many more, and have been doing this for 10 years. 

We have been looking for properties near surf to start another colony of rentals, been to CR, Panama, Nicaragua, VI, Bahamas and more. No luck yet. 

Hard to find properties where numbers will work - but love the idea of building eco friendly, have not considered that yet, as a big challenge with VR is finding a manager - no one will run them like you do - so if you plan to build and manage you have a head up. We can't live elsewhere....yet. 

Good luck and stay in touch if you find something, maybe we will invest! 

[Darrell Shepherd]

Man I love your story.  I had a bunch of friends take off for the VI's for a bit after school and I dove into 60+ hour weeks.  Still regret not doing it the other way, didn't hurt any of their careers in any way and I had to start over after 2007, which made it that much worse- all that sacrifice in my 20's was erased (except the knowledge, of course).  

Buying in the places you mentioned sounds like fun, I've looked briefly into buying overseas.  I shied away from the risk I couldn't control, mainly the governments in some of those places.  You also have to look at monetary exchange risk.  Not to mention, many of those places dont like Americans (and others) coming in and buying up all the good RE and driving up prices so have some interesting laws about foreigners buying there.

Its like any other deal analysis, though.  $ in vs. $ it generates, with a hard look at what real costs and real risks are. 

I was looking in PR.  There is a LOT of undeveloped, cheap land there.  I think I was looking at buying a portion of a rubber tree  and mahogany farm (it was 10 years ago), but remember, it ain't the US, there aren't roads to get there.

Panama and Puerto Rico are pretty American/English friendly from my understanding if you wanted to relocate.  Don't know about Nicaragua, but you'd probably need to know a lot more Spanish landing there.

Anyway, I dont know too many experts on what you are trying to do, but I'm sure they're out there.  My advice is to find one and learn all you can from them!

[Victor Chico]

Hey @Mike Waltman!

I am from Puerto Rico and those are definitely great spots for surf tourism. I would put my money on Aguadilla/Isabela. Arecibo is also a good place with nice surf.

Keep in touch!

[James Wise]

Welcome to the site Mike. Those are some uniquie experiences, I think vacation property is your calling.

[Dave Visaya]

Hey @Mike Waltman welcome to BiggerPockets! This is certainly a great community and it is also a perfect place to learn more about REI. Feel free to jump in and never hesitate to ask your questions. See you around!

[Brandon Turner]

Hey @Mike Waltman welcome! It’s great to have you on board. Thanks for the nice words about the Podcasts! 

Oh - and be sure to set up some keyword alerts - especially for "Montauk" so you'll be notified when people mention it here in the forums.

Thanks again for introducing yourself!

[Eric F.]

Just yesterday I was looking for information on this, specifically Nicaragua (or El Salvador). I plan in 10-15 years to live there part time (3-6 months a year). I would love to find a house where I could rent it the other half of the year. Even though it is far away, I was looking yesterday at the possibility of this. I did not see much great information. 

I also was not sure if the risks of buying a house in another country is better than just finding long term rentals each time I traveled. If I knew I could buy one now, it would at least break even for 10 years, be near the ocean (good surf breaks, no Las Pentias for example) and I would not somehow get screwed I'd look into it more.

[Christopher Sandoval]

Hi Mike! Sounds like a great plan! We own 30 vacation rentals in Puerto Rico. I would love to chat more about what you plan to do out there and see if we can be of help. Let me know if you would like to further discuss.

[Mike Waltman]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I've got a ton of questions on my mind right now but I'm going to do some more homework before I start asking specifics. Right now I'm trying to figure out what is the best route to go down for my first project in real estate investing. I have a ton of variables at play right now, but my current focus is playing with the numbers for developing the eco-units and the numbers for buying and managing a standard house/apartment vacation rental and seeing which one is a smarter move at this time.

[Marc Lavoie]

Hi Mike, welcome to BP!

Did you have any development since your first post? Care to share it with us?

Cheers!

[Rui Pereira]

Surf?   Krui South Sumatra //  Lakey Peak Sumatra // Panama Bocas del toro Bluff // North Nica Boom //  ahh Cook Islands so good ....   Just find the perfect wave ! Also in Madeira island  (where i live )  in the banana fields there are some of this eco tents with amazing scenarios and weather. keep surfing !

[Patti Royster]

So just curious if anybody out there has invested in Nicaragua and how it's going?