Best sites to find international listings?

[Cameron Mertens]

Hi everyone! I am looking at potentially investing internationally, somewhere warm like Mexico, Spain, central America, etc. I am struggling to find reliable websites that have up to date, current listings. I am interested in both land purchases and actual houses/flats/etc., trying to explore what our next step is going to be. Was hoping someone could provide some recommendations for how to go about doing the proper research outside of the US. Thanks and have a great day!

[Mike Lambert]

@Cameron Mertens

Welcome to the exciting world of international investing! It's not that easy but that's why it can be very rewarding. But is it easy to find a great deal in Los Angeles these days? ;-). Moreover, like in the US, the best deals are off-market so you won't find most of them on websites.

There are no websites covering all these countries. In any case, I was where you are years ago and the best advice I can give you is to decide when you want to invest first before looking for properties. This is actually the same advice as the one you constantly hear on BP when it comes to investing in the US.

I'm not sure what's etc. covers but there's no MLS in most places. In Spain, you have Idealista but there's no such site in Mexico or Central America. You will find sites in English for foreigners. You might find deals there but you'll likely pay gringo pricing and you'll also potentially have the bad deals and scams as there too as that's where you find the foreign buyers that know very little about the overseas property markets.

You can find listings through the local agents, as their main or largest clientele will be local buyers. The inconvenient is that they'll only list the properties that are in their own inventory so don't look at just one of them. If you have identified where you want to invest first, this is much easier to do.

Feel free to reach out if you need further help, like for example in sorting the wheat from the chaff.