International Financing

[Donald M.]

The idea of investing outside the US occurred to me, I have one book on the subject on the way, and while doing searches on the Internet I came across the article by Ali Boone.

What attracts me to real estate is being able to invest with a low downpayment/no downpayment. Are there opportunities like this outside the US? I have heard that in Europe, a 30% downpayment is usually required and that banks in developing countries tended to be more conservative during and before the loose policies existed in developed countries that led to the housing crash.

I am interested in appreciation and cash flow, but would also consider buying a property on the water for rental/future retirement possibilities. Please let me know if you have experience with such financing opportunities in a country or if there is reason to believe seller financing would be more likely in a region; I know there are many issues to consider in international investing and would do further research once identifying some preliminary countries. Thanks!

[Ronald Cvetkovic]

Hi, I am from Europe, Croatia. 

Croatia is not "developed" country :) but I know that more and more people from outside Croatia want to buy real estate here. 

99% of real estate interesting to foreigners is on the coast of Adriatic sea. As Croatian I  must say that here is really beautiful coast with clear sea.

I don't know how things work for foreigners but I can write down how I purchase real estate and on what conditions.

Maybe through this example you can see how good is for you in USA to buy real estate :)

I bought small condo 495 sq/f with bank loan. Loan amount is 95000$ for 20 years and interest is not fixed. When I bought it interest was 4,8%. At the beginning my monthly payment was 560$ and now 9 years after my monthly payment is 830$  :(

It is mortgage loan but since it was real estate that was still building at the time mortgage is on another real estate (from my parents).  

If someone is taking mortgage loan, the value of the real estate must be at least 1.2 times grater then loan amount. 

Regarding down payment, loans are here mostly without down payment, and it is only good thing, bu that is because people here don't have money to down payment. But person who is taking loan must have some other "insurance instrument". It can be life insurance and some other person as guarantor for payment. For my loan it is my mother and for example if I stop paying the bank will take my mothers paycheck and she will be paying. Bank takes mortgage as last option.

I hope this helps :)