Self Storage Rewards- Belize Adventure

Will take you through our Belize adventure ( its an investment, but not really) over the last 2 years and get you up to date. Will do in segments, so I might get somethings out of date sequence. This will be the good, bad and ugly. If you have a question, ask, but the answer will probably be just because.

Why Belize?

I have had a thought of a foreign home/investment/place to go for about 20 years. South Korea, Australia, Maui, Brazil, Belize,

We like Belize because:

- Official language English

- currency is pegged at $2BZD to $1USD

- Property ownership laws are English based since they were ruled by England. Very similar to the US.

- Living Price- far lower than the Caribbean, but higher than most Central America.

- Crime- Top 10 deadliest countries in the US. Mainly Belize City drug wars. Other than that, being a poor country, theft is a normal occurrence.

- Land price- we did look at the Beach, but we went inland to the San Ignacio/Santa Elena/Spanish Lookout area. Price is all over the board depending on size, close to town, roads, electric, water, sewer, type of ground, size of property, Local or Expat, etc. All land, housing and rental prices are almost always in US dollars. The same piece of property could be $500/acre; $1,000; $1,500; $3,000; $10,000 depending on the variables I mentioned. This is for farm ground and not a house lot.

-Victim- if you are a victim, act like a victim, set yourself up as a victim, you will be a victim in Belize. No matter whether it is petty theft, your groceries out of the back of your vehicle or buying a beautiful condo overlooking a white sandy beach on the ocean. Note, Belize does not have White Sandy beaches.

- Flight time- 2 to 2:30 hours from Houston or Dallas for your connection.

- Variety- Inland farming and fishing, snorkeling, golf carts on the Beach fronts, deep sea fishing, Mayan ruins, local people.

- Weather is a perfect offset to Iowa Winters. Belize dry season is January thru May.

- Bugs/Snakes- I'm originally from Louisiana; and Belize has far less bugs, Mosquitoes, and snakes than I ever grew up with in a Creek bottom in the middle of a National Forest.

- I love nature and trees. Gives me a chance to learn a whole new area of the world.

If I don't reply to you, its because I'm telling an adventure and trying to keep it in sequence. I'll cover all of the Real Estate angles as I go through the path we took.

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Timing:

- Our son graduated and started College.

- I moved to storage fulltime about 3 years ago and my wife retired a year ago from Corporate America.

- Age, I will turn 60 this year, thus between now and 70; having watched my parents, I will have the oomph to get out there.

- Financially, we're good. We have isolated wealth for retirement, taken care of "Care" issues, identified both long term and near term investments, and have identified "excess" wealth.

- In Iowa the storage business shuts down from December through part of April. It's also cold and can be nasty up here. Belize is in their Dry season (temperatures stay around 70 to 92 all year, just the Dry and Rainy seasons are the changes).

-Although we will add buildings to our existing Storage locations, we are in the process of developing our last Storage location ever, which should go on line in Dec/Jan. We have our Self Service system set up, thus maintenance of our 8 Storage locations, with an end game of about 1,600 units total, will be relatively easy, thus we will have more free time on our hands. Basically we will have met our, When is Enough target on Storage. That is the main reason I have posted a lot of Storage Posts, since after next year, we will move on to other adventures, and all of our experiences will become dated.

The main reason I am telling you the above, is it is a large factor of why we are looking at Belize. If your thinking about it, make sure your ducks are in a row. If we weren't in our spot now, we probably wouldn't do this.

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Where in Belize?

Once we decided on Belize, we had to decide where in Belize. My wife wanted to walk out onto the beach and I wanted to live inland.

Decided we could live on the beach and I could catch a flight or bus and go to a property inland if we got one to have an interest.

Looked at the beach properties first. We vacationed in Belize 2 times and then I did another 3 search trips by myself or with my brother, who had been "through" Belize about 20 years ago in the military.

Most peoples concept of Belize is an Island which is Ambergris Caye and the town of San Pedro. This is only about 1% of all of Belize. This was our first vacation and we stayed at a BNB. Really loved the house and the local. Will give some background on Ambergris Caye.

Ambergris Caye/San Pedro

Areas of interest:

a. Downtown and to the north as far as the hard surface road goes, maybe 2 miles at the time, along the Oceanside beach. The city water, electricity and sewer follow the hard surface road. $850,000 to $1.1mm

b. Beyond the hard surface road to the North along the ocean side beach. $700,000

c. About 3 miles out and hang a hard left or West to Secret Beach. $??????, did not really look at.

d. Way North at the other end of the Island, mainly reached by Water, although you can get there by golf cart, part of the time on the beach. $850,000

e. The South of Town, to the east of airport. Most of the Condo developments. $250,000

f. South of Town, to the west of airport. Industrial and trash hauling.

g. West side of town- Locals and Boat dock facilities, on the bay side. Just barely above water level. Lower income. Where the work force lives.

Notes of Interest:

1. Due to the breeze from the oceanside, very few bugs and mosquitoes on that side. More on the East or inland side.

2. Belize really doesn't have white sandy beaches and the beaches are about 30 feet wide.

3. Belize runs on Queens rule as far as access to the beaches and also your docks. Anything within 60 foot of the beach, passersby's can access and walk through. You can't block. Even your docks can be used.

4. Most houses even with city water have Cistern water tanks that they catch roof water off of. They use this for drinking and washing. Make sure your cistern is large enough to supply water for both your needs and to get you thru the "Dry" season with no rain. If your doing AirBNB or guesthouses, you have to make sure your water usage is covered. If they can most people go for bigger 30,000 gallons or double tanks. Or both above and below cisterns.

5. The further out you get, the houses start using water cisterns, sewer cisterns, backup electricity and generally are more self sufficient.

6. The general Island height is at most 8 feet above sea level. Due to the Coral reef which is about 1/4 mile out, no large waves even during a storm hit. Your main damage will be from wind.

7. Although there is "fresh water" if your on this high side, which is generally along the Ocean beach side, you can't pump much water out, or the Sea water will come into your well system. So no many people use well systems, since they are limited.

8. Internet, is fairly good even at the northern end of the island since they have a large tower about 8 miles north of San Pedro.

9. There are crocodiles on the island. If you have cats and dogs, build a fence around your yard. If you are on the ocean side, they are just across the street on the bay side.

10. Transportation will be by bicycle, golf cart or quad. San Pedro is getting so full that it is pretty hard to find parking anywhere during normal hours.

Real Estate:

A. Recommend you do 2 or 3 trips before you get serious about buying, whether a house or an investment.

B. A normal Real Estate agent tour will be two in the morning and another place after lunch. Be as specific as you can be and they will do a great job.

C. On the Oceanside. Your houses will be in this category by price. Less than $850,000 will be a fixer upper. $850,000 to $1.1mm will be a nice beach house. Then you will jump to $3mm and on up.

D. Don't plan to "make" money with a beach front house or condo. Treat it as a lifestyle experience.

E. Prices for Lots on the Ocean side are primarily based on the hard surface road access at the front. Same property inside the hard surface road area $500,000 for the lot. Same lot further north will be $350,000. Here is the kicker. If your building a house and it is the exact same house on both of these lots, your value or future sales price will be double on the close in lot versus the further out lot.

F. Build or buy. How much of an adventure do you want and what memories do you want and YOU are on the CLOCK. If your not on site, you will probably get robbed, the project will take longer than normal or it will take longer than normal and you won't understand you caused it. That Italian Marble you picked out had to be shipped in. Because it took so long the contractor had to pull off your job and go do another job and will be back in 6 months. Then you find out the Marble got here and is broken and the cycle starts over.

Do your self a favor. Go on the Real estate tours. Then schedule a day with Noelle from Under Da Seas adventures. You rent a golf cart and pay him to take you around the Island all day long. Noelle grew up here and will know just about every house and any questions you have. Keep in mind, he is not "selling" you anything. You are paying for his time, thus he will be honest with you. He is a good acquaintance of ours. The best thing you will remember about the entire trip will be if you do his all day Snorkel extravaganza. You will get to go to Caye Caulker also. Ask him to take you fishing. His fish is cleaned and scored; ready to be barbecued. Since there are no tourists during Covid, he was out catching fish for his family's dinner. Note his head scarf, neck/face scarf and long sleeve shirts. Make sure you can take the sun or protect yourself.

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Investing/Living in Belize:

I will probably say some things or you might interpret them as callous or elitist. You might be right. But my intentions, without you having rubbed shoulders with both locals, expats and business people down there is to give you a sense of what it is like there.

A. You will leave Belize at some point. Sick, divorced, the dream isn't true, ran out of money, disillusioned, business idea didn't work, developed a medical issue not treatable there, missed kids/grandkids, or just grew old and found out there are no retirement homes there. You will leave Belize at some point. Any comment I make, there always is an exception.

B. You are just a dollar sign and you are rich. Your not even human. Recognize your are fresh meat and a big whale and every one wants to land you. At first this is uncomfortable. Then realize no matter who you are talking with down there, the Dollar is King. You control the power and the decision. Remember that 10 years later when you go to sale. You don't have the power. Don't plan to make money down there, just a temporary lifestyle change.

C. You can build your exact dream down there, or start with "A" above and adapt and pick up someone else's dream. Your bargain is if you can "Wait" before investing in your plan and are adaptable. If you build, it will probably take twice as long as in the US, for many reasons. If it takes you three years to build and you only live there 10 years, most of your extreme memories will be of building. Thus do you Buy and renovate instead.

D. How much does it cost to live there. The answer is all over the board. The key is housing and also how far off the grid do you want to live. I could "easily" live for $500 up to $3,000 per month with housing not included; depending on my live style and housing. Take a cleaned refrigerated chicken for $2.50; or buy a "Local" live chicken for $20. Both USD. Buy a fresh Pineapple for $1 or a can of SPAM for $6.

E. What kind of social person are you. This will dictate which town or community you live in.

San Pedro- touristy and lively, ocean, restaurants, entertainment (stop at the "Truck Stop" for family fun; it was for sale).

Belize City- Don't stay longer than 30 minutes.

Belmopan- Capital, not much going on.

Placencia- this is about a 20 mile peninsula about 400 feet wide. Great place, not as touristy, more of a local neighborhood. The best Gelato outside of Italy. A $1mm house in San Pedro will be about $700,000 here.

Dangriga- go and live off the grid.

Hopkins- rive and beachfront town. A little grimy, but great value.

San Ignacio/Santa Elena- inland area. Tourists, but they are spread out. You make your friends since a lot of people live on acreages. About 500 feet off sea level, which makes for a slightly cooler temperature and less humidity.

Corozal- haven't been. Close to Chetumal, MX; with big box store shopping. Beach front community.

Spanish Lookout- Mennonite community; although they are progressive, it is still a socially closed community.

Make sure you travel around and get a sense of which community will be best for you.

F. Local versus Expat price- You will generally always pay higher. My local contractor bought a lot for $3,000; I would pay $30,000. Part of this is being in the right place and knowing about the deal.

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I've discussed Why? Where? When? Now I will talk about our journey and what we were looking for. So this post will narrow down to our experience and interests.

Once my wife decided she was not interested at this moment making a large investment for the Beachfront property, I started looking for our inland property. Won't go through my background, but wanted both a great place, great deal, business opportunity and a value proposition for the future.

Since we only want to be Snow birds during January thru April for 2 to 3 weeks at a time, we were not looking for a hands on proposition.

I'm more leaning towards nature and not Tourism.

Looked at buying/building a house. Different businesses, more as a hobby. Decided whatever we do, don't make money on the local Belizeans since they don't have enough money.

Understanding the dynamics that the Dollar is King going in. That there will not be enough Buyers when we sell, looked at the following types of investments. Also you must have a Caretaker, otherwise your things or business will get stolen.

a. Teak Tree plantation- We ended up doing a Teak Tree plantation. Planted 10,000 trees on 28 acres. This is a 25 year investment. Good thing about Teak trees, is no one will want to steal them until about year 20. Also the market is India and China, thus not a local market. Most of the work is in years 1 thru 5 with weeding and trimming. Logging, then cutting into lumber or squares. Living in Louisiana and my dad once being a logger, I can do all of these, along with cheap local help.

b. Goats- I don't like spreading myself thin, but I have raised goats before. No one in Belize likes to eat goat. Under the British regime they learned to eat Sheep. Which is strange to me, since all Spanish cultures like goat. Thus the market would be the US. A good thing about Goats and Belize is all of the unowned or unmanaged forest and brush. Goats prefer this to grass and don't get as many worms as on grass. Cheap labor to herd and manage. Biggest issue is meeting USDA standards and certification. Otherwise will be fresher and cheaper than imports from Australia.

c. Ducks- Same as goats. Both Ducks and eggs would be marketed in the US. Same US standards issues.

d. Self Storage- actually a good demand for Expats coming and going. Almost non-existent competition. But not interested.

e. Rental House Development- Expats or Locals. I have found a great contractor and his family. Have partnered with him to buy one lot, and starting a second lot. I have explained to him, what sounds crazy. Money is easy and plentiful (they are poor relative to US), but local, trustworthy contractors are rare. He owns the upper hand. Explained to him, I'll do the financing and he will maintain the construction and rental. He is used to paying himself day wages, but I have explained he needs to own the properties and rent, to get the value of his efforts. Develop two different house and business models. Local- build to around $40,000 and rent at $250 to $350. Expat- build around $100,000 and do long term rental for $1,000. Key is not the rental market, which is in great demand; but the cost and building side. Since he is local, he can find the deals and make them. For the same lot, he can get for $3,000; it would cost me $30,000. He also controls the Building costs and timing. Trust- has to be built. Thus we have started small. I bought him a portable cement mixer for $2,500 to use on my house since he would have to rent for $150 per day. He will pay me back $1,800 which he will earn either renting it out, which he has, or charging his other clients. Same deal with tamper, scaffolds, power washer, lawn mower. Working out good so far.

f. Tilapia farming- just for fun.

g. Another market, just because my brother and I stayed at one are Tiny Houses. A good portion of the tourists are from Europe and these folks tend to vacation different than US tourists. They tend to do Hostels, and spend more money on Travel versus lodging. Most of us are always trying to do bigger and better, but there is a solid market for less.

So we looked at about 30 properties and some existing Teak plantations. I started to put a couple of options together.

1. Buy an existing Teak plantation on the cheap. Found one great deal, but it is too far off the beaten track. Wouldn't get any enjoyment living there. Expat moving home. But would pay itself off in 5 years.

2. Bare ground. Always look for a property that has been on the market for a while and where its an expat who has gone home. They are ready to sell and have finally gotten past, there are not that many buyers.

3. Look for ground that will grow in value, because it is special. Either Electricity and water coming your way. Near Rivers or has streams on it. Existing trees. Good location relative to services.

4. The median age for Belizeans is around 25 years. US Baby boomers are on the move. Both of these factors will create a market in Belize.

5. Near towns or entertainment.

The property we ended up buying had been on the market for 15 years. Price was cut in half. Has the Belize River on the front property line and Iguana creek on the other property line. The other sides are pasture. Great location between San Ignacio/Santa Elena and Belmopan. Two miles away from Spanish Lookout, which is the industrial and main supply town for the country.

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************************************* 01/09/2012

Planted about 20 acres of Teak trees little over a year ago. Started as 9 inch seedlings. The ones we are standing next to are about 25 foot tall now. About 1/2 were drowned out two months after planting in a historic flood. Two hurricanes came through Guatemala to the North and dump tons of water in the upper River Sheds. Very little rain in Belize. We replanted later, and they are doing well.

House is continuing. Got all floors poured, roof put on, stairs installed.

Now mortaring cinder block walls interior and exterior, then sanding down.

Going down in 3 weeks to pick final Paint colors.

Windows are already selected, just need to order.

Railings for upstairs and Balconies are ordered.

Floor tile just came in. About a 6 month backlog due to Covid shutting down the plants in Mexico where they were produced.

Found Wood Door and Security door builders. Need to settle on design.

Leaving the Third floor open. Don't need a three story house. Railings will go around the third floor and the second floor balcony. The view and the breeze on the Third floor is wonderful. Can see the hills across the front across the river, and the Teak plantation out the back. Normally your worried about planting trees for your house. This one we will trim some limbs to improve the view once the house is completed.

The 200 pineapples we planted are doing well and starting to fruit. Banana, Plaintains, Papaya and Star fruit are already fruiting. Can't wait to get down and see how everything is growing. Even after 3 months everything grows so fast and changes.