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Well, I have interesting offers in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and possibly Russia. All these countries are interesting for some reason or another, but mainly for bringing bigger profits than the ones that you mentioned. Would you be interested in them or not really?

What exactly are you interested in? What are the objectives for your company, etc? In order to make any comments, first you need to share more info about what you want to do (in my oppinion).

John, what countries do you and your friends invest in? I also have interesting opportunities in some of the former communist and soviet countries, are you interested in those?

James,

The countries that I am talking about are: Ukraine, Romania, Republic of Moldova and Russia (although due to the recent developments, Russia might not be a very good option). The first 3 offer very interesting projects with hight returns.

Some quick numbers (it is the example of Ukraine and of residential construction): the construction costs of a square meter (1 square meter=10.76 sq.ft) in the capital or big cities are anywhere from $600 to $1000 (depending on location), now, the selling price of a square meter is $1800-$3000. The construction costs are low due to many factors, the main of them being:
1. cheap labor and cheaper construction materials
2. the construction laws\rules or expectations are different. Quick example: the inside or any apartment\house\office is never finished, meaning you get just raw walls, no paint, no doors, flooring, no anything, besides the windows, not even electricity, the electric cables are to be found somehere in the corridor and every owner gets it extended to his\her appartment. Of course the apartment can be finished inside, but only for additional payment.

Now about the projects that I have, all builders\developers that I deal with are usually big players on the local markets, which means that they have several projects at the same time, in different stages of construction. They usually are interested in partnerships, but can sell the project if there is a big interest in it. Although, I have on my hands several projects right now, but the best and most effecient way to do it, is for the potential investor to tell me what he\she wants and in several days I can come up with several different projects. The same is valid for other countries, Ukraine and Russia would be suited well for big investors, these are big countries and many of good projects are estimated in millions of $, Romania is good for smaller investors, and Moldova for small investors, although it doesn't mean that I cannot find small projects in Ukraine and big in Moldova.

I have much more info with numbers and so on, I even have a presentation on Romania and Ukraine with detailed info and some sample projects, if you or anybody else will ever be interested in it. I could of course post it, but it is long, more than 20 pages, so if anybody is interested, it would be my pleasure to send it.

Thanks.

Thank you guys.

One of my main question right now is: are American investors interested in investing abroad? I talked to some people, a lot of them said that they are interested in those markets, but later on backed out, for one reason or another. I figured that probably people are scared of new countries or that the risk involved is higher that they feel comfortable with, but at the same time the profit is also 3-4 times higher (in some of these countries 60% is considered average).

Every week, I read in the press that another foreign investor (American, European, Canadian, etc) came to one of the markets, formed a local partnerships, and started building, renting out, etc. There are companies that came for one project, but stayed for more, and now are actively buying or building residential\commercial\retail spaces. But for now, I didn't find so much enthusiasm... :cry:

Hello to everybody,

I just came across this site recently, took some time to read up and decided to become a member and ask around.

I have experience in eastern european real estate (lived or worked with partners from countries like Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, etc), came last year to DC and seing the market here, figured that there is an opportunity and decided to start my own business, but guess what, here a lot of real estate related things are different and I don't know where to really start.

As it happens, the real estate markets of the above mentioned contries are booming (the returns are amaizing), them being comunist or a part of USSR, created a huge demand of all types of real estate, so the demand excedes the supply and even though there are a lot of investors taht are entering or thinking to enter these markets, it would take some time to saturate them. Anyway, to cut my story short: I want to start a company, where I can be the liason between the American and local developers\investors, I already registered my company, started a site (although to be frank, I am not really pleased with it, doesn't look very good yet, needs some more work), and now came time to think of advertising, and I don't know where to start and what makes sense. My niche is very narrow and the companies that are in the business are very big, have history in the business, are respected and I cannot compete with them. Although, I know local developers and builders and can find very good projects, but it is really difficult to make somebody believe that I am not a fake, I really have connections there, know what I am doing and that they can trust me. From my experience from Eastern Europe, I know that this business is usually done by referals (this is how I did it there), so, what do I do, how do I gain trust, if nobody knows me?

Ok, any ideas on the subject? Do you think that this idea of mine can have any future or should I just quit and find something more sustainable?

Thanks a lot