All Forum Posts by: Bill B.

Primary business language is fine, probably. Assuming all contracts are in English. I was pointing to a reason Costa Rica has done so well with Americans and Canadians. 

I don’t think a “trusted local developer” would work. How would they become trusted?  Can you imagine as an American you send lets says $200k to a foreign country. You check on your investment and nobody answers the phone. So you check with the bank and they say you or your “agent” withdrew the money days or even weeks ago.  What’s step 1 in getting that money back? You have the name you were given and a disconnected phone. Yes, that can happen in your own country. There just a lot more safeguards when you’re dealing in your home country. 

I’m probably not your ideal client, I’m just trying to help you get in their head. For me to invest in a country I’m not going to visit often and maybe/probably plan to retire in. The returns would have to be so high that I wouldn’t believe them anyway. I try not to get “too far over my skis”. I’d love to invest in Costa Rica or the especially the USVI where I could do a 1031. But realistically. I’m better off investing in mainland America and just spending my profits vacationing there.

My brother is a licensed sailboat captain and they have deals where you buy the boat and they’ll rent it out for 5 years. You get to use it and they make all the payments. Unfortunately it’s still a better deal to not buy one and just pay rent as expensive as it is and as cool as it would be to own a giant sailboat in the Bahamas. MOST people who buy a four wheeler, boat, jetski, snowmobile would be financially better off renting whenever they wanted. That’s how I feel about investing out of the country. BUT. That’s just me. 

Maybe you could go the other way around. Show people how great fixed rate debt on real estate is here and how people form other countries shoudl invest here. Though I’m not sure if we’re still handing out green cards to investors, that could be another incentive. I know plenty of other countries do. Good luck either way. Sorry to ramble on. 

@Becca F.. The ones I hate are the texts where the first contact is..

Are you still interested in selling property X? (Property I never wanted to sell.)

Did you look over my offer for property x? (They never sent one.)

I’m standing in front of your house, I love it, I have an offer for you.

Starting your sales pitch with a lie doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. 

And it’s kind of obvious when they don’t even cross check their contact info so I get 5 texts or calls in 15 minutes. 

It also has to be “better”. Can you get 30 year fixed debt under 7%? Is English the primary language? Do they respect the rule of law and property ownership? Do the foreign investors have any kind of chance against truly local investors who grew up there and know the laws, customs, neighborhoods, etc etc. Also, are the foreign investors seen a net positive for the community or are they hated for “driving up prices for the locals”? That happens to Americans by Amaericans, I doubt it’s much better when the investors are foreigners. I’m old enough to remember when Americans were supposed to hate Japanese investors, and now it’s the Chinese. 

You can have a massive advantage over other Americans. But still get crushed by locals, or step over better local investments chasing the new shiny object.

It happens maybe once a month. But I just click on the button right next to it that says report solicitation/span, whatever it says. 

Ps. I don’t know why salespeople are so enamored with phone calls. I’m almost never a “phone guy” and certainly not when I want an exact record of what was said/promised. 

@Dave Foster. Used him last year. Very smooth, very affordable. Plus you can see all the free help he provides on BP. Good luck. 

Radon above 4 is rated “dangerous”. I don’t know if 14 is only 3X worse. But tell the seller, they will then be required to tell any future buyers if you back out. 

Solving Radon is super easy and relatively cheap for houses. Maybe a few thousand dollars. With a condo you’ll have to search a few things. 

Is there storage, utility or anything else below the first floor for foundation access?

Either ask the HOA or a lawyer if the condo docs say they are responsible for remediation. They are often responsible for the foundation, or anything outside of the studs. Remind them they could be sued if people get lung cancer after they are notified. Maybe you want to ask other first floor owners to test their units. If you get 3-6-10 other owners asking the HOA to pay you may have more power.

I wouldn’t instantly bail without finding out if someone else will pay to fix it, or if it’s cheap as it is in a house. But while I’ve never bothered to test for radon, one you get to triple the “safe” rating I would start to get a little concerned. I certainly wouldn’t move in or feel right letting people rent it. Even if I wouldn’t care if it was 5. Let us know what you find out. 

I would check the rates on a 15 year loan. If those payments are comfortable you’ll save the most interest and get a lower rate. Otherwise you’ll be extending your loan back to 30 years. (Some lenders will brag about lowering your payment forgetting to tell you that there are 24 more of them in your case.)

The PMI would be the other big saver if you're paying it now and can get out of it. If it's close put some more money down and consider the PMI savings as an investment return on your extra investment. But the 15 year shoudl save you at least 1/2 a point. Good luck.

I can’t give you a Boston specific answer. In Las Vegas it can be called a mother-in-law suite or as DR Horton advertises it a “Next Gen Suite”. They charge an extra $30k. But it’s still a single home with the total beds/baths. This is all assuming the suite gets its own entrance. If it can have its own laundry that’s another bonus. 

You can either put a regular door between them if you don’t plan to rent it out. Otherwise you either put a door with two locks one on each side (like a hotel suite), two doors each with a lock on their side, or if money is tight just a lock on the suite’s side. 

Ps. Make sure it’s allowed. Many people have posted about buying homes where a second kitchen was added and they had to tear it out. 

Happens all the time. Especially with condos and townhomes considered condos. Happened to me in Vegas and MN. They’re either leaving the market, or the property type. Try Allstate. They cover 12 for me. 

What if the buyer who “beat you” offered even more than $182k? I assume they did right? Hardly the kind of thing that would make me consider taking $20k less. 

The seller’s realtor is doing a Sh!tty job. They should have reached out to you the second the deal started to fall through. (Unless there was a third offer that was also higher than yours?) heck they should have accepted back offers form the get go. 

If you were willing to pay $182k before, why aren’t you willing to pay $182k today? Will you be happy if another buyer gets it’s for $179k?

The only leverage you’d have I can see is if it was occupied while for sale and now is empty. It was always empty or is still occupied, the other “buyer” anchored the seller even higher. 

As mentioned. Have your realtor reach out and ask what happened. If they found an issue with the property the seller is required by law to disclose it. If the buyer just flaked or life happened those aren’t tempting reasons for the seller to lower the price. But if you don’t hurry you might it back under contract at $182k from another buyer who thought it got away, or one that thinks it’s easily worth $179k since you thought it was worth $182k.