Hi,
My wife and I run a successful IT Service Company, but we are interested in buying our first rental property or a second cashflow business. We know there are thousands of ways to do that here in the USA, but we are trying to see if there is some way we can help my wife's siblings while investing at the same time. My wife is from Venezuela, and thankfully she is a U.S. Citizen. Unfortunately, her siblings had to flee Venezuela 3 years ago, and after trying to survive in 3 different countries we made the decision to move them to Costa Rica and help support them there. We made that decision because we are familiar with Costa Rica because of our involvement with some church mission trips we have helped with down there for many years.
Her siblings have refugee status visas in Costa Rica, but they are still limited on what they can do for work. Since they are not permanent residents, nobody wants to hire them, and they are finding out that people don't really hire for odd jobs like landscaping, running a store, etc. they will hire their own citizens first. This means they will probably have to stick to entrepreneurship and get creative.
Unfortunately, leaving Costa Rica is not an option for them anymore as other countries require a visa to get in. They could possibly come to the USA in several more years, but we have left no stone unturned in trying to do things the right way.
While we are sending them about $500-$700 per month to help with their cost of living, I am a firm believer that there must be some way that we can help them start a business or get involved in real estate. We have looked at several options, but part of the problem is that we cannot get leverage down there like we can here. Everything has to be bought with cash or owner financing (rare). We have about $25K to $50K cash that we can invest, so we are open to a partnership opportunity if someone has some capital and wants to partner. Here are some things that we have thought about that could be mutually beneficial to them, us and a potential partner:
* Hostel - We could partner with someone who can help with the purchase of a hostel. They could stay in one of the rooms full time and run the facility to provide cleaning, hospitality services, etc.
* Multifamily/Apartment - Ditto
* Co-work office space - They could run the day to day operations, and we could provide them a small apartment to stay in
* SFH - We could help them get a place of their own so that they (well, WE) can stop paying another landlord rent and build equity
* STR - There are a lot of opportunities for vacation rentals, but again it comes down to cash
* Retail store - We could acquire a small business selling food, clothing, etc.
It might be easier to use that money to invest in a STR here in the USA and just keep sending them money, but we are trying to see if we can find a way to put them to work or acquire an asset instead of them just getting money from us and us paying their landlord.
Thank you in advance if you have any interest in making some suggestions here. If you have been interested in Costa Rica like we have, we should talk. I have literally researched what can be done for 3 years now, and I have been hesitant to post but I decided to go ahead and ask.
Have a blessed day!
