All Forum Posts by: Jorge Castro

Thanks, @Andres Calderon!

I understand what you say, the risk perception to invest in a developing country like Mexico is higher for investors that know this activity in a higher regulated and organized market like the US. My goal is to share as detailed as possible the process of my investment, to share my experience and who knows, maybe there will be investors interested in trying something new. Or at least I would love to get feedback on how I present the information, so that investors with more experience than me, can have a clear picture of what I am doing and give some advice on how to improve my performance... I am a believer that exposing ideas to a different point of view enriches any endeavor, and you never know, by doing so, what will happen, and that is why I like this forum and why I like to share this project...

So keep in touch, so you can see how it evolves, I have a feeling it is going to have a happy ending😎

Hi,

I am excited because finally I pulled the trigger and bought my first property. I sold a house I was renting and with that money, I could buy this "new" house and have some money left for the rehab.

My main objective for sharing this project is to understand what investors care about before, during and after an investment is done, so I am willing to answer all your questions and share with you all, the information related to the project. At the end of the process I would like to end up with a good understanding of the questions that need to be answered to potential foreign investors. Maybe my future projects could be appealing to more than one member in these forums.

The name of this project will be URDANETA LOFTS. 

It is a house of approx. 1,700 sft of construction, over a land of 700 sft (21ft x 33ft)

The house has 3 floors

Purchase price $102,500 USD

It is well located, it is on a main street of Guadalajara City. We have three metro lines, the house is just in front of line 1 of the metro, 600 feet away of URDANETA station. Two big hospitals are in the surroundings and the industry zone, no more than 5 blocks away.

The idea is to rehab the property and fit at least 9 175 sft studios (each studio will have a bathroom, small kitchen and bed)

I am trying to reach young professionals or doctors, looking for a place to stay, the rent I am trying to get is a minimum of $250 USD per studio per room

The rehab will be done in 2 stages

First stage should cost no more than $25,000 USD and this rehab is needed in order to be able to get a mortgage credit. At this moment this house does not qualify for morgage criteria of the Mexican banks, mainly because there is open space missing needed to reach a ventilation. 

With this rehab, the expected valuation of the property is $150,000 USD

The second stage of the rehab should cost around $35,000 USD for 9 studios +  $1,200 USD per studio in furniture.

Here is a link of a video of the property

Let me know your thoughts, what would be interesting to know about this property? what do you think about the deal? is it a good deal?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Jorge Castro

@Jonathan Greene thanks for your comment!! I am doing the due diligence at the moment, until now, it looks good. If this is an option, and the deal I am looking at keeps promising, I would like to share it with you and go through it... I am not sure if this is an option, but it would be great if you find it interesting... let me know if this is something we could do...

@Joe Villeneuve thanks for your comments!!

"...sometimes the best deals, are the one you DON'T make." Thanks for this!!

@Tanner Sherman thanks for your post! Definitely! the thing comes when there is a deal that fits the criteria, and I start asking for more information and things keep looking good, I feel this is the one that could be my first deal, and excitement is there and I just want to hear this type of advises I am getting from you guys, it helps me focus, thanks again!!

@Danielle Jackson Thanks for your comments! I understand what you say, the real thing is that going through a promising deal gets me excited, I am sticking to the numbers and letting them give me the answer, but I can not stop getting excited. Maybe its because I haven't done a deal like this before...

Hi!

I am new to this Real State world, I have been, and still am a CEO and founder of a pharmaceutical company for animal health here in Mexico. Real state has always been a "huge" deal for me, I always looked at it as something for people with a lot of money, but recently this has changed and opened a completely new world, full of possibilities for personal growth and a clear path for financial freedom.

I have been looking for my first deal very hard for the last 4 weeks, so far, I have gone through, maybe 150 properties, and 2 with some potential. I am looking for houses to buy and hold and rent in a high-intensity scheme, meaning as many rooms in the property as possible. I discarded one of the potential properties I found, and now I am going through a revision process for one property that looks promising. I fear that since I want to have my first deal so bad, I will force my "promising" deals to match my financial objectives, what would you recommend to keep my head focused and not let my emotions rule the analysis of my deals?

@Mike Lambert I forgot to metion in my last reply, I am not sure if you will get notified, so now I mentioning you, sorry for that...

You read my feelings, exactly that is something I do not like of what they do, this sales strategy is used in different products and typically the experience is not pleasant. They use it a lot, my feeling is that they started on their own, and they found a way to do it, now they are looking for OPM to keep growing. If you ask me, the main interest they look after is their own, but I wouldn't say that is something bad, I think that at the end, your ow interest is the one that make things move. If by pursuing your own interest you can impact in a positive way to others, you will get to your goals easier and faster, don't you think? So, for these cases, I try to have a clear mind and get the best out of it.

You are right, they are not inventing the wheel, and they say so, what they are doing, is just spreading information, educating people, gaining credibility and once they have prepared the land, they use it in their advantage and if they do not harm others, it should be ok. My feeling is that they are growing fast, and eventually they could get greedier and bad things could happen.

I started to look for other sources of information, so I came to bp. I see that this is sort of their inspiration to do what they do, so I am more confident in going after this path. What I like better on bp, is that there is no selling, is more about building community and being a source of information and networking. I am excited! I am sure, soon I will be doing my first investment.

Thanks for the chat, Mike, it has been a pleasure! let's keep in touch, who knows, maybe in the future we can do something together! Thanks again for your time!

@Nick Peters thanks a lot for your information, that post is great!!