October marked the four-year anniversary of our first purchase in Tamarindo, Costa Rica! While we had owned long-term rental real estate for over 12 years at that point, Condo Boom was our first vacation rental. Even with a strong property manager with vacation rental experience and SuperHost status on Airbnb, we still need to manage […]
Four million US workers quit their job in July 2021 alone. So many employees are quitting that the phenomenon has been dubbed the Great Resignation all over the media (Harvard Business Review, NPR, the BBC and more). The dearth of employees makes this a great time to earn more money and jumpstart your FIRE goals. […]
October is Filipino American History Month in the US. I’m a Fil-Am, and apparently Fil-Ams are the second largest Asian American group in the US! Though Scott is not Filipino, we have been a couple for over 30 years, and he is an honorary Fil-Am, having attended many large and loud family events. We both […]
Maybe it’s turning 50 or maybe it’s the pandemic upending things, but whatever the root cause, I’ve become more introspective. I have been rethinking my perfect day (turning 50, part 1) and what that means for the next few years (turning 50, part 2). I feel like I’m ready for big changes to my business […]
A recent Twitter conversation reminded us about how we often refer to our rental properties birthing babies, when we tap the equity in them to buy more houses. We used a cash-out refinance of our two North Carolina rentals to buy our condo in Costa Rica. Essentially, our Asheville places birthed Condo Boom. You can […]
Wondering how should one start if I am looking to buy a single family in Costa Rica. I have been there a couple of years back and would look to have a place that we can use when travel and then rest of the time can use as vacation rentals. – Sushil We are not […]
We recently moved into a condo that we had owned as a rental for 7 years. While the tenant was great (e.g., paid on time, low maintenance), the place still needs a lot of work. We also have very different tastes. I think the tenant had migraines or otherwise didn’t like light (vampire?) because the […]
When the pandemic upended our travel plans, I threw myself back into work so seamlessly that I figured that’s what I would do until normalcy resumed. However, as we are well into year two of the pandemic, and things seem to be getting worse, not better, I find myself rethinking my initial assumption. If travel […]
Both Scott and I turned 50 this year. Neither of us are into celebrating birthdays, and we are still in the midst of a pandemic, so we didn’t throw a big party or anything else extraordinary. I also wasn’t anticipating a mid-life crisis or other inflection point. In fact, I felt that turning age 48 […]
I live in Costa Rica also and I read a few of your articles. I was wondering, Instead of investing in Costa Rica real estate, Why not become private hard money lenders yourselves? That is what I do and it is pretty much a no-lose deal if you do it right. Any reason why you […]
