When we decided to buy real estate abroad, one of the critical steps was figuring out where we would get the money to buy. Since we had settled on desirable Tamarindo, we knew that properties would sell relatively quickly so we would have to decide quickly and be able to close quickly (or at least show we could close quickly).
Here are eight options we considered for financing our international purchases.
With 15 properties in our portfolio and a tendency to be risk-averse, I think a lot about how quickly and in what order we should pay off mortgage debt. We own six of our rentals free and clear – i.e., zero debt – but that leaves nine mortgages, including our primary residence. Our loans have different balances, different interest rates and different maturities. I rank ordered our mortgage debt based [...]
Our oldest daughter is finishing up her last year of college. She got a full tuition scholarship to a city college, which saved us over $200,000 over four years vs going to a private college, an opportunity cost large enough to buy a house outright for cash! While we didn't do that, we invested that money in her future in other ways, including real estate. While we dodged the college-tuition [...]
