Real Estate

A good friend of mine had a rent-to-own agreement on the house she was living in, but her application for a mortgage was denied so she was unable to meet the purchase deadline. A rent-to-own agreement is what it sounds like – it looks like a typical lease, except at a specified date, the tenant has the right to purchase the property for an already agreed upon price. For my [...]

I recently finished a new personal finance book, Beyond The Basics, by Sammy Azzouz, a financial advisor out of Massachusetts, and one of his investment topics “beyond the basics” is real estate. Azzouz’ premise is that for most investors their basics will be three things: career, because that provides your earning potential;savings rate to ensure there are earnings left over to invest;building a risk-managed paper portfolio that you can stick [...]

Costa Rica FIRE made a guest appearance on the Real Wealth podcast, which focuses on real estate investing. We were excited to be invited onto the show because we look to Real Wealth as a source for real estate news and ideas and even traveled to their income property showcase in Cleveland last summer. (It was a great example of one of our bleisure trips, where we mix business and [...]

We recently received a reader question asking if now is the time to buy real estate in Costa Rica: Do you think that based on everything that is happening right now, it may be a good time to buy? Are there more properties on the market now in light of the pandemic? I know that this is a broad and likely unanswerable question, just wondering your thoughts on the timing.- John [...]

I had written before about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected our FIRE plans, and this was before a continued spike in cases worldwide and Costa Rica closing its borders. Costa Rica indicated the border closings were through April 12, but the pandemic appears far from abating. Estimates for a vaccine are 12-18 months away. Who knows if the border closure will be extended? Even if Costa Rica does reopen [...]

We get a lot of questions about how to get started in real estate investing. We’re not financial advisers so do not give financial advice, especially specific buy (or sell) recommendations. Besides, investment criteria for a first (or subsequent) investment should vary based on multiple, very personal factors, such as life circumstance, goals and priorities, risk appetite and your talents and expertise. Click to pin me! Instead of making specific [...]

With the upcoming tax season comes the inevitable reckoning with our numbers and seeing how we are doing with our businesses, mutual fund accounts and investing in real estate. We had no new acquisitions but still had six real estate closings in 2019! We did a cash-out refinance on our Florida duplex to pay back a private loan we took from a friend. We also sold our entire portfolio in [...]

We received this reader question about whether to buy a small condo for a first investment: Hi guys,   Thanks for all the really useful info!  I'm thinking of buying a small condo as an income property.  I am a single mum living in Vancouver, Canada at the moment.   Do you think this would be a good idea.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated!- Gillian We are not financial advisers, real [...]

Costa Rica real estate represents over 20% of our portfolio. While we are still bullish on the area, we prioritize diversification in our portfolio, including geographic diversification. While we continually view real estate listings in Costa Rica to stay informed about the market, we are looking for a new area to invest in. We have written before about how we picked Costa Rica and why we selected it for our [...]