Interested in a blank canvas commercial space for co-working or pop-up shop rentals? How about a small complex of four apartments that could make a boutique AirBNB? A breakfast café or comfort food casual eatery? These are just some of the businesses that came across my radar recently, getting my imagination spinning on brick-and-mortar business ideas in Costa Rica. Even though we’re not looking to add to our current portfolio [...]
In a previous post, we wrote about why we are considering selling some of our rental portfolio, specifically our properties in Indianapolis. One of the alternatives to selling outright would be to change property managers. While we wouldn't realize cash from a sale if we continued to hold these properties (one of our key reasons for selling is to deploy the cash from a sale into other investments), switching out [...]
Scott and I are divided on whether to sell our Indianapolis rental real estate. I’m on Team Sell, and since I tend to blog more frequently, I have already posted the bundle for sale.😊 Seriously, for marital bliss I wouldn’t recommend marketing property you own jointly with your spouse while you still disagree! I did check that Scott is on board with at least exploring a sale (hence the post). [...]
UPDATE 2: we ended up selling this portfolio in mid-2019. It is no longer available. UPDATE: as of October 2018, we decided to keep these properties, deciding instead to change property management companies. ====== With properties in four cities and internationally, it is time to streamline. Our Indianapolis rental investment portfolio is our strongest-performing group from a cash flow perspective. However, we have five properties in Indianapolis, which is more [...]
I had been reading business and personal finance books and news since college, but didn’t focus on real estate topics. Once we realized real estate could be the linchpin of our FIRE journey, I did start reading more real estate news and resources. Here are my favorites.
With two properties and over 20% of our net worth invested in Costa Rican real estate, our actions and wallet have clearly answered Yes to the question, “Is real estate in Costa Rica a good investment.” I’m not a financial advisor so I would never give another person specific investment advice anyway, and just because real estate in Costa Rica works for us doesn’t mean it will work for you. [...]
We recently ran into a string of air conditioning issues with one of our rental properties in Jacksonville, to the tune of $10,000. Read on for details, but this is a good example of buyer beware and that old mechanical systems will fail sooner than later. Did you know there is "$5,000 Rule" for determining when to repair or replace your air conditioner?
We made our second investment in Costa Rica for a variety of reasons. Casa Salita is a 4-bed, 4-bath house with a separate casita, private pool, wraparound deck (with two hammocks!) and an outdoor kitchen. It sleeps 10, so the capacity of it certainly increases its rental prospects. However, it also has unique properties that add income potential and versatility to what we can do with the property: The property [...]
We closed on our first property, Condo Boom, in October 2017 and then on our second property, Casa Salita, just under two months later. Why two investments so close together? Having expanded our real estate portfolio from two rentals in our first eight years of investing to two or three per year since then, we’ve seen the benefit of volume. When you have two properties and one goes vacant, you [...]
Over the years, we've researched and purchased properties on our own, and we've also used turnkey real estate companies to locate, renovate and manage for us. Turnkey properties come with their own benefits, namely cash flow and easy to buy, but they are not completely turn-key.
