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Investing in international real estate. Sounds kind of scary, right?
Today’s guest is here to share his incredible story on purchasing multiple properties in Mexico, while living in the U.S.
Patrick from Frugal Safari is a business owner, seasoned real estate investor (both the good parts and the not-so-good parts), a FIRE enthusiast, and a genuinely fascinating guy. He’s from Rwanda, grew up in Belgium, has traveled extensively, has a roller coaster real estate investing journey, and a kinda weird but totally amazing company he runs.
There’s a TON of really fun stuff in this episode, including:
- tips (and definitely warnings) about investing internationally
- Patrick’s entrepreneurship background
- How he slashed monthly expenses from $6k to $2.8k (!)
- How he bought 4 properties in Phoenix at the same time (then promptly lost them all in the market crash)
Patrick is a really, really intriguing guy, and has a ton of wisdom to offer, especially through his stories! He has great stories.
Enjoy 🙂
Show notes and links from today’s episode
- Patrick’s blog – Frugal Safari
- Cabo – So dreamy
- Miss Mazuma interview on the podcast
- Mr. Money Mustache
- The Nordic Theory of Everything
- Mad Fientist – Also on our podcast here.
- GooooOOoooo Banana Slugs!
Key takeaways from our chat with Patrick from Frugal Safari
1 – Real Estate investing is usually high risk. International REI is double-high risk
Patrick’s stories brought out some incredibly important insights into the differences…and dangers…of buying overseas properties.
Namely…every country has it’s OWN unique circumstances and challenges. It’s not nearly as easy to keep track of real estate practices in Mexico as it is….wherever you live.
Political situations can change overnight in some countries, including laws and regulations that could affect your property (if it even IS actually your property. Some parts of the world make it impossible to outright own the property)
Also, be extra careful concerning titles. As in, legal documents that say “Yes, this OTHER person legally owned the property, now YOU own the property.” These documents can be expensive to draw up, but are also extremely important.
Tread carefully and do due diligence REI friends!
(ha. We said do due)
2 – Get a good CPA
Also wise advice straight from Patrick’s mouth to our ears.
Given you’re all a bunch of investing nerds, entrepreneurs, online business folk, real estate investors, and general money loving people, having a saavy accountant can be a huge benefit at a certain point.
Should you go rush out and hire a local CPA to file your taxes? Maybe, but that’s not what we mean.
We’re talking about advanced and extremely complicated financial and tax situations. Buying and sell real estate is a great example.
Capital gains are likely going to exist no matter what country you do business in, and hiring a badass CPA to combat taxes (and also avoid legal trouble with the IRS/authorities) could be well worth the cost.
3 – In the U.S.? Don’t forget your privilege
It’s all too easy to forget the incredible advantages we all have being born (or just living in) an established 1st world country such as the U.S.
We can start businesses today. Blogs tomorrow. We can search online for a rental property and have a title in hand a few weeks later.
Not everywhere else in the world is like that.
It’s way to easy to forget that, so let’s take a moment to be grateful and develop empathy for others while we’re at it.
4 – The two-year emergency fund
I don’t know if you all have heard of an emergency fund or not…
*personal finance cymbal crash
Just kidding, Most of you already know what an emergency fund is (but if not, read this ASAP)…but where most people say 3-12 months of living expenses is the proper amount to save up and store…Patrick suggests something different.
Two years.
That’s how much Patrick uses as an emergency fund, mainly to provide even more safety/comfort during times of high stress in his sales job.
While your situation might not call for this…it IS important to dig into your own circumstances and come up with a number that puts your mind at ease.
Maybe it’s $15,000. Maybe it’s $150,000. It’s going to be different for everyone, based on your current expenditure, and the nature of what you’re doing for income!
Know thyself.
Questions? Like or dislike? Leave us a comment!
We hope you enjoyed this chat w/ Patrick! Feel free to leave a comment below, or in our private Facebook group!
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