These windows of opportunity can be excellent opportunities to double our money.  In the case of Brazil we are purchasing a property at a great discount.  In effect we can assume that we might well realize a 150% profit over every dollar we invest. For example, if we purchase a condo in Rio de Janeiro for $10,000 - we are in effect purchasing a property with a real value of $25,000 [or more.]  Once currencies rates come back into line, the property can be expected to rise to it's real value. 

In addition, we are buying in a depressed market, or what can be called a 'buyer's market.'  This further depresses the current price in real terms, in addition to the opportunity created in currency terms. The Economist recently had very stong and positive bullish comments about Brazils future, despite it's current downturn. 

Brazil is the largest producer of the so-called third world, and it’s overall potential is absolutely staggering. To give its potential some sort of perspective let’s liken it to Australia, a country which is not considered a third world country by any stretch of the imagination.

Australia has a Gross Domestic Product of US$340 million and a human population of 18 million.  Brazil has a Gross Domestic Product of US$785 billion and human population of 158 million.  Brazil’s economy is 2000 times greater than Australia’s and Brazil has at least two cities whose overall population just within themselves exceeds the entire population of Australia.  There is no word to use for Brazil’s size and potential other than staggering. (Anyone who has had several caipirinha, Brazil’s deservedly popular national drink, will surely agree with our assessment). 

Offshore Real Estate as Investment 

I strongly believe that offshore real estate is today the best investment available, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  I believe that the reasons are obvious, and I have stated them before, and I will state them again.  Simply put, I believe that governments and their borders and the concept of government and borders are obsolete.

We humans are only holding on to these concepts because we have no clear precedent to call forth to guide us. A hundred years from now this will all be quite apparent ~ we will recognize that we live on one planet and that the borders were meaningless constructs. Today, of course this is difficult to accept. 

The concept of deterritorialization is new, but new things are certainly not without precedent in our evolution, or we'd have had no evolution.  When human beings moved from grunting tribalism to the idea of kingdom ? empire the idea was new... when human beings moved from monarchy to democracy the idea was new...  and of course the idea of a world without borders and/or governments is new, or fairly new, but it is inevitable. We are one species ...despite the fact we often pretend we are not. 

Two things have ushered us into a world without borders... the end of the cold war and the advent of the world wide web of global communications & commerce. Today it doesn't make a great deal of difference where in the world we are located, we can carry on some types of commerce from anywhere; from an island in the middle of the Caribbean to a sheep ranch in the the Australian outback. A game of global musical chairs has begun, and we are now changing places with people willing to come to America to work for a wage we no longer consider attractive, while we begin to move further afield in search of greener pastures. Many of us are now looking for what might be called a 'life.'  Tomorrow, it will make a great deal of difference where we live. But certainly not in the same sense as we now perceive it. Tomorrow we will live where the best real estate exists, where the least crime and repression exists, where population pressures have not decimated the environment and where business is encouraged and not hindered by legislation. We will live there regardless of that place's global location or it's former political posture. If we can now buy an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, a ranch in Argentina (or Uruguay, or New Zealand, or name your spot,)  for ten cents on the dollar of what a similar property inside the United States would cost us, and if we can carry on commerce from anywhere we are, how long do you imagine it's going to take your neighbor to realize the very same thing? As Doug Casey put it, "those folks who buy that ranch in Argentina today are going to have grandchildren who will think they were a genius." 

NASDAQ Down ~ Offshore Real Estate As an Investment For Smart Buyer's 

How much money should we invest in offshore real estate, how safe is it and where should we buy?  It is probably no more risky to buy offshore real estate than it is to invest in the NASDAQ.  All markets are cyclical and all investments are a gamble.  In the case of real estate, you still own a functional or useful property, if you buy right.  In my view that's much better than owning a pile of useless stock certificates.  If you own five acres in Boquete you can always grow a garden on it, the secondary uses for paper stock certificates are non-existent, except as a souvenir, to use as kindle, or to wipe up a mess.  Real estate endures, they aren't making any more of it, and it has intrinsic value.  In this article, we've seen that we can buy it at a significant discount, but we still have to buy smart.  Let's discuss that.

Buying Smart ~ Offshore Real Estate 

Buying smart is not rocket science, especially when it comes to real estate. In the case of Rio de Janeiro you must ask yourself if you'd like to live there, if you'd like to have a winter home there, or if there is a function for the property beyond the idea of making a profit on it.  That is to say, if the property is something you'd like to have in any event, and if you can clearly state that you are prepared to 'not' make a profit on it, then it is pretty hard to go wrong. 

It goes without saying that you should never invest your life savings into any investment, no matter how secure it looks.  Many of us have a disproportionate amount of our entire worth wrapped up in real estate, because in addition to being an investment it is also something more.

There are both practical and emotional reasons to purchase real estate. To many of us a family house is much more than just a piece of real estate, it is a home with a capital ‘H’. 

It is something personal that we make a part of ourselves. True, it is also a  combination of other factors: a major investment, a sort of savings program, a tax shelter and a large part of our retirement insurance. 

It is quite easy to create a 'no lose' situation.

If I am right about offshore real estate, and I think I am, then you will almost triple your money on your investment into well-selected offshore real estate.  If I am wrong, which is always possible, then you will end up with a piece of real estate that you could not have afforded inside the USA, and you will have purchased it at a very good price.  I should point out that for many years I worked in real estate as a 'finder' for large institutional buyers. In all the years I have been investing in real estate I have never lost a penny in real estate and in most cases I doubled and tripled my money. 

Offshore Real Estate - The Internet 

Most of the real estate I've seen listed on the internet is overpriced, especially the offshore real estate.  I suspect that this so because the realtor has an incentive to sell larger more expensive properties.

Another reason is that those selling resort property appealing to foreign buyers know that the foreign buyers do not have first hand knowledge of local real estate prices. There are more goofy real estate agents from Beverly Hills selling real estate in Costa Rica then there are species of birds. I've written about this phenomenon in other articles and I have often pointed out that when buying overseas one needs to go and spend some time looking at the market.  There are tons of bargains out there, I can assure you of that from first hand experience.  I didn't shop for real estate in Rio over the internet, I went there and pounded the pavement.  It is for these reason that we've created an international real estate market place here on EscapeArtist.com, so that buyers can contact sellers directly, and so that non-institutional sellers can list their properties without having to use over-priced real estate companies. 

The internet allows us to gain vast amounts of information instantly, while that is agreeable, it can also be misleading.  We spend our time here at EscapeArtist.com attempting to correct and clarify the huge body of poor and misleading information on living overseas for those wishing to live overseas.  The internet can set us free of the constraints of one nation, but not everything on it gives a clear impression or accurate description of the real world.

The internet's most important virture in my view is that the internet allows you to make a living from anywhere, whether you chose to use it to merchandise products & services, or to telecommute from afar. 

I firmly believe that overseas real estate is the best investment you can make in the present market.  By buying real estate overseas, and living overseas it is possible to place yourself in a situation where you can live tax free, run a company from a desirable location, (such as a beach front or a mountain top,) and live the kind of life you want to live, along with an international lifestyle of options. It is no longer required for anyone to imagine that we live in a global economy, because imagination has nothing to do with it. We live in a world with a global economy. The cultural, economic and strategic interests of nations no longer neatly stop at a line drawn in the sand... nor do they any longer precisely overlap. The nation-state has ended. Tomorrow is on it's way.  Placing yourself globally wherever you want to be is one of today's unique and exciting options.  If you can triple the money you invest in offshore real estate, and at the same time greatly improve your lifestyle as well as enhance your liberties you'll surely have the best of all possible worlds.

Is Rio de Janeiro For You? 

It was brought to my attention by a Brazilian friend that Rio's crime problems have been much alleviated in most of the better areas.  It was my experience that this is in fact true.  I wandered around Rio at all hours of the day and night and felt as safe as I do in Panama City, which is to say, many times safer than I do in many, if not most of the cities in the USA.  I think that Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful place to live, whether you choose to live there part time as I intend to do, or full time as a permanent residential location.  If Rio sounds good to you, then you need to take a trip there and find out what it's all about and if it's right for you. 

Much of what you find about Rio de Janeiro on the internet is out of date, or childishly irrelevant. With that said, I must make clear that I certainly don't think that Rio is for everyone. I won't pretend that Rio is as safe as say, Bocas del Toro in Panama.  But if you like city life you're not going to find it in Bocas. You can roughly compare Rio with New York City and Bocas del Toro with a bargain-basement Bahamas.  If you'd like to live in the Bahamas, but you are not a billionaire then Bocas would be your choice, and a very good one at that.  If you'd like to live in New York City and you don't mind the noise and hassles of big city life then you should consider Rio.  The hectic pace of Rio de Janeiro will not appeal to everyone, just as the hectic pace of New York City does not appeal to everyone. 

A girl from Argentina once mentioned to me that living in Rio de Janeiro was like living in New York City on the beach.  "You don't want to live in New York City on the beach, do you?" she asked me. "Yes," I replied, "I certainly do."