Happy Thanksgiving!
Wherever in the world you’re celebrating this holiday, I hope you’re safe, happy, and surrounded by family and friends.
This Thanksgiving, I’m at my home in Guadalajara, Mexico…and feeling very thankful for the life I get to lead today.
I’m grateful for the home that my wife designed and built for us here…and for my other homes in Cabo, Ireland and on Portugal’s Silver Coast. And I’m fortunate and thankful to have been able to invest in other properties around the world, from Costa Rica to the Dominican Republic to Caribbean Mexico to most recently a beautiful historic mansion on Portugal’s northern border with Spain.
And I’m thankful for the financial independence that I’ve gained through international real estate investing. Since I rent out some of my properties, I have income streams right across the world, which means I live free of the stresses of traffic, commutes, bosses, politics…
All in all, I’m a very lucky man.
And I owe a lot of it to a beach party that happened 16-plus years ago…and the special group that evolved out of it.
I’m at my home in Guadalajara this Thanksgiving. I recorded this walking tour of my residential neighborhood in Guadalajara last year. Click to view it through this private YouTube link exclusively for Overseas Dream Home readers.
Sixteen years ago, in 2008, the global financial crisis was tearing through the world economy. Markets in much of Europe and North America were in freefall. Banks collapsed. There was talk of ATM machines running out of cash. Many of my friends and acquaintances were panicking. Their savings were wiped out, their pension funds decimated.
But I was far away from this chaos…
Several years before, I’d worried that the real estate market in my home market of Ireland had gotten overheated. So, I sold some of my properties in Ireland and diversified into international real estate by buying in growth markets like Panama.
By 2008, when the world was in meltdown, I was in Brazil, hunting for real estate opportunities…
While many Western economies were collapsing, Brazil was on a tear. It was witnessing an economic and real estate boom thanks to huge new investment and a surging middle class.
During my scouting trip, I went to a private party with a friend. He had an invite, and I was his guest. It sounded cool. A beach setting, wine and canapes, and live music. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.
The party wasn’t quite what I expected, though. The host was a real estate developer. The event was his way of giving a small group of select insiders first dibs on his latest project in a new beach community.
There was no show home or scale model, no published price lists or fancy brochures. What was on offer, however, were very sizeable discounts.
Thanks to my insider contact, I was able to lock down two condos. I only had to make a tiny downpayment of $736 on each. Because the market was so strong, two weeks later, I got an offer to sell both condos. I decided to hang tight. I later sold one, for a gross profit of $43,500. I held on to the second condo for longer, and when I did sell, I saw a much bigger gain.
The experience taught me two hugely valuable lessons: No matter how bad things look at home, there is always opportunity somewhere when you look everywhere.
And it pays to get insider access…
In 2008, while the rest of the world was in crisis, I was doing profitable deals on the beaches of northeast Brazil.
After that party, I looked for a real estate investing group that worked together to approach developers and used its collective buying power to get this kind of insider access. I knew that by acting together, a group like this could get exclusive access and big discounts.
But I quickly realized that there was no such group. So I started one and called it Real Estate Trend Alert.
At the beginning it was sometimes a challenge to get into the room with the right developers. They didn’t know about RETA or what we could do for them. These days it’s a totally different story. I get pitched more deals than I can count from developers all over who want to get their deals in front of RETA members.
That’s because, as a group, Real Estate Trend Alert wields an awesome collective buying power. You see, developers want a large volume of fast, discreet sales. It allows them to launch to the local market with confidence and a bunch of sales under their belt, and charge higher retail prices when they do launch. As a result, they are willing to give my RETA group extremely favorable off-market terms.
We get in for less, long before anyone else.
Since 2008, RETA has grown enormously. That means I can get us deals at prices no one else can even dream of, and I can do it before anyone else even hears about the opportunity.
Here’s just one example…
Recently several members of my team put boots on the ground in Santa Maria Golf and Country Club, in Panama City.
Covering 692 acres, Santa Maria is stunning. It boasts a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, a Marriott Luxury Collection hotel (with a chic café and great restaurant), and plans call for a top-notch country club, with an Olympic-sized pool, bowling alley, spa, gym, running track, yoga, squash, and tennis…
A view from Santa Maria toward Panama City. This country club is an enclave of luxury in Panama’s booming capital.
I’ve brought RETA members several exclusive, off-market deals here. One of those was in October 2020 in a community called Ocean House. One RETA member bought a two-bed condo in this deal for $268,200.
My scouts viewed this condo in September and were told that it’s renting long term for $2,600 per month. That’s a gross yield of nearly 12%. Renting long term! They were also told that it would list today for more than $368,000. That’s almost $100,000 more.
At RETA, we’ve done deals like this in desirable destinations all around the world, from Cabo to Mexico’s Caribbean coast, from Costa Rica to the Dominican Republic to Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Montenegro, Panama…
The list goes on. A few more examples…
- $52,200 Boost in Costa Rica—In March, RETA members got in on an off-market deal on Costa Rica’s Gold Coast. This was a chance to own luxury homes in a community called Acquarello Flamingo a short walk to two beaches. I bought alongside members in this deal. In September, the developer told me that two-bed homes similar to those that RETA members could buy for an off-market price of $286,800 were already listing for $339,000…an uplift of $52,200 in just six months!
- Uplift of $212,400—In May 2022, we had a deal in a community in Los Cabos called Monte Rocella. I bought two condos alongside RETA members in this deal. A condo that RETA members could buy for $272,600 later listed for $485,000. That’s $212,400 more.
- $309,018 More—In 2021, RETA members had the chance to buy two-bed condos in a community called Singular Dream in Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Caribbean coast from $265,304. In early 2024, a two-bed condo in Singular Dream was listing for $574,322. That’s an uplift of $309,018.
In the foreground you can see the rooftop of the Singular Dream community in Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. This community features top-class amenities like pools and gyms with stunning views of the Caribbean. RETA members are sitting on huge uplifts from our deals here.
That’s just a tiny taste of the deals we’ve had over the past 16 years of RETA.
And there is so much more to come.
As RETA has grown, I’ve been able to hire a dedicated team of scouts, editors, researchers, accountants, engineers. My team and I are always out here, searching for killer real estate deals. We spend more than $1 million on travel and research every year.
In the pipeline…
- I’m working on something special in Cabo.The Path of Progress in Cabo is an explosion in all directions. Cabo and the Baja are in the early days of a three-decade-long upswing. And RETA’s connections and buying power have put us on the inside of the best opportunities. Even at that, RETA-grade deals are rare amid the soaring demand and scarce supply, but I think I have another spectacular one for RETA members…
- Cap Cana is the Caribbean everyone wants to experience—a place where unparalleled luxury meets the natural splendor of an island paradise, where relaxed exclusivity is a way of life. Spanning 30,000 acres, this master-planned community in the Dominican Republic is set along three miles of glistening white-sand beach, and miles more of stunning Caribbean coastline. It’s a place where the big money of luxury travel are all in, you’ll find a Hyatt…a St Regis…Eden Roc… It’s also home to the largest inland marina in the region, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, a university campus, one of the Caribbean’s finest equestrian facilities, a fire station, and medical and veterinary clinics…Cap Cana isn’t a normal master-planned community. It’s like a city state for the affluent…and I’m hoping to bring members a special RETA-only opportunity…
- Costa Rica’s Gold Coast is set to deliver another incredible opportunityto follow on from the stunning Acquarello Flamingo deal in March. This is a billionaire’s playground… Private jets line the runaways of the growing international airport at Liberia. Playa Flamingo is at the center of the Gold Coast. It’s been identified by multiple heavy-hitting business groups as the place to invest. Restrictions on building and tight permitting have created deep moats here. Supply cannot meet demand and demand is soaring. Short-term rentals are thin on the ground and rates are among the highest anywhere on my global beat. Long-term rental rates are as high, or even higher, than many U.S. cities! I bought alongside members in the Acquarello Flamingo deal and I re-doubled my efforts to get RETA members more…it looks like this is going to pay off for us in 2025.
- Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s RivieraMaya has delivered some of the most amazing RETA deals in recent years. RETA members are seeing gross rental yields in the double figures and own some of the region’s most immaculate and sought-after real estate. Millions of people come to this booming beach city every year…it’s growing fast. But there are still pockets of the best-located land owned by developers we know…that we can do a deal with…stay tuned. I’m expecting exciting things for RETA members in Playa in the first half of next year.
I’ll be revealing the details of those potential deals to members of Real Estate Trend Alert in the coming weeks.
Remember that only RETA members will be able to act on these deals.
As an Overseas Dream Home reader you can join RETA today right here. As a member, you’ll be able to take advantage of RETA’s group buying power and off-market deals like the ones I mentioned above…as well as many other member benefits like our dedicated RETA concierge team, scouting reports, buyer’s guides, our rolodex of contacts, and more. You’ll find all the details here.
Who knows, maybe in a few years’ time you’ll be sitting in your own perfect-weather overseas home and reflecting on how thankful you are that you went international, just as I am right now.
Ronan McMahon, Founder, Overseas Dream Home & Real Estate Trend Alert
P.S. What are you grateful for? Is there a place you’d love to live or own real estate? Let me know here. I’d be delighted to hear about it and it could help shape our scouting plans.
Your Daily Dream Home
Albox, Almeria, Spain
This charming three-bedroom detached villa is set in a tranquil rural setting and sits on a 6,850 square foot plot with mountain and countryside views.
The home has a graveled parking area for two cars and an elevated marble-paved terrace. The garden has mature fruit trees and native plants, with a private rear section accessed through grapevines. Two caves provide storage, while a roof terrace has panoramic views.
Inside, the entrance hallway leads to two double bedrooms with fitted wardrobes. The living room has a wood burner and access to a single bedroom. There’s a traditional-style kitchen-diner with appliances and storage, connected to a family bathroom with bathtub.
The villa is five minutes’ drive from a village with basic amenities, ten minutes from the larger town of Albox, and forty-five minutes from the coast.
Nestled in Almería’s Almanzora Valley, Albox is embraced by the dramatic Sierra de los Filabres mountains, where you’ll find hiking trails with stunning views of the surrounding olive groves and desert landscapes. Down below, farmers cultivate almonds, olives, and citrus fruits in the fertile valleys that receive more than three hundred days of annual sunshine.
The town center comes alive each Tuesday with a street market selling local produce and crafts.
