Where to Buy an Overseas Home ?

[firebug24k]

Land ownership in SE Asia is not a trivial matter if you're not from the country. Also keep in mind a semi-permanent visa can require you to keep large sums of money in a bank account for long periods of time, something that isn't always easy to do.

Here's a good link that compares land ownership in various countries in SE Asia:

Foreigners Buying and Leasing Property in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos

EDIT: Another link that is useful: http://www.doingbusinessthailand.com...p-in-asia.html

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by firebug24k

Land ownership in SE Asia is not a trivial matter if you're not from the country. Also keep in mind a semi-permanent visa can require you to keep large sums of money in a bank account for long periods of time, something that isn't always easy to do.

Here's a good link that compares land ownership in various countries in SE Asia:

Foreigners Buying and Leasing Property in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos

EDIT: Another link that is useful: Buying Property: Comparing Foreign Land Ownership in Asia | DoingBusinessThailand.com

We have non-immigrant retirement visas for Thailand and there is no requirement to keep any amount of money in a Thai bank account.

[firebug24k]

Originally Posted by Doodles

We have non-immigrant retirement visas for Thailand and there is no requirement to keep any amount of money in a Thai bank account.

Yes I agree, not arguing here (ex-wife was Thai)

Just want to make sure that anyone seriously considering buying land/property anywhere in SE Asia reads all the fine print and does their homework to make sure that they're really getting what they think they're getting.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by firebug24k

Just want to make sure that anyone seriously considering buying land/property anywhere in SE Asia reads all the fine print and does their homework to make sure that they're really getting what they think they're getting.

Absolutely! You need to check, double check, triple check and still you may find out you were wrong! Buying overseas, especially in a third world country, is not for the faint of heart. Rules change constantly and you have to be patient and flexible.

But we still recommend it and we love Thailand!

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Doodles

We have non-immigrant retirement visas for Thailand and there is no requirement to keep any amount of money in a Thai bank account.

Of course to remember that is a permission to stay. and not a "right".

Permissions can get withdrawn at any time, or the renewal terms changed. Govts come & go and alliances change (although would be surprised if the Thais move out of the American orbit any time soon - but I am sure some folks said that about Cuba. or Venezuela..............).

Only mentioned (for others) as something to keep in the back of one's mind if planning long term away from somewhere you have the right to stay.

[Tom and Maje]

We decided on St Thomas. I probably would have prefered the South of France but my husband wanted it in the US. We can rent out house out for a vacation rental when we are gone, easy access to air transport to the rest of the world, good boat facilities, wonderful restaurants, warm with great people.

Maje

[Tempest245]

Look next door ..Tortola.....just a thought..

[JustThinking]

Originally Posted by Saucy Sailoress

Anyway - does anyone have first hand experience of cruising on rental income - and if so, where is your home? How do you receive your income? How well does it support your cruising (ie, can you cover costs etc)

Maybe I can chip in at this point a bit.
Prior to my "Victoria" getting stolen I made excellent money chartering - downside: Kept you busy with tourist and less time to just cruising; Upside: Cash :-)
Eventually I started to switch to living part time on dirt (Florida, Orlando) great for a change NOt to see the sea....
Had a house there from 1992 through 2003 - while during the last 3 years I tried to rent it (civilized country!) while going back to full time cruising.
I paid for the pool-care company (and they did charge my CC regularly) ... I did pay for the lawn-care company (and they did charge my CC regularly) ... and I did cover the cost for the property manager (broker) as well. Only job of the property manager: Make sure the pool and lawn people do their job, keep an eye on the tenants and if one vacates, find a new one, and, since I had a tiny 30K mortgage left on the house: make sure the cheque goes to the bank every first of the month.... (mind you, all of that was long before web-banking became "normal"):
Result: Pools and lawncare AND property manager defaulted (more or less together with all three tenants we had over time) and it was pure coincidence that we just dropped by without notice twice, just in time to bring the mortgage current which both times had already started foreclosure!!! (a 300K+ home going into foreclosure over 30K!)
We eventually halted the business / chartering to live in the house (after having it fixed up yet another time!) until it was sold (Thanks God prior to the crisis)

Second:
I inherited a cute little house in Kitzbuehel/Austria which is like THE upscale skiing turf in the European Alps, second maybe to only Lech or St.Moritz (meaning: one should think that's a civilized clientele?!)
Mountains not being my thing I again decided to rent to allow us to ease up on the pressure having to make money with charters....
Result: The very first tenant (a local) moved in, payed the security deposit ... but never a dime after that. Not for power, not for telephone and least of all for rent!
Took me 1.5 years and a lot of money for attorneys to get her out of the property which she left destroyed due to a bunch of large dogs she kept locked in the house during the day..... (can U imagine?)
Mind you, that was Austria, and I am Austrian ... but from a different state than where the property was in, where the court was at in which jurisdiction the case fell and where also the tenant was from. (Locals just dont hurt each other)

Summary:
While living in Orlando I made good money buying, fixing and renting RE. It was fun, no probs, .... but I WAS THERE(!) to keep an eye on things myself.
One thing I never, ever will do again is to rent property I am not living right next to, at least most of the time!

Evicting tenants at default in the US (at least in Florida) is fairly easy - most other countries I know of have massive "consumer protection laws" which translates into you - ("the moneybag") always are the a*se while the "poor tenant" (aka: consumer) may trash your property, may default on his/her payments, may cause you endless grief but still will be the one protected AGAINST YOU (!) - the rightful owner - for very long stretches of time!
If the rental property would be right next door to my parents or sisters home? If they would be keeping their eyes peeled? Maybe! Maybe I'd do it again ... but anywhere else on the world? N.E.V.E.R!!!
(And mind you: both the above examples are talking about "civilized" countries/regions with a functioning legal system! I shudder when imagining what your odds would be if you'd not be in the USofA or anywhere in Europe but in some (as charming and loveable as they may be!) "third world country"!
Even if you'd make sure that your tenant would also be an expat. Expats have the tendency to vanish if things dont work out as they where dreaming (and they never work out that way!) - no way of you preventing that expat turning YOUR property over to some local while you are cruising somewhere else for a little money on the hand ... and upon you returning you again have a Local to battle with and not "just another expat"....

My advice from the bottom of my heart: DO NOT BUY property anywhere where it's nice and where you are not physically present most of the year and where it's "nice" (attracting those low lifes who think that one still can live a life in paradise without having to work harder for it than you would have to at home!)
Everything else would financial suicide! - Especially if you'd have to factor the income from the rental into your own monthly budget!

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by Tempest245

Look next door ..Tortola.....just a thought..

We looked at Tortola but the island is a little too quite for us and we'd need a visa to live there.

Maje

[Tom and Maje]

Find someplace nice and only do vacation rentals using a reputable agent.

[JustThinking]

Originally Posted by Tom and Maje

I probably would have prefered the South of France.....

Good for you that you went with your husbands choice!
Southern France is great! .... in them movies!
Reality is obscene high crime rate, obscene cost of living, and the internationally quite unique absolute refusal of the French to speak any other language but French!

I live on the Island of Mallorca which has A LOT going for it.
(a) It's considered the "18th state of Germany" (a joke due to the many Germans living here) - same for Brits and Dutch. Consequently:
(b) There is nothing in terms of you might possibly want or need (consumer goods and/or medical care at any level!) you would not find here.
(c) multiple(!) daily flights on a year round basis (not in season only) to pretty much every village-airport anywhere at least in Germany and UK ... and these flights are cheap! (Its cheaper for me - and faster(!) - to fly from Mallorca to Munich, than it would be to take the train from Vienna to Munich!) I am taling in the neighborhood of 50 bucks per leg!
(d) it being an Island there is virtually NO CRIME here since: where would them crooks run to?! :-) And there are thousands and thousands of multi-million Dollar Homes here which sit unattended most of the year! But we do have an excellent and very effective Police here as well! (Pretty much every VIP in Europe owns a home here - as do international one like Michale Douglas whom you can see strolling unbothered through his "home town in Valdemossa" for the simple reason that no one does get excited here over a VIP because there are way too many of them.
(e) The climate is very nice. Not too hot in summers where mainland Spain frequently suffers from long stretches of 40°+ (C) plus severe Water problems. Mallorca basically is one huge cave with more than plenty of water (hence 18 golf courses on such a small island!)
Winters are mild - last year it was unusually "severe" - we had snow twice, 1" that lasted for 10 minutes each time (but: The climate is not "sub-tropical")
(f) Most RE here are second or third homes - a market that was extremely effected by the crisis. So with cash in your pocket you currently can buy for 30-50 cents on the Dollar! (and that sure will change again!)

There BTW are lots of people who leave the South of France to move to Mallorca (Ibiza and Menorca being a different story already!) because its nice, safe and - except for property prices - quite cheap!

'nough said, - if anyone cares for or needs any information to, about, in, for Mallorca: Feel free to give me a holler!
:-)

[Tom and Maje]

Originally Posted by JustThinking

I live on the Island of Mallorca which has A LOT going for it.
(
:-)

I lived on Mallorca when I was a child. My grandfather is burried there.

Maje

[osirissail]

Hud3 and D.O.J. have the best comprehensive posts of the considerations you need to thoroughly research.
- - From the psychological standpoint, expat communities run the gambit from copies of life back at your original home country to radical departures and basically opposite styles of life.
- - The former is for folks wanting to get out from under the financial/political oppression of living back in their home country but still have a reasonable resemblance of the same lifestyle.
- - The latter is for folks who want to enter a totally new/different/exotic world with little or no resemblance to their former home country lifestyle. For those brought up in the western hemisphere the eastern hemisphere is about as exotic and "far away from" as you can get.
- - You can browse/search the web for various "expat" forums for just about every country in the world and start to get a feel for the "rules" and complications of wanting to be an expat in that particular country. There will be significant information about ownership; resident alien/citizenship considerations and all the "fine print" of living in a "foreign country." There are a significant number of countries that has a maximum limit on your being there unless you go for resident alien/citizenship.
- - If you are significantly getting older, there are considerations of where you will be able to get the medical and social support systems that you will start needing. Usually that means returning to the home country or a possession/associated territory.
- - If children are involved there are moral and ethical considerations of restricting or enhancing their opportunities for their own future life.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by JustThinking

Good for you that you went with your husbands choice!
Southern France is great! .... in them movies!
Reality is obscene high crime rate, obscene cost of living, and the internationally quite unique absolute refusal of the French to speak any other language but French! . . .
:-)

Having lived in the south of France for some years, I have had the total opposite experience and opinion. Never had any problems and never had to bother to learn much French beyond being able to buy food and order meals in restaurants. I found a large number of southern French who speak English better than I speak French, especially among the younger people. Loved the place.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by JustThinking

... Southern France is great! .... in them movies!
Reality is obscene high crime rate, obscene cost of living, and the internationally quite unique absolute refusal of the French to speak any other language but French ...

And Frenchmen, should speak other languages (than French) in France, why?