i have had a few issues .. part n parcel though , but once i get a bee in my bonnett .. i make decisions based on gut feeling, sometimes cutting off my nose ..

the saving grace is our agent ..always on hand to turn wrongs into rights and to address concerns..

my exit strategy is unclear.. i would want to buy again , maybe something bigger but will the new price of what i have purchased be enough ??
who knows ..any profit mate will be reinvested or saved to buy again.

perhaps i should wait until it is built first

Ya it so difficult waiting for completion, so many options, different regions...very exciting.
I have recently got involved with shares in land and things are going great. I may never look at property again. Big gains can be made. The investment is in the north of Romania. The project (Phase 1) is putting a deposit on a piece of land i.e. 10% - 15%, getting the drawings done for a big Apartment and villa complex and then (Phase 2) raising money for the final 80% and selling lock stock and barrell to a developer who can make huge money on 800 apartments. It has its pitfalls but its all about getting past phase one.
The beauty is that its beside a city. Whatever about beaches and the sun, people always have to rent in a city and most will buy at some stage, also prices in the 2nd largest or third largest city etc. get cheaper so your are also opening up to investors. Once you have the proper location, your set. Sun destinations can be hit or miss and may be more difficult to resale. I.e. Typical selling period in Marbella is over 1.5 years so. Again hindered by new cheaper developments(off plan) Here timing is so crucial.
But i would love to go to Albania and look at older properties int he city.

Price per metre square has risen out of proportion at the moment in Bucharest but smaller less developed areas offer possibly higher gains with a far better exit strategy. I still would buy in Bucharest but as a long term rental investment. Something to forget about and sell in 5 years.
In Poland Poznan I believe will do well simply because of the amount of inward investment into that Town and area especially.
Not keen on Germany at all because their culture cant change over night, not the best exit strategy there.
I'm incredibly keen on the north east of Brazil Ceara and Recife.
Calabria will be great if they get a handle on the mafia issues and sort out some social problems. Again here the people that get the right location will win. Just because something is cheap doesn't make it a good investment.
I believe that resale property anywhere cant surge in value when the price of new developments remain so cheap.ie sunny beach and they will keep building new developments there for another few years.
When the property market falls back onto the resale market then you will see true growth. Cities seem more resilient to new Development (off plan) restriction growth.
This is why Portugal is so pristine and has only 20% build density. All of the Costa's are destroyed apart from Costa Brava. In Spain the skyline is littered with cranes....(oversupply). The opposite is true in Portugal apart from the East as they are trying to develop it at the moment with prices being 20% -30% or more cheaper there than on the Mid and West Algarve.

your knowledge is killing me dude.

very interesting. adds a different dimension to the subject matter.

ive seen some developments in argentina that have excited me.... a place where id love to go.. in fact we were gonna spend some of our money touring this year but weve seen sense and are investing the money inproperty instead..

a forcasted exit strategy needs to be done for us..

we will be selling on but its a fine balance of wear and tear on the building against rental achievement .. difficult to weigh up at the moment.

its important to have a good relationship with an agent who acts in our best interest. luckily our agent does.. even though i bug the hell out of him, he does a very good job.. he has patience

Im not an expert but i have some thoughts:
Exit Strategy:
1) What are your goals, what do you hope to achieve from this investment
2) Is it an investment or investment/holiday home. Threre's a big difference.
3) Best case scenario what could you get out of it financially in lets say 3-5 years.
4) Worst case scenario what could happen financially to your investment.
5) Why is this country/area going up in value and can it be sustained and for how long. What could stop it in its tracks ?
6) Whats the Capital Gains Tax in that country: Are they thinking of changing it : Take the CGT away from the profit you could make: Is there Capital Gains if you reinvest into that same country again. Does the CGT change after a number of years?
7) What are the buying costs(6-10%) (Legal, Stamp, Notiary, Transfer Tax, Land reg....... etc)
8) How much does your agent charge for selling it
9) What is the worst case scenario rental you could achieve, would it pay your mortgage and costs? research other rental companies in the area. Local knowledge!
10) Why is your investment special, why would it sell instead of the properties beside you
10) Greed is a killer, vital to sell before a market reaches it peak.(like all of Ireland right now)
11) Luck bloody vital
12) Properties in most countries with a growing economy will go up, thats not hard to get, its harder to sell these days with an over surplus of apartments available

our goal is to spend savings which we have done in an emerging market
buy off plan and realise some immediate captial gain
take some rental income ..any will be a bonus but a good yield will make the property pay for itself
sell in the same emerging market and reinvest capital if we can reinvest profit only that would be great.
keep reinvesting and take advantage of other markets..

get to a stage where we pay our morgage off and are available to live morgage free with savings ...then move abroad ..

we are starting small, not getting into any debt as we have a minimum amount of cash at this moment to spend..

our exit strategy has to work on that model.. iam not interested in portfolios or anything like that..i just want to do this with minimal risk and with minimal hassle..... my wife and i have different objectives.. she is all for setting roots , where as i am more clinical , perhaps sterile in some ways.. so what we do has to be a compromise . if we could raise enough cash to get land and build abroad, that would be good to sell on eventually..

Where did you invest before

thats the point .. this is our first..

but it has been done out of sheer will to get some financial stability..

whats borne out of this is a big need to keep doing this and make some money.. we are not wage slaves and appreciate work life balance , so the jobs we have are stressful but not so much career minded. hence the only way to get us out of the mire is through low risk property investment like this..

thanks for your interest

cool, well i keep you posted on different options. Again I'm no expert but if you have any questions pass them on to me and i do my best to answer them. I would like to know about Argentina so if you go let us know how you get on

wot with fine beef , quality red wine and the vibrance of the country .. if i go , i may not come back lol

thats the only down side to this investment ... were unable to go to argentina this year as planned

Hi,,
My 2 penneth for whats its worth.
If this is your 1st investment with a limited budget, Argentina could be a problem, geographically somewhere closer to home would probably suit you better.
All cheap off plans in emerging markets, Bulgaria, Morocco, Romania etc can be a headache, usually take longer, not easy and not guaranteed to flip. Also the real profit in these areas will be when the countries infrastructure has improved greatly.
I would suggest Berlin, has everything going for it, great prices, AAAA+ infrastructure, can come tennanted or rent yourself, a 5 year plan to get the most out of it.
When I sell 1 of my investments that where Im off to.