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Buying Property in Panama - My Experience
By Kurt Smith
Hi, Since it is real estate week I thought I’d share my experience of buying property in Panama. The reason for investing in Panama for me was on advice from an advisor I met on my travels and who lived in Panama at the time. Living in the UK it’s not an area I’d have initially have looked to invest in, but it sounded like a good opportunity at the time. Having first invested in some land I got advised that building a house on this land would represent a great selling or renting opportunity. The build project started early 2008 and should have taken about a year at which time the house would be rented or sold. Today, neither of these has happened and the house is still neither sold or rented. In addition the following issues have arisen:
- Cost of project increased by more than 50% over the initial plan
- Builder left project before it was completed
- Build completed 1 year late
- Adviser who lived there and managed the project has left Panama to move back to the US (and is trying to manage the project over the phone)
- Garden damaged within 1 year through lack of maintenance
- House burgled and damaged through broken pipes I could continue the list, which never seems to end as the misery seems to continue. Hence, lessons learned from investing abroad:
- Choose a country/location you know yourself and is easy to access yourself
- Find local people to trust and who you’re confident about will stay there until the end of your project (which is normally when you sell up)
- Choose something you can use yourself or rent to friends as holiday home in case all goes wrong and you cannot rent or sell
- Be very careful when you buy on credit and need to service debt and interest on a property which is not rented or completed I hope other people have had more luck than me with their real estate ventures, though I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had some bad experiences. Btw, if anyone has any contacts in Panama or wants some info on the property which is in a very desired and prime location, than feel free to contact me as any help would be appreciated at this stage. |
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Thank you for sharing these "Words to the Wise" about real estate investing, Kurt.
It's very difficult to safely invest in foreign countries, unless you can afford to throw away the money. Stay home and invest locally!!
Best wishes.
Frederick
We are interested in where your property is in Panama. We are planning our second trip to Panama for two or more months this winter. We were thinking about looking at property, your article was very insightful. We are currently doing caretaking positions around the world, when we are not in Billings, MT USA doing our semi-retired home renovation projects. We do have a web site for our caretaking and possibly this could be an advantageous situation for both of us.
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http://kfs.qondio.com/
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This intel was contributed by Kurt
Kurt
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May, 2012
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