How do I get started once I decide?

Now comes the overwhelming part: finding a place.  You've decided on the country, how do you decide on which part of the country? 

 We chose a 3 bedroom townhouse in Estepona with

views of the Sea, Golf, Mountains and even the pool!

Hoping to have it completely ready to rent by June!!

 Photo from model home.

  If you plan on living there for a good part of the year, then look at a location in parts of  the country that appeal to your senses. This, after all, is the place you will call home.

 Travel Hint: If you really want to make sure a country is "the one", another way to decide is to travel back a few times and stay for at least 10 days if possible in a rental to see if this is true for ALL involved.  Shop with the locals, start learning the language, basic phrases, if English is not commonplace, use public transport, subways and other daily life chores.   If you get to the end of the stay and you are excited to leave and go home and I'm not talking that you have little ones at home that you really miss or need to get your animals out of boarding or get back to your amazing career.  I'm talking about just ready to leave.  If you still have or do not have these obligations and want just "one or two more days please" to see one more beautiful alley, one more evening beach walk, one more ski run, then this may be the area!

 If you plan on using more as a rental for additional income and a place to stay a few weeks out of the year, then maybe look more at where the tourism is higher and you will have an easier time guaranteeing rental.  When we first started looking and talking about doing this, we were looking at a place where we could go for weeks at a time and use as our home base as we traveled in and out of other countries and store clothes/shoes/accessories and amenities so we didn't have to pack anything but a carry on bag. Because I take everything I own even for a night in Vegas, this was so exciting!!  Well government laws shot that down too.

Quick note: By law, you will have to maintain a bank account in the country you buy property. All payments must come from that account. You can transfer money in, but any payments need to come out of your overseas bank and profits, if you rent, have to stay in that country.

Oh what the heck, let's just get that over and done right now.  For the record, I hate this rule. We didn't have the money to buy our new townhouse in our savings account. (Who does in this financial climate?)  But we did have it in our retirement portfolio.  The difference?  When you use money from your savings or from profits from the sale of your house, you can do whatever you want. Or if you qualify for a loan, they have great 20 year loans at 3% interest, and do a monthly payment.  The younger you are, the longer the loan. Deduct your age from 75, with the maximum of 40 years, is how long you can get a loan for. Debt needs to be paid off by 75 years of age.  Pretty good rule if you ask me! 

Using retirement funds.  This is the part of the whole thing that drives me absolutely crazy!  Because your retirement is not taxes, you cannot benefit from the funds in any way and staying in a property purchased with retirement funds is considered benefiting. If you get caught even staying one night, just one night, the fees and fines could be such amounts that you might even have to sell your property to cover them.  You would be taxed on the retirement amount plus more.  Our financial advisor told us about a client that thought he could sneak in under a friends name. Well he was caught and by the time all was said and done, he was out over 75k for a 5 night stay.  So, like me, I was still skeptical and kept asking: what about.....? Well, it finally sunk into my thick skull that it was a no-no and I would have to live with it.  How does the government know? Well the

y work with Interpol and the IRS. When you buy real estate overseas, your passport is flagged.  You will be audited.   When you travel overseas and stay in a rental, just like your hotels and tours and cruises, you will need to provide your passport.  This gets submitted to the government. (It's also for the government, in a disaster, to know where there citizens are to get them out.)  If you have a "Big Brother is watching issue" please go check out a Happy Little Elf story.  Unless you are the FBI's most wanted list, this should not bother you!!  

If anyone wants a list of every possible weird question I asked and others...send me a note and I will do a page!
Be prepared to keep excellent records as you will get audited. That is a guarantee.  If you are doing everything by the book, using other accommodations when you go to care for the property and outfit it, everything will be perfect. 

Beautiful Beach in Estepona