Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)

12Fixer-upper—Make Money While Learning the Local History, Language, and Culture (If You Can Survive the Experience)

In 2012, we bought an apartment in Medellín, Colombia. It was nearly 400 square meters in an architecturally interesting building in a prime location and featured a terrace with an expansive view over the Medellín valley and the mountains beyond. It was a one-of-a-kind find.

But it was not the property we'd set out to buy. Our attention had been piqued by reports of annual net rental yields in this market of as much as 20%. We planned a scouting trip and looked at a dozen apartments that could have worked well as straightforward cash-flowing rentals generating that level of return, but it was the oversized apartment in El Poblado that got our attention. It was not rental ready, but the price was irresistible. It allowed us to buy at one of the best addresses in a market we predicted was positioned for rapid and dramatic capital appreciation, in addition to those 20% annual net yields, for the extraordinarily bargain price of $675 per square meter.

In addition, while the straight-up rentals we viewed were each more or less the same as all the others, this was a property of charm and character. At least it had the potential to be charming. The apartment had been the home of a single 80-year-old woman, who had lived in it alone for decades. The kitchen, the bathrooms, the fixtures, and the fittings were all 1950s originals. The place needed a total overhaul, meaning ...