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

21Identify a Purchase

Before you begin looking at properties for potential investment, we recommend creating a spreadsheet to track the details for each rental you view. This will make it much easier for you to compare each option against all the others. When shopping in Latin American markets, don't expect listing sheets. Sometimes you'll be lucky if the agent showing you the apartment is able to answer your questions even about basic things like total square meters and building fees.

What data should you record for each property you view? Your spreadsheet should include the price, the total size in square meters (so you can compare property prices by square meter; this is the only way to get an apples-to-apples read on relative costs), monthly HOA fees, estimated monthly utility expenses, property taxes, and, if they property is currently operating as a rental, occupancy rates over the past two years and the average rent. If the property doesn't have rental history, estimate occupancy and gross rental income with help from the real estate agent and rental managers you interview. Then use the occupancy rates, rental figures, and sales price to calculate net rental yield. This net rental yield projection is a key factor in making a buy decision.

If you haven't ever created a spreadsheet to calculate net yields on a rental property, you can download one to get you started at our Live and Invest Overseas website, liveandinvestoverseas.com/howtodooverseascashflowmath. In some ...