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

23Close the Deal

Around the enormous table sat five adult siblings, three with spouses, two with attorneys, one with a grown son, plus the real estate agent for the seller, his two representatives, our real estate agent, our agent's boss, and Lief. It was the summer of 2003 in Buenos Aires. Over the preceding 12 months, we had bought three apartments in this city in the wake of Argentina's 2001 currency debacle and subsequent property crash. We arranged our schedules to be able to participate in the closing of the third apartment personally. We were purchasing from the five children of the elderly owner who had, not too long before, died in the apartment in question.

Argentines traditionally (with good reason) don't trust banks. Following the 2001 collapse, they really didn't trust banks. Real estate closings, therefore, were all-cash transactions that take place in the offices of currency houses, like the one where Lief sat that sunny summer morning. Papers went back and forth among siblings and attorneys, attorneys and agents, attorneys and attorneys. Then the agent for the currency house appeared. She had the cash. We had wired down our funds a couple of days beforehand so that the required cash bundles could be prepared. It was a $220,000 transaction.

The cash wasn't simply going from buyer (us) to seller. There were multiple sellers, each due a different percentage of the purchase amount. Into the room next, therefore, came the bill counter, the kind of machine that drug ...