Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the world of real estate and construction in Latin America. He discusses the affordability of property, the risks of buying into half-finished projects, and the importance of construction quality. Johnny also touches on the differences in construction standards between Latin America and the First World, the impact of the financial crisis, and the challenges of water management and property taxation. Whether you're considering buying a home or building your own, this episode offers valuable insights for expats navigating the Latin American real estate market.
Johnny highlights that property prices in Latin America are significantly lower than in the First and Third Worlds, with expats often aiming for a First World-style lifestyle. He warns about the risks of buying into half-finished or poorly constructed projects, especially in residential towers, and stresses the importance of checking that at least half of the units in such projects are already occupied or sold. He contrasts the construction standards in Latin America with those of the First World, noting that the middle class in Latin America often has different expectations and financial capabilities, leading to the development of smaller, less expensive housing projects that are popular among locals.
Johnny also discusses the affordability of housing in Latin America, particularly for expats. He explains that gated communities built by a single development firm allow potential owners to get financing directly from the developer at a slightly higher rate, making it affordable for the local middle class. However, he warns that expats often prefer first-world housing and can afford it for less than half the cost in the United States. He shares his personal experience of building a modern, first-world-style house for a relatively low price, emphasizing the importance of oversight during construction to ensure quality. He then delves into the reasons behind the low construction costs in Latin America, highlighting labor costs, the absence of basements and attics, and the lack of insulation and central air conditioning as key factors.
Johnny further discusses the challenges of building or buying property in Latin America, emphasizing the lack of insulation, double-glazed windows, and central heating. He highlights the prevalence of wood-burning stoves and electric heaters in colder regions. He advises expats to consider location, zoning laws, and the importance of choosing high-end areas like Zona Viva or Zona Roja for better neighbors and standards, though these areas come with high land prices. He also recommends gated communities for security and mentions residential towers as a viable option, noting that they can offer good value unless in tourist-heavy areas.
Johnny then discusses the cost and maintenance of properties in Latin America, emphasizing the importance of location and construction standards. He highlights the risks associated with earthquakes and the need for high-quality construction, especially in high-rise towers. He also addresses the water scarcity issue in the region, noting the prevalence of cisterns and private well systems among wealthier residents. Johnny advises expats to prioritize properties with private water systems and to be cautious about construction quality and location.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the challenges of water management in Latin America, highlighting the lack of effective enforcement of zoning and water laws. This has led to unregulated drilling of wells, causing the water table to drop significantly. As a result, well drillers now have to dig much deeper to access water, which requires more powerful and expensive pumps. Johnny notes that this problem is exacerbated by the lack of organization and management in Latin American countries, leading to worsening water shortages before any significant action is taken. He concludes by advising expats to consider buying or building property in gated communities outside of major cities to avoid these issues.
Finally, Johnny discusses the challenges of property registration and taxation in Latin America, using a personal anecdote about an expat friend in El Salvador. He highlights how property values are drastically undervalued for legal and bureaucratic purposes, leading to minimal property tax payments. Despite living in a first-world-style colony, the expat friend experiences significant differences in infrastructure and safety just a short distance away. Johnny contrasts this with the property tax system in the United States, emphasizing the disparity in how tax money is used. The segment ends with a reminder to tune in for the next episode on building a house in Latin America.
Topics
Real estate in Latin America, Financial crisis impact, Construction standards, Buying versus building a house, Middle-class housing in Latin America, Affordability of housing in Latin America, Expats and housing preferences, Construction costs in Latin America, Labor costs and construction practices, Building and buying property in Latin America, Zoning laws and enforcement, High-end neighborhoods and their characteristics
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:26 Discussion on Building vs. Buying a House 00:01:19 Construction Standards in Latin America 00:02:57 Buyer's Market and Risks of Buying 00:04:30 Middle-Class Housing in Latin America 00:05:13 Gated Communities and Financing Options for Local Middle Class 00:06:08 Expats Prefer First-World Housing and Can Afford It 00:07:17 Reasons Behind Low Construction Costs in Latin America 00:10:13 Lack of Insulation and Modern Windows in Latin America 00:10:57 Zoning Laws and Their Enforcement in Latin America 00:11:35 High-End Neighborhoods and Their Standards 00:12:39 Land Prices in High-End Areas and Their Comparison to First World Cities 00:13:25 Colonies and Subdivisions in Latin America 00:13:52 Importance of Gated Communities for Security 00:14:18 Residential Towers as a Viable Option for Expats 00:15:14 Cost and Maintenance of Properties in Latin America 00:15:56 Earthquake Risks and Construction Standards 00:18:05 Water Scarcity and Private Water Systems 00:19:52 Warning About Water Management in Latin America 00:21:25 Water Management and Organizational Issues in Latin America 00:22:21 Recommendation for Expats: Gated Communities Outside Cities 00:24:43 The Good Old Days Are Here Now 00:24:46 Exceptions in Chile and Argentina 00:24:57 Property Registration in Latin America 00:24:59 Undervaluation of Property 00:25:09 A Real-Life Example from El Salvador 00:25:52 The Cost of Living in Latin America 00:26:00 The Joy of Living in Latin America 00:26:14 The Contrast Between First World and Public Infrastructure
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:07] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller, and you're listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, the one of a kind show that tells you what it's like to live, work, play, and or retire in Latin America. So let's get started. What do you say we talk about building a house in Latin America? Is it a good idea? Is it better to build, or is it better to buy? Well, I can answer that question right away. Since the international financial crisis has now hit Latin America in a big way, of course the crisis hit down here a little late. Like how everything else First World eventually rolls into Latin America quite late, sometimes years or decades late, and the First World financial crisis, well, it's just now beginning
[00:54] to show its ugly head down here. And that's about a two-year lag, right? Anyway, properties which are already cheap in terms of First World pricing, I mean, even before the housing crisis hit in a big way, you could usually buy or build a house in Latin America for half or less of what it would cost you in the United States, and an even bigger savings if you're comparing Latin prices with European prices. And when I talk about building a house in the Third World, I'm talking about building a First World style house now. I'm not talking about building according to the standards that are normally set in the Third World. I'm talking about First World construction standards that you're used to. Because let's face it, the way that 80% of Latin America lives, well not to be nasty or degrading, but totally realistic.
[01:40] Let's just say it's more or less like white trash style construction. You know what I mean, like substandard housing units you often see scattered around parts of the South, places you'd never want to live in. And I know by talking to my expat friends that when they came down and decided to build or buy a house, they had a definite idea in mind and it wasn't to live Third World style, but to live in the Third World First World style, or at least with as many of the First World comforts they could get, that is kind of First World, only mixed in with that Third World laid back low stress attitude. And every expat I know will tell you, that can be the best lifestyle you could ever hope to achieve in this world. So again I'll ask, is it better to build or to buy? Well two years ago I would have said it was better to build, but right now, and for the
[02:28] foreseeable future, I'd say five years at least, it's better to buy. Because just like in the First World, construction companies have overbuilt. There are way too many unoccupied office buildings and houses right now. And there's thousands and thousands of projects online and half built. You could practically walk up to any one of these places and make an offer 30 or 40 percent under what they're asking, and probably walk away with a steal. And that's a lot like what you can do in the First World right now. In other words, it's a very lopsided buyer's market. Except when you're buying a single detached existing home, the thing you have to really watch out for is when you buy into a multiple unit project or a residential tower. In that case, you have to make sure that at least half of the other units in the building
[03:15] are already occupied or sold. That's because a lot of these projects end up being half finished and never start up again. And you don't want to be stuck living in a project, even if it's a very high end First World style project when the majority of houses around you are either half finished or vacant. Now that's no good at all. And it's the same thing up in the First World. There's nothing that ruins your property value more than to have the houses next to you half built or vacant and deteriorating. Now whether you buy or build, you have to know that there are different standards of construction throughout Latin America. And lately, the style of construction that's popular with the middle classes is definitely a few notches below the standards that you'd accept as a First World expat. By middle class, I mean their definition of middle class. And I'm talking about people who make about a thousand to two thousand dollars a month,
[04:04] which is pretty much the definition of working poor in the United States. And we all know that working poor in the United States, they really can't afford to own their own housing, so they rent. But for the middle class in Latin America, a certain style of new and modern housing has grown up. And even at that low marginal wage, developers have worked out finance plans so they can afford what you might call the Latin American dream, which is not to be confused with the First World definition of the American dream. Just take a drive through any city in Latin America and you'll see dozens of brand new housing projects with rows and rows of back to back houses that look like bigger versions of the ones you see on a monopoly board. Or more or less dressed up versions of low income housing you see a lot in the western United States. And all of these tiny houses with much less than a thousand square foot of floor space,
[04:52] not even what you'd call a starter home in the First World. In fact, they're smaller and more poorly constructed than any low rent vacation cottage in the United States. In fact, one expat friend of mine calls them matchbox houses. But they're extremely popular and in great demand with the locals. And the cost? Well, they rarely cost more than 50 or 60 thousand dollars. And because these are actually gated communities built by a single development firm, the would-be owners don't even have to go and get bank financing. They can get it right from the developer at a little higher percentage rate, of course. But that's how the local up and coming middle class can afford them. And that means you could have your very own one thousand square foot brand new house for a down payment of maybe two thousand dollars and a 15 or 20 year adjustable rate mortgage
[05:39] for maybe four or five hundred dollars a month. So a guy making a thousand dollars a month, he can swing that. But expats, they don't want that kind of housing. And I don't recommend it myself. Because inevitably, after a few years, they begin to look like slum housing tracks. And I'm not saying you can't be happy there. There are a small percentage of expats that like to lay back and live just like the locals. I know a few expats who've settled into those kind of developments. And there's nothing wrong with that. But 95% of the expats I know, they want to go first world when it comes to housing. And they can for less than half of what they'd pay in the United States. In fact, just three years ago, I built a 3500 square foot modern style house. And I went first world all the way. And I paid about a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars for it.
[06:26] And believe it or not, for that ridiculously low price, I still ended up in a private guarded gated community with million dollar views. And it's on a third of an acre of land, which back then a few years ago cost twenty thousand dollars. Now you're thinking, why can construction costs be so cheap down in Latin America as compared to the first world? Do you get what you pay for down there too? Is it second rate construction? Is it second rate everything? Well, it will be if you don't keep your eyes open all the time. But if you're there and on the job and watching, and your workers and foremen know you can show up at any time, you'll get high quality first world style work all the time. But you just can't take an architect's plans, hand them to your foreman, come back six months later and expect the house to be done.
[07:12] Well, it might be close to done, but it won't be anything you bargained for. That's for sure. It turns out there's three main reasons why it costs so little to build in Latin America. The first and main reason you probably guessed is labor. Now they say in the first world, that 50% or more of the cost of building a house or any project is labor. In other words, your average first world contractor probably himself gets about 40 or 50 dollars an hour. And his helpers, the ones that pound the nails, do the drywall and the grunt work, they could be making anywhere from 12 to 20 bucks an hour. And I'm not even talking about the electricians and the plumbers and the heating contractors yet. You know, the skilled laborers. I mean, you know what it costs to get a plumber in on a weekend?
[07:59] I'm sure it breaks down to at least 100 bucks an hour. Now in Latin America, you can figure the cost of labor on a project is about 20%. And that's a huge savings as compared to the 50% or more for labor in the first world. So right there, you've instantly cut 30% off the price of a house. Now another big construction savings comes from the fact that you almost never have a basement installed in Latin America. And that could be 10% of the cost of a house in the first world. And there's a lot of reasons for that. It could be the ground conditions because there's a lot of solid rock. But really, it's mostly tradition. Don't ask me why, but nobody wants or cares to have a basement. And the Latins aren't into building attic space either. In fact, I've yet to go in a Latin American house
[08:44] that doesn't either have a flat roof or a vaulted one. And if they do have a vaulted one, they almost always use it for decorative purposes. In other words, it's got some great wooden trusses or some fancy plaster work or skylights or some design element to draw your eyes up to that nice big space up there, where you'd expect to have an attic in the first world. So you save money on the basement, which means not much excavation, and you save money on the attic space. And in another way, there's big savings is the fact they don't insulate the houses. Because in 80% of Latin America, it never gets cold enough to freeze. And as for central air conditioning, even the richest of families don't use it. And what most wealthy people do and expats, and even though I include expats here,
[09:31] I'm not insinuating that they're wealthy, though in the eyes of Latins, they certainly are. Anyway, the people that want or can afford air conditioning, well, they're likely to just have a small air conditioning unit in the bedrooms so they can be comfortable at night. What I'm saying is that even in the warmest of climates, let's say you have a beach house in Panama. Well, even then, you'll almost never find a house that's centrally air conditioned, but you'll find small individual air conditioning units in bedrooms. And these days, those bedroom units are so small and unobtrusive, they're so quiet and they blend in so well that you practically don't even notice them. And another thing they save on, it's almost unheard of to use fiberglass insulation, or insulation of any kind, at least not when building houses. And except for extreme cases, no one ever puts in double or triple glazed windows.
[10:22] In fact, most people don't even know what they are, which makes for another big savings. And central heating and furnaces, well, they're practically unheard of in Latin America. And in the places that get really cold, for example, high up in the mountains or in the southern end of South America, there you'll see that practically everybody has a wood-burning stove or fireplace and electric space heaters. So where should you build or buy? Well, again, it's location, location, location. Well, it's always nice to be close to the water, but not too close, or have a clear shot at a mountain or forest view. We all know that. But you have to remember one thing, the zoning laws in Latin America, though they exist, like a lot of laws in Latin America, they're either selectively or spotty enforced, or pretty much a joke.
[11:08] So you have to watch out. You may have selected a great development project with a great view. And after you're all settled in, you might find out that your new neighbor has a junkyard or a chicken farm. But that problem can be easily solved just by keeping your eyes open, looking around, and doing a little bit of investigation. So in the end, a lot of smart expats end up building or buying in high-end areas of Latin American cities, known by the locals as the Zona Viva or the Zona Roja. And they go under a few more names, too. What these areas actually are is pretty good copies of First World style, mixed residential and business, high rent districts. And if you build or buy there, you're pretty much guaranteed to have neighbors who will keep to some reasonable standards.
[11:54] That is, the owners of these properties are First World wannabes, and they'll almost always have well manicured, good-looking properties. In other words, no chickens or goats in the front yards, not for these guys. But if you do build or buy in one of these Zona Viva or Zona Rosa areas, your building costs will be cheap, but the land prices will kill you. And by the way, Zona Rosa just means the zone of roses, and Zona Viva means the zone of life. And why land prices there are usually the highest in the country is because this is the section of town where all the big First World hotels and franchises have moved in, kind of mixed in and interdispersed with some of the grand old houses and Spanish mansions that have been there 150 years or a lot more. So you're looking at downtown Miami or Houston or Chicago land prices.
[12:44] And that means more than likely, a quarter acre of land will cost you two times as much as the price of your house. So though it's nice to live down in the Zona Rosa or Zona Viva area, where everything's nice and kept up and First World-like, unless you got a lot of money, I don't recommend it, because there's a lot better, cheaper alternatives available. Now apart from the high rent area I just told you about, every big city in Latin America has at least a handful of well manicured areas where the wealthier folks in town live, far away from the hustle and bustle of the Zona Rosa and Zona Viva. And they call these little wealthy enclaves colonies. For that matter, everything you and I know as a subdivision is called a colony in Latin America or colonia. Now here's where you'll be able to pick up a nice lot for 20 or 30 grand
[13:33] and build that 3000 square foot house. And you'll find that in most of these sectors or colonies, they have a guarded entrance and expats, that's exactly what you want. So if you build a house there, you're pretty secure and protected. And here at the expat files, we highly recommend that if you build or buy, you always choose a guarded gated community. Because down in Latin America, that's really the only way to keep the thieves at bay. And it's pretty much the only way you can leave your house unattended for a while. Let's say for a few days or a week or even a month. And you're sure that when you come back, your house will be in the same condition as when you left it. And if you're not in a gated community, all bets are off. Another great way to live in Latin America, if you're into city dwelling, is to buy into one of those residential towers.
[14:23] You know what I'm talking about. Now naturally, those places are very secure. And they're almost always carbon copies or clones of nice residential towers in the first world. And in most cities in Latin America, what you can get for 150 or $170,000 will blow your mind. And it seems like the only places you can't get a fabulous deal buying into one of those towers is in those high volume tourist areas where the euro and the gringo dollar have distorted the housing market. Now I lived a couple of years myself in a structure like that in Costa Rica. But of course, that was before the gringo dollar and the euro thoroughly contaminated that country. Anyway, it was a beautiful place and so well manicured. All rustic Spanish style ceramic floors
[15:10] and all the doors and trim and details were in solid teak. Now that place sent me back $130,000. And I couldn't have touched anything like it for under 300 in estates. And the maintenance cost, which included four full-time guards and a half a dozen gardeners. Well, that sent me back less than $100 a month. And that included the water bill. Now when you're in Latin America, you do have to worry about one thing, especially if you live in a tower. Earthquakes. And if you've been tuning into the expat files, you notice that I often harp on the fact that Latin Americans when left to their own devices, they'll take the low road, especially when no one's looking. They'll take the easy way out. That is when they can get away with it.
[15:56] And who can blame them? They're just taking their cue from so many corrupt government officials. And once you know that, you start thinking about these high rise towers. And when they built that particular building that you're looking to buy into, were they taking shortcuts? Were they using substandard materials? So how's a building like that going to handle a 6.5 or a seven earthquake, like the ones last year in Haiti and Chile? Well, I'm here to tell you, put it out of your mind. That shouldn't stop you from buying into a big residential tower. And I'll tell you why. Building a residential or business tower like that is a huge undertaking that involves very special equipment. I'm talking about cranes and pumps and earth borers that themselves cost millions of dollars. So if you're passing by a site and you see one of these giant towers
[16:41] under construction, if you look closely at the equipment and the signs that the construction companies put up to advertise the new project, you'll notice that maybe 95% of the time, the company that's doing the work, the principal construction firm, well, they're almost always from the first world. In fact, down in Panama City, the last six big tower projects I drove by, I noticed that the companies building them were from Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Spain. And these firms are specialists and experts in this kind of design. So if you're thinking about buying into one of these high rise luxury apartment complexes, it's easy enough to ask or just look at the architect's design plans. Then Google the general contractor and in a few minutes, you'll know exactly what kind of construction outfit you're dealing with.
[17:29] And you can be sure of one thing. When an outside construction firm comes in from the first world and they build a tower or any kind of building, it will be built to first world standards. And that means it'll be built to withstand the seismic forces that have been calculated for that area. So like I said, location, location, location. Well, that holds up well in Latin America, just like it does in the first world. But in Latin America, there's an addendum to that. And the first world is starting to figure it out too. Because in Latin America, it's not only location, location, location. In addition, down here, it's water, water, and water. Now, like I said in a previous expat file show, there's a huge water shortage throughout Latin America. And the stark proof that there is such a crisis
[18:15] is the fact that on every roof in Latin America, from the smallest house to the largest mansion, there's a cistern. That is, a cistern is a big tank sitting there, largest life and as ugly as sin. And it's specifically designed to collect water when the municipal water happens to be flowing. Because like I said in last week's show, more than half of Latin America only has running water and decent pressure for maybe four to eight hours a day. Now, of course, I'm talking about people hooked up to municipal water supplies, which includes almost all the lower and middle classes down here. Now, the wealthier people and the ones that live in gated communities and high-end residential towers, they have a different system. Now, most of these guys aren't connected up to any municipal water supply.
[19:02] In fact, they don't want to be. Instead, they have their own independent well or poso. In other words, these people don't need cisterns, and they don't have to organize their day around when the water flows and when it doesn't. Now, I'm only talking about maybe 10 or 15% of the population here that have their own well. And I'm not saying these people each have an individual well. No, that's not the case. I'm saying that these gated communities, these colonies and high-end residential towers, well, they almost always have their own well. So if you're going to buy or build, make sure you're not hooked in to any city's municipal water supply and that you're connected up to a private well system and that you have some say in the way it's managed. In other words, the people living in your colony or residential tower
[19:48] should own the rights to the well and manage and maintain it. But there is another word of warning here. Because in Latin America, zoning laws and laws in general are so spotty enforced, if enforced at all, you can imagine that people drill wells willy-nilly anytime they want or need more water. And that's so true. And that's had some very bad secondary effects. The water table in most places in Latin America has dropped so low that it's not unusual for well drillers to go down 500 feet or more to get halfway decent water flow. In fact, I talked to one operator in charge of a well-drilling rig. He told me that 20 years ago in El Salvador, he was routinely drilling 50 and 100 feet wells.
[20:34] And now when he drills in the same areas, he has to go 400 or 500 feet. And he said, you know, we're getting close to the limit of how far we can go down. And it's not the fact that they can't go down a lot deeper. In fact, he said they could go down thousands of feet if they wanted. The problem is you have to have a pump down there at the bottom, at the source. And that pump's trying to push water up 50 stories to the surface. And every time they go a little deeper, they have to up the power rating on the motor. And now they're into using some really gigantic pumps which use a lot of power. And when they do routine maintenance and they have to haul that pump up 500 feet, well, that's another expensive proposition. But then he told me, you know, that's a big city problem. All you have to do is go five or 10 miles outside any big city. And the water table gradually creeps up to 50 or 100 feet again,
[21:24] just like in the old days. So it just boils down to a water management problem. And Latin Americans, well, they're just not much on organization and management. So that means the problem is going to get worse before it gets any better. In fact, as usual down here, nothing will happen till it reaches a crisis stage. Or if by some coincidence, it happens to affect some big time politician or a member of his family. Because heaven forbid, forget about the common man. If some big time politician's sister, brother or mother happens to run out of water, well, then all hell will break loose and something will get done. But until then, there will be bigger and more critical water shortages and deeper wells and that I can guarantee. So your XPAD finals tip for the day. If you're going to buy real estate or build a house,
[22:12] check out where your water's coming from. And you'll be well off in the long run. Hey, did I just say well off? I meant to say it's a better bet in the long run if you build or buy in a gated community at least five or 10 miles outside of any big city. Because then you'll be close enough to all the conveniences you need and you'll avoid most of the negative effects that all Latin American big cities have. Like severe air pollution, the chaos, the terrible traffic, the crime and the chronic water shortages. Now, whether you decide to build or buy, one of the questions I'm always asked is what are property taxes like in Latin America? Well, if you're a first world baby boomer, you might remember back in the good old days of the 60s and the 70s, where at least once a year your parents would sit around the kitchen table
[22:58] and complain about how their property taxes were escalating at double digit rates and the dread that was in their voices when they'd heard that the city assessors were coming around and reassessing all the houses at market rate. Because there was a time way back when, when baby boomers were kids, when houses were assessed well below their market rate and every homeowner wanted it that way. Because for the longest time, up in the first world, property taxes were assessed based on an artificially low number. So for them, the lower the better, right? But now, up in the first world, things have changed and everybody's assessed at market value or close to it. And the result of that? Well, that just means that everybody up in the first world who's retired and actually owns their own home free and clear,
[23:46] after paying on a 20 or 30 year mortgage, well, it must be a shock to their system to know that their property tax payment to the municipality, if you broke it down on a monthly basis, that is, you'd find that in most cases, it's much more than the original monthly mortgage payment that they negotiated with the bank when they first got the loan. Which I'm sure saddens a lot of older folks every time they have to fork out that property tax payment. Because, you know, back in 1960, when my own mother and father bought their little house for $22,000, their mortgage payment was somewhere around $200 a month. And now, these days, with that house valued at about $150,000, they pay about $5,000 or $6,000 a year in property taxes. And that works out to about $400 in change every month,
[24:34] which is more than twice their original mortgage payment. So let's switch back down to Latin America for a minute. Well, as far as property taxes go, the good old days are here now. That is, except for a few odd cases like Chile and Argentina. And they're beginning to ramp up their tax rates a lot like the first world, but that's something we'll talk about in a later show. Anyway, it's a fact that throughout Latin America, practically no one registers their property at market value. In fact, in most cases, it's so far below market value that you just have to laugh. In fact, just two years ago in El Salvador, one of my expat friends built a house, and it has a value of about $400,000 US dollars. Now, when his architect submitted the plans to the municipality,
[25:20] he registered the value of the house at $35,000. And when the bureaucrat at the municipality looked over the plans and made his own valuation, he said, no, this house is more like $100,000, which is still a huge undervaluation. So they argued a while and settled on $55,000. And of course, I have to tell you, there was a lunch involved and a small bribe paid. But even if it had been valued at $100,000, that was a quarter of market value. And now, my expat friend pays about $120 a year in property taxes on a $400,000 house. Now, that truly is one of the joys of living in Latin America. But I do have to add that when my expat friend
[26:07] does pay his $120 property taxes every year, he gets absolutely nothing for his money. And though he lives in a fine first world style colony, with all the first world bells and whistles, with perfect roads, perfect lawns, and perfect gardens, and a million dollar view, but just two blocks away, when the beautiful private road turns to a public road, it's a disaster. Suddenly, the scenery turns from first world to hundreds of potholes and garbage everywhere. And not only are the streets terribly under lit at night, half the street lights don't even work. And you only see a cop drive by about once every two days. But that's par for the course in any municipality in Latin America. And you might ask, what do my parents up in Chicago get
[26:52] for their $6,000 a year property tax payment? Good question. Well, we're getting to the end here. So don't forget to listen to the next Expat Files show, where I'll be talking about building a house in Latin America, part two. You've been listening to the Expat Files, living in Latin America. A one of a kind show, produced and compiled deep in the heart of Latin America. And of course, you can always email me with any of your questions about Latin America. Expat Files at ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com. See you next time. Nos vemos.