#1259 – Episode 1259: Life in a Gated Community, Water Contamination, and Real Estate Warnings

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started You know you think if you lived in a gated guarded community there just wouldn't be random people walking the neighborhood knocking on your door and bothering you and That's basically true because to get into a gated guarded community. You got to go through the guard gate

[00:48] You've got to have a reason to be there a reason to get in like for example If you're an electrician or a roofer or a maid or a guard The fact is if you live in a gated guarded community for the most part, they are very quiet You don't see people you don't know walking by and if someone comes up to the guard gate looking for you The guard calls your house and asks you if it's okay to let the guy in That's one of the reasons you live in a gated guarded community for privacy and security Now, of course when you first move into a gated guarded community people will knock at your door people You don't know cuz you're new there, too. Mostly people looking for a maid or a gardener job Because you see if you do live in a gated guarded community Nearly everyone in your neighborhood is gonna have a maid or a gardener or both or even a nanny a living babysitter called the Ninetta

[01:35] anyway, as soon as you move in a local cleaning ladies will stop over asking if you need help because they'll have a Sister a daughter a cousin whatever looking for that kind of job That's one of the big differences between living in a gated guarded community here in Latin America and one in the States How many homeowners do you know in your neighborhood have a living maid or a maid and or gardener that comes in daily? Years ago when I was living back in the States I didn't know anyone that could afford that kind of luxury and the ones that could or almost could never had a living maid Just one that came in a couple of days a week So anyway, if you're living in a gated guarded community here in Latin America, people will not knock on your door and bother you No one's gonna make the rounds in your neighborhood trying to sell you some which is why it always blows my mind every so often

[02:20] You do get a knock on the door from a Jehovah's Witness Somehow they seem to get past security. How does that happen? Well, I'm thinking since they're on some kind of mission hand-in-out pamphlets and stuff The guy at the guard shack just throws in the towel and lets him in so depending on where you live, they'll show up every six months or so and if you're lucky once a year Well as luck would have it just this week they came back again and here I thought they'd never bother me again Based on what happened last time they came a couple of years back now that time I got a knock on my door. There were two middle-aged ladies with a stack of pamphlets They kind of caught me off guard because previously you when they'd come around I'd always get rid of them by saying no hablo espanol

[03:06] That would always stop them dead in their tracks. You say that you've made it perfectly clear There'd be a huge communication breakdown, and that would be the end of that well this time being they caught me off guard I greeted them in Spanish and of course the next few words out of their mouths was something on the order of brother Have you heard the word in Spanish of course that's when your eyes roll And you're thinking how am I gonna get out of this then without fail They say something like can we have a moment of your time and that's when I said sure if you give me a minute of yours I said I'll tell you what I'm cleaning up around the house right now, so I'm kind of busy remember This is going down in Spanish now. I said I'll give you a bucket some Windex in a rag You start cleaning those windows over there, and while you're cleaning start talking, and I'll be listening well

[03:54] You should have seen the look on their faces They didn't want to have anything to do with actually helping me clean around the house while they gave me their spiel And I knew they would they looked at each other. There was a pregnant pause for a moment and one of them said Mmm, sir senor just take one of these pamphlets, and we'll be on our way. It was all quite painless I didn't have to laugh at them mock them or give them any kind of weird looks They decided in something like 10 seconds to leave of their own volition I smiled and patted myself on the back thinking they'll never be back, but I was wrong just the other day It happened again this time more than two years after the previous encounter It was two ladies again two different middle-aged ladies Must be a thing with sending middle-aged ladies around so anyway right after one of them said brother

[04:43] Have you heard the word in Spanish of course I said just a minute be right back Well I popped off into the guest bathroom and took the toilet scrub brush You know those things that sit in their own little container on the floor I came back to the front door, and I said here take this and I held it out one of the ladies looked at me Funny, but she took it. I said here's the deal. I'm cleaning up around the house right now And I'll listen to anything you have to say while you're helping me clean up So you can get started on the toilet in el banyo de visitas the guest bathroom Well you should have seen the look on their faces the dumpy one standing there with the toilet brush in her hand There was another pregnant pause as she looked at her partner. She slowly lowered the toilet brush put it on the floor quite gently

[05:31] She said please just take a pamphlet. We can see you're busy. We'll come back another time But I bet they won't Not those two anyway someone might come back in the future, but it won't be those two I can guarantee that So then how do you handle a Jehovah's Witness encounter? Are you short are you snippy or do you play nice roll your eyes and hear them out? Come to think of it now. There's a good use for chat GPT Have you tried that yet chat GPT? Maybe next time I'm in there. Yeah, I've used chat GPT a few times. How about you? I'll post a question I'll ask it. Give me a couple of suggestions how to get rid of a Jehovah Witness in an amusing kind of way I mean look you want to get rid of them, but you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, right? But man, I'll tell you talk about being thick-skinned. I bet Jehovah's Witnesses take a rejection training course

[06:22] Their skins got to be as thick as an elephant Imagine a customer relations call center staffed with Jehovah Witnesses by the way My brother in Chicago once asked a Jehovah Witness at his door if she'd ever witnessed Jehovah personally You know physically not in a dream or some kind of fantasy Then he said you'd increase your marketing tenfold if you'd send around a bunch of young Beautiful JH's door-to-door and man that middle-aged lady ski daddled in a hurry. He said Well, that's my other brother for you. I ought to tell some of his stories sometimes now Here's an interesting email Johnny. Can you get Girl Scout cookies in Latin America? He says Johnny. I'm addicted to those peanut butter ones. I'll order ten boxes. They last about a day and a half Signed stand expat want to be from Minneapolis

[07:10] Well Stan the good news is they have Girl Scouts here in Latin America Least I've heard they have I might have asked around and some of the ladies tell me they do exist in fact I was watching an Easter procession some years back and there was a troop of Girl Scouts on a float Plus you might remember me mentioning in the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo They've got a road called Girl Scout Calle, which is Girl Scout Road So if they're gonna name a road after the Girl Scouts, they gotta have an organization, right? However, when I've asked certain ladies here in Latin America about the Girl Scout cookies Most of them acknowledge the existence of Girl Scouts, but they're confused about the cookies They don't know what the hell I'm talking about But stash the good news is if you move down to Latin America You can order all the Girl Scout cookies you want through Amazon who defunct, huh?

[07:58] By the way, you can understand why Girl Scouts wouldn't go door-to-door here in Latin America selling Girl Scout cookies I doubt parents in the states with Girl Scouts at home let their kids go door-to-door But way back when when I was a kid my sisters were Girl Scouts They sold lots of cookies door-to-door was a completely different world back then I'm sad for its demise, too In fact, I remember back then Kids would come to the door selling you all kinds of crap mostly to support school functions chocolate bars even Christmas cards. I Was a Catholic school kid and we got roped into selling Christmas cards door-to-door Imagine that and those cars weren't even funny. They were so serious, man I just hated knocking on doors trying to sell stuff for Jesus Especially when you realize the pastor's driving a much better car than your dad or any of the cars of your friends dads

[08:47] There's something wrong with that picture I'll tell you the moment does come when you realize you're not collecting money for Jesus anymore You're collecting it for the bureaucracy, but I digress man. Did I digress? Speaking of chat GPT. Have you tried it yet? It's really amazing and scary, too You can use the free version. It's chat GPT 3.5 you just download it at open AI calm But here's what I found out you can't download it if you're living in Latin America As you try to start it up, but detects your IP address and won't let you do it So you need a VPN just plug in any US server in your VPN and it'll download fine Then of course it's gonna do what so many other programs do it's gonna ask you for an email And then it'll send a link and you'll have to click that so it's continuously collecting data on you, too

[09:37] And that's really why open AI is giving you chat GPT for free or at least you think it's free What they're really doing is collecting data and all the inquiries from people using it by the way There's a paid version of chat GPT. It's chat GPT 4.0 It's said that it's 10 times smarter than the one you use for free I understand there's a chat GPT 5.0 as well and none of us has access to that Of course guys like Elon Musk Mark Suckerturd and bastard Billy Gates the Chinese the Russians North Koreans and Jeff Bs-holes have access to it and their businesses are using it as well as all the US alphabet agencies, too But you knew that already. It's scary stuff. All right. We'll see how it plays out sort of think it won't end well By the way, there's an inquiry from emailer Chris. He asks if you're using chat GPT

[10:27] Do you have to worry about what kind of searches you do? Are they collecting info? Of course, Chris They're collecting info. That's the purpose of giving you a free chat GPT 3.5 but if you sign up for it anonymously using a VPN and a disposable email address or an email address that's used specifically just for that like for example a start mail alias address Sure, they'll still collect data and all your inquiries But as long as you don't let on who you are exactly it won't matter Unless you're asking about things that are blatantly illegal like how to build bombs or blow up bridges or poison food and the water supply Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I take that back. Monsanto is already doing that and nothing ever happens to them too big to jail, right?

[11:15] Speaking of food and water contamination. Did you see that article that came out yesterday? They're reporting that almost half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with forever chemicals. That's according to the US geological survey it also says the number of people who are drinking contaminated water in the States is Higher than what the study found for sure because the researchers were not able to test for all the hundreds of substances That are considered dangerous to human health. They were only able to test about 35 yet You still get people Americans usually older Americans who say the tap water is fine. I drink it all the time We've always been able to drink tap water in the good old US of a that's what sets our country apart from the other shithole countries Yeah, right But here is the thing at least in those shithole countries

[12:02] They tell you right out as soon as you land there. Don't drink the water from the tap Whereas in the States, there's this naive belief that the water supply has been purified somehow That's what most people believe who trust their government now A lot of people people who aren't in the know will tell you that those tiny little trace impurities and water won't do you any harm They're at levels too small to matter However in June 2022 based on EPA studies health Advisories were issued saying that the chemicals those forever chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists originally thought and are more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed and that's coming from the EPA who are known be in the pockets of big industry those

[12:48] Major polluters like 3m, Monsanto and DuPont and for them to come out and say that is pretty harsh now according to the National Institute of Health the NIH another completely captured organization They've issued warnings to imagine that they say there are more than 12,000 types of forever chemicals PFAS as they're called But back to this recent study which included both private wells and public water sources Turns out the scientists collected water samples directly from taps at 716 locations in the US 269 locations of private wells and 447 from public utilities based on their finding. They said those forever chemicals are detected in 45% of US drinking water supplies including well water with the highest concentrations of the PFAS

[13:39] Forever chemicals in drinking water found in the Great Plains Great Lakes Eastern seaboard and Central and Southern, California with Concentrations of the chemicals similar between private wells and public supplies Where she has a quote here from dr. Jamie D Whitt a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Eastern Carolina University He says quote there's been almost no place scientists have looked where they have not found forever chemicals So then where do these forever chemicals come from they're used to make carpets and clothes stain resistant They come from laminated and pressboard furniture Teflon stick pans and food packaging material They're used in mobile phones commercial airplanes and low emission vehicles. They're in the residues of all the food. We eat says D

[14:27] Whitt including what you buy at the farmers market and in grocery stores and in rainwater and Even in waxed not on waxed dental flaws and according to a very large 2019 study in the US those forever chemicals could be found in 98% of the human population By the way, dr. DeWitt says for one homeowners could have filters in their water systems That could easily remove those forever chemicals or at least lowering their levels to such a degree They are virtually undetectable adding placing a carbon filter In your waterline will help a great deal, but it has to be changed regularly Then the article goes on by saying we've got a lot of work to do says dr. Graham peacely professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Notre Dame

[15:15] Who says this might be the most expensive problem we've ever had to face It's gonna be really expensive to clean it up He says there are no permanent solutions to fix this for any particular utility system It looks like a frightening problem. He says that each household must address itself But he says the cleanup will have to be done because these chemicals carry real Devastating health consequences. These are really insidious poisons. He says and don't fool yourself. They're in our bottled water, too Hmm. All right me Johnny here Question is how many of you guys up in the States Canada Europe, whatever how many of you have a Purification system under your counter in the kitchen at home I bet only about 20 or 30 percent of you the rest are drinking bottled water and that's no good though for sure

[16:05] You're much more attuned to this than the average public I know you guys and guests listening to this are much smarter than the average slug Speaking of things that pollute that almost no one ever talks about I know in a previous show I mentioned this once I got a couple emails in response to it, too I asked the question when you replace the tires on your car or the brake pads for that matter Where do you think the old ones went? Well in the case of the brake pads They got ground down to a fine dust got kicked backed into the air and landed somewhere mixed in with the soil the water Same thing with your tires more synthetic petroleum products going into your air water food, etc I don't even want to tell you how many billions for the B of tons of that stuff Have just vaporized off your brake pads and your tires Since those things came into general use over a hundred years ago

[16:52] Have you ever heard anyone talk about that kind of pollution except on this show? Why not? We've all got tire and brake dust in our lungs and in our bodies Of course things are a little bit better now in regards to brake pads They used to be made of asbestos so now they're not good But they're not quite so bad as before the fact is I'm almost sure the industry will change over to magnetic brakes Like they use in some electric cars and high-speed trains. There will be a switchover slowly But surely just like when we went from leaded to unleaded gas By the way, there's proof that during the leaded gas days the average IQs of kids growing up back Then were permanently lowered by three to five IQ points. It happened to me I'm just a little more dense than I should have been. Oh, well, at least I've got a really good water purifier, huh?

[17:40] Better late than never if you want to know what I use and want to build one yourself for under a hundred bucks Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com By the way If you are living in Guatemala or anywhere in Central America in lieu of the system I use that three canister under counter system You'd be just as well off getting one of those echo filters that we mentioned sometimes on this show I make no money from this I just mention them once in a while because they're simple and they work very well No plumbing required and under a hundred bucks In fact way under a hundred bucks if you get the cheapy one which has all the same internal components But it's not glazed ceramic work of art that sits on your kitchen counter if you want a real nice looking one I mean the outer portion of it you will pay around a hundred bucks or so you get the basic cheapy

[18:26] I think it's around 40 bucks Yeah, I see him in the back rooms and kitchens of restaurants and coffee shops everywhere throughout Latin America. That's a very good sign Just like my under counter system the echo filter has three stages a ceramic filter Carbon filter and it's perfused with colloidal silver, which is antibacterial. So then I've been asked many times What's the difference between my under counter three canister system and the echo filter system which goes on top your counter? Well, you see the echo filter systems a gravity feed so it works without any water pressure at all That means you could take out a cup of water here a gallon water there But doesn't have continuous solid high-pressure flow like my system So for example, if you wanted to fill up a five-gallon jug full of pure water with my system You could do that in about five minutes

[19:13] With the echo filter system It could take a couple hours because my system is working with the house water pressure and echo filter by gravity feed alone But really not a problem with that echo filter. You might only run out of water if you're having a party The other thing is the echo filters portable. You could pick it up move it to another room Outside or to a neighbor's house though. If you smack it too hard or you try to ship it on an airplane, whatever you could break it Don't try to ship it you risk damaging it In fact, I remember once I was flying from Guatemala to Mexico and on the plane sitting about three seats away from me Was a guy with a big box on his lap. It was an echo filter He was taking it to Mexico and didn't want to store it because he said that he was advised by the airline They weren't responsible if there was damage to the thing. So he got it on through to Mexico

[19:59] All right, but well you get the point All right. How about this email from mr. JC? He says Johnny you might be interested in knowing the current price per square foot to build a house in Guatemala Well, he says me and the wife are doing just that we are working with an honest and very smart builder All the first world bells and whistles to like four inch pipes where needed correct vapor barriers The highest grade cement blocks, etc. Etc. His quoted price $44 a square foot including all doors and windows Ceramic tile throughout all bathroom sinks bathroom showers, etc Toilets weather stripping the works He says I'm trying to save money on the garage by using columns and a metal roof and covering with tile to hide the tin

[20:48] Some roof tile is required by our neighborhood code Though all paint color is determined by the homeowner though. I'm not sure my garage design will be approved by the housing committee or not All right me Johnny here. He says $44 a square foot I just looked it up in the states the average cost is a hundred to a hundred fifty dollars a square foot Wow, what a savings then JC says, of course, I checked out the builder last week We stayed at one of the houses he built in Porto San Jose very well constructed and designed with air conditioning in every bedroom and screens on all the windows and With lots of mosquitoes at no extra cost why people want to live on the beaches beyond me. Anyway, cheers Johnny signed JC Alright, thanks for that JC. Great info Now JC's building his house in the Guatemalan altiplano, therefore no AC required

[21:38] Now the Guatemalan altiplano runs right through the center of the country from top to bottom Mexico to El Salvador and JC says he visited a house that was built by the builder He's using that house is on the coast by the beach That's why he's talking about AC in every room and all those mosquito freeloaders By the way in Guatemala lots and lots of wealthy people have two houses sometimes three one house in the altiplano Generally near or close to work and a beach house Which could be one to four hours away from the main house in the altiplano by the way, I'm right there with JC I'd never want to have a beach house in Latin America I say that now because I've had two of those in my life and believe me I'd never do it again As for me one or two weeks at the beach every couple months Preferably at an all-inclusive big resort is just fine with me to me having your own house at the beach is like having a boat

[22:29] The day you buy it is the best and the worst day of your life By the way since we're on the subject I would say without a doubt the worst real estate investment of all is a timeshare man You can't believe how many stories I've heard from gringles and expats saying they bought a timeshare and after a short time lived To regret it now, of course you longtime listeners have heard me talk about this before Turns out my own mother who's very book smart narrowly missed getting sucked in with a timeshare scam Took me a lot to tucker out of it and now believe it or not because it like time thing It's all the rage down here in Latin America Latin Americans with some kind of credit rating decent credit rating that is are getting bombarded with timeshare info and getting sucked into weekend Timeshare seminars, you know the drill where they give you a free weekend and a brand new timeshare

[23:15] That's the easiest way to set the hook in an unsophisticated investor and who are they preying on the unsuspecting up-and-coming middle classes who can't afford to get a mortgage on a second home a beach house but can qualify for a 20 or 25 grand timeshare on a payment plan. They'll be totally sick of in a couple of years Speaking of bad real estate investments. Do you realize that the bottom has fallen out of the Airbnb market? Have you been watching the news? It seemed like a never-ending growth industry Airbnbs, right? In fact, I get emails from expat gone to bees and wannabes all the time thinking they're gonna come down to Latin America Buy up some real estate a couple of units in a residential tower Whatever and ran them out as Airbnb is and live happily ever after well, guess what?

[24:03] Seems like worldwide the bloom is off that rose so many people have gotten into the act is a huge oversupply Yet real estate developers down here are still pushing that idea to gringos and expats like it's a solid gold evergreen idea Like everything else the blowout and Airbnb is started in the USA first Don't believe it will listen to this headline from Nick Jarelli from re adventure consulting He says many Airbnb owners will soon be forced to sell their properties Resulting in a housing bust that could be on par with a 2008 subprime crisis The article says Airbnb owners are getting ready to sell Because of the huge downturn in the short-term rental market that started in the second half of 2022 with many Airbnb operators in the states facing

[24:48] 50% decline in revenues Reflecting the huge decline in revenues resulting from the slowdown in post pandemic travel demand Along with a massive increase in Airbnb supplies Causing a large percentage of Airbnb owners to lose money on their rentals It says if you're a homebuyer or real estate investor It's important to understand the exposure of your city and neighborhood to this Airbnb crash The biggest culprit it says is that the number of Airbnb rentals in America has skyrocketed from less than 200,000 seven years ago to a million in 2023 a 500% increase get this it says of the 182 counties in the United States with the most short-term rental listings

[25:35] Revenues were down in 179 counties in other words 98% of the Airbnb rentals in all the counties in America were down It says the upcoming Airbnb bust in America will be primarily felt in two types of locations dense urban areas that have the most Airbnb inventory in big cities and Vacation destinations. Did you hear that vacation destinations? Meanwhile more and more Airbnb's on a daily basis are popping up in Latin America I hear gringos and expats talking about it all the time. I'm gonna put my house up, but it's an Airbnb I'm gonna build on to it gonna expand build a cottage rent it out as an Airbnb Well, just remember everything that happens up in the first world comes down here eventually through lag time So be careful. You don't want to get in on the tail end of that market or any market

[26:23] Of course Airbnb owners that run into financial distress don't have to sell instead They could rent out the property long term But most landlords I talked to would much rather rent out their places in Airbnb because they make three or even four times as much money I mean look you could rent out your place for a thousand a month or as an Airbnb for a hundred a day Do the numbers that's a thousand a month versus three thousand a month. Oh, and here's another thing I've noticed in big cities here in Latin America where they've got a lot of residential towers and nice neighborhoods I've visited friends and gringos and expats in a number of these residential towers And I've been noticing signs when you walk in stating specifically no Airbnb is allowed in this tower at all In other words the junta directiva that be the housing board for the towers decided

[27:09] No one can rent their place out as an Airbnb because there are too many people coming and going too many young college kids On vacation partying at all hours music blasting which can be a real irritant and security problem for the permanent residents of the building So you might buy a unit in a residential tower and your best laid plans are foiled when your housing committee votes to disallow Airbnb's You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B

[27:56] Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com