#776 – The Expat Files: Real Estate, Construction, and Cultural Adaptation in Latin America

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 up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat 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 Alright, so I'm at the house of an expat who came down to one of my earlier expat insider seminars many years ago And guess what he's living down here now in a very luxurious condominium slash residential colony You know they call subdivisions colonies down here like you know a bunch of ants or bees and to us expats and gringos

[00:52] It's always a little creepy when you tell someone you live in a colony una colonia like George Orwell 1984 anyway where I'm doing the show right now We're talking about houses that in the suburbs of Chicago would be upwards of probably 300,000 to 2 million bucks and his house I'd say in Chicago would go for around 600,000 the one my friends renting anyway, and he pays around a thousand a month I know I could get his landlord down to maybe seven or eight, but that's just me I like to beat on these landlords, you know I was just talking to a lawyer the other day, too And he said something very interesting that I never heard out of a Latin lawyers mouth before he said you know what? Any price people are asking all from half well never heard anything like that coming out of a Latin lawyers mouth before in reality

[01:38] A kind of a backhanded admission that there's a big-ass real estate bubble here And then he said something that I've said a million times They'll probably be offended at first if you offer him half But if you have the dough to pay six months or a year ahead you'll probably get the deal now doesn't that sound familiar like I've said Repeatedly throughout Latin America It's a renters market except of course when you're in the center of a very big city Where the four-star hotels and ambassadors quarters are then it's artificially pumped up and what you pay six or seven hundred for When you're out a couple of miles you'll pay 2,000 or 1,500 for in the so-called Zona Rosa or Zona Viva area where they've got all the convention centers and first-world hotels And of course upscale restaurants and discos so anyway. I'm not in the coffee fields today

[02:27] I'm doing a remote here you could probably tell by the microphone sound quality But I'm working on ways to improve that anyway as usual since I'm an engineer And I built 13 or so houses and business offices throughout Latin America in the past 20-something years I'm always checking out the way things are built and the construction details and let me tell you Details in this place are horrendous, and I'm talking about a very upscale community with many houses that look impeccable from the street Especially the gardens man the Latins have that down the top of that there's no snow So there's all those tropical fruits and flowers to choose from but as you get closer to the house from the street For example once you're inside, and you go into the visitors bathroom You'll see in these upper middle class and high-end houses Beautiful marble and granite countertops the real thing most often with very high-end excellent quality sinks

[03:17] But the graffiti that would be the plumbing fixtures can be an often our garbage The fact is this place even has window screens Which is kind of a rarity in Latin America really only an upscale neighborhoods Will you ever find custom screens, but what do my wondering eyes did appear? Splatters of paint all over the shower and on the screens Yeah, and looking up at the light fixtures you can see they never ran masking tape The painters just came right up to the edge of the fixtures kind of free-handed it and slopped it here and there kind of like 6th grader might do if your game a brush and said here do your best and have a go at it and as usual the Classes don't have ventilation or a skylight to burn off the humidity so my gringo Buddy has done what most latins would never do he bought a couple of high-powered dehumidifiers

[04:04] And they're running constantly in a closed closets He says they pull out at least a gallon a day, so he had to buy those things in the first place Electricity is expensive here, so he's got a high electric bill But the problem never had to happen in the first place if when they built a place they would have put a few Ventilation slots at the bottom of the door and a few ventilation slots above the door near the ceiling to get some air Circulating that'll help, but it's not the total answer You really need the Sun to peek through every once in a while through a skylight I made that a priority in the last few houses I built because after the fact it just can never solve that problem without a dehumidifier And then my buddy says Johnny we know you drink coffee So they went into the cupboard grab the boat of you know one of those French presses and said have at it

[04:50] He said my wife and I are tea drinkers no coffee for us But please put the spent coffee grounds in the garbage or the toilet Because he said I had a couple of bad experiences with coffee drinkers when my maid put the coffee grounds from the boat them Directly into the sink in no time it clogged the damn thing up and caused a big problem He said the next day he had a bad case of plunger arm will leave that to the imagination So why is it when gringos and expats build houses from scratch? And they're astute enough to know they better force the architect and builder to go by the plans in those cases when the plans are Strictly followed you can put practically anything down the sink drain including your neighbor's kid Especially if you've installed a tritadura Which is an incinerator or garbage disposal which by the way is something you'll never find in middle and lower middle class homes

[05:42] And for those few courageous latins who buy one and have it installed they find out soon enough It really was a bad idea because the maid or cleaning lady within a very short period of time Will destroy it with plastic and metal objects on speaking amazing cleaning ladies my friend who is house I'm doing the show at right now says he lets his maid do everything except the laundry Because she destroyed the dryer and now she's afraid to touch the washing machine and get this after he gave her Multiple lessons on how to use the thing basic lessons repeated over and over again still she's afraid to use it and prefers To wash the clothes by hand outside in the basin called the Pila He said she was hiding it from them for a long time in other words She was doing the laundry and they thought she was doing it in a washing machine

[06:28] But actually when they'd go out of the house for a while She'd run over to the backyard Pila and wash them by hand She was simply afraid she'd screw something up and wreck the washing machine So my gringle friend and his wife who get this have not only a full-time cleaning lady But a full-time nanny for their kids turns out pretty much the only heavy-duty cleanup chores or manual labor They do is the laundry though They're made does iron clothes and man is that a luxury back in the states. I remember I never hired a single thing Well, maybe a comment once in a while when I had a big event But man, I can't think of anybody who likes to iron What a luxury when you find out your maid is more than happy to do it and that they're very good at without any Training at all, but getting back to the original topic about living in an upscale neighborhood and renting an existing house or buying existing house

[07:15] You're gonna have defects all over the place that you never saw when you first walked in But after a while they really can wear on you and some of them can be fixed admittedly You get some decent painters and you tell me use masking tape and tarps, etc Something they're just not used to even the so-called professionals You'll have to train them up But the ever-present humidity in the closet thing and even if you're in the altiplano where the temperature is always pretty much perfect You got that six-month rainy season and when it rains extremely heavy for two or three hours or maybe even overcast for a couple of days the Humidity is ever-present. That is until the Sun comes out and it usually does every day even during the rainy season and burns it off except in enclosed spaces like dark rooms and closets though admittedly in the altiplano regions

[08:02] The humidity is so much less than it is on the coast and at lower altitudes So during the six-month dry season, there's really never a humidity problem And if there is the Sun soon takes care of it and man Let me tell you you guys and gals out there thinking about living the beach life for those of you who live near the oceans Now you Florida people and such you know what salt water and salt water breezes can do to metal even Stainless steel and believe me the only thing they can really withstand salt water and salt weather mist for any length of time is anodized Aluminum and still that won't last forever so if and when you come down here to land American you decide to have a beachfront residence when your builder or architect gives you The choice of your windows and window frames do not select wood Do not select plain aluminum window frames that are not anodized anodized of course has a color to it

[08:53] It's black or gray or brown or bronze colored and you know, I've been down here a long long time And that's the only metal product when you're close to the beach You're at low altitudes that stands the test of a saltwater mist environment Now, of course, you're gonna pay a little extra for anodized aluminum everything including doors and whatever but do it now in the last Few years. I've seen a lot of nice Plastic window frame products some really heavy-duty stuff, too Of course, there's a lot of cheap junk as well and some of the higher-end products really work well down here But don't pick white because eventually it turns kind of milky gray and scruffy looking and you just can't revitalize it again Especially the parts they get a lot of Sun exposure though. Admittedly, they do look good for a couple of years, but then what?

[09:39] Okay So here's another thing you have to look out for when renting or buying and it's very important if you're gonna build now at first This might sound like a small thing. But just for a second. Look at your wall outlets, you know where your plug-in stuff Yep, I'm looking at one right now. They all look pretty much the same don't they things plug in and out of them I'm here to tell you there's a big difference in the ones that you select or your builder selects when you have them installed So what I'm doing the show from right now This is like I said an upscale house built probably only eight years ago or so and still there are nowhere enough wall outlets That means if you just have the basic electronic stuff and gadgets They're gonna be extension cords and cheater plugs everywhere Not a good look for a newer nicer home

[10:25] But you know, you really can't do much about that, especially if you're renting and besides the walls are concrete So to add an extra outlet or two in a room is no do it yourself first job Let me tell you that means if and when you're gonna build anything You have to double up on what the architect seems to think are adequate outlets Don't forget to put at least one in every closet because there's a severe shortage of outlets and closets even in million-dollar homes Alright aside from that this morning I set up my little recording workstation found a nice little corner to set up in where there was a wall outlet Plugged in my handy little outlet strip and guess what? I've met some unusual resistance while putting the plug into the wall socket and suddenly heard a nasty little crack. I

[11:10] Actually snapped the outlet in half and the plug still wasn't seated all the way in so I moved over to the next plug You know, they're called duplex outlets There's two outlets and I plug that one in that one seemed to seat quite normally slipped right in no problem Then I was thinking because the other half of the outlet broke I decided for no other reason than to check it to pull the plug out and reinsert it and guess what? As I pulled the plug out the entire faceplate and the guts of the thing including the wires Pulled right out of the wall and now pretty much the whole thing was wide open Sort of dangerous looking you wouldn't want cats or dogs were at that level walking up and poking their nose in there kids Maybe but not your innocent pets. That's for sure. So what's the point here? Ah, well, here's something

[11:56] I don't think I ever mentioned in my 760 plus shows Well, just like up in the states when you build a house your architecture builder will say Alright, let's pick out the fixtures and many times especially up in the states If it's a middle-class style home, but the new owner or the guy who's footing the bills That would be you might just say well my style is colonial or modern or whatever Go ahead. You're the builder or you're the architect you pick them up or show me a few options on the internet Whatever. Well, let me tell you down here in Latin America You don't want to let your builder or architect pick out your good if area That would be your plumbing fixtures or your electrical fixtures either That would be your switch plates outlets lamps chandeliers outdoor lights Whatever that is without some major involvement from you because not only do architects and builders here in Latin America

[12:45] I have pretty crappy taste though. There are exceptions. There are always are exceptions The important thing is these days Anyway, you have to know there are three or four different qualities in the electric fixtures and plumbing fixtures, too And it's all about price Surprise surprise you get what you pay for good example We'll talk about electrical outlets here if you take a walk into any electric supply store You know sell wire and lights and conduit connectors all kind of fixtures If you ask them to see the different kinds of wall outlets and you think well, they're all the same, right? You'll see they'll generally stock items that are supposed to function Identically from three four or even five companies Of course, they all pretty much look the same and they mount the same and the difference is mostly where they're made For example in Central America, you can buy ultra cheap wall sockets coming from China for around a buck apiece

[13:35] Or slightly better ones coming from Costa Rica for maybe a buck and a quarter apiece if not Costa Rica They're coming from some other Latin country like Mexico or Brazil Next there are some pretty solid looking heavier ones though. They're exactly the same size What I mean is when you put it in your hand, it actually weighs more It's heavier and you'll see they come in a nicer package a real box instead of just a plastic wrap And yes, sometimes you'll see the box says a little red white and blue flag on it leading the uninitiated to believe they're manufactured And made up in the states, but they're not they're just designed up there and made in China like everything else But they really are quite a lot better and will last a hell of a lot longer than the previous ones mentioned And then there's the one or two high-end options generally a designer type socket

[14:22] That looks rather cool and sleek brushed aluminum fancy European designs Usually they're coming from Europe even made in Europe not outsourced to China coming from Italy Spain Germany Whatever they are slick looking and you see them in a lot of newer upscale homes But they're pricey something like two to two and a half bucks an outlet But what you have to remember is you're gonna live in that house a long time unless you're building it to rent to someone else Or sell and you see that's the big problem when other people are building houses to sell them or rent them inevitably They pick the cheapest junky wall outlets because they all look the same in the end It's almost never worth it to go cheap Think about this suppose you have 50 wall outlets in your house and you buy the ultra cheapies That's only a $50 outlay for the whole house and guaranteed a couple of years

[15:11] You're gonna have trouble with some of the ones you use quite a bit like for example in the kitchen now Suppose you selected the much better quality one for two bucks apiece Wow you spent a whole extra 50 bucks To get most likely a lifetime of service out of those things without a problem Oh and one note about buying the designer outlets Especially the ones from Italy and one of the more pervasive electrical outlet and socket producers from Italy I think it's Toschino or something like that They've got big beautiful wall displays in all the upscale hardware stores here in Latin America But are they heavy-duty do they last well who knows look if you're buying the Ferrari of wall sockets You're buying it because it looks cool. Ask any Ferrari owner Unfortunately, or fortunately Italian products look so damn cool But man have you run into any crazy happy Fiat owners lately?

[15:58] Oh and believe it the high-end hardware stores are landing here in Latin America even franchises from the states Sure every couple of blocks in a residential area you'll find a mom-and-pop hardware store But the big ones are moving in which means in most medium and large sized Latin cities You can get almost everything you can get at Home Depot So the bottom line is when you're gonna build a home go with your architect or builder to the plumbing supply store Pick out your fixtures But stay far away from that lightweight plastic junks when it comes to plumbing fixtures the heavier the better preferably a common brand You know from the states like American Standard, Chicago Fawcett or Moen sure They're no longer made in the states anymore, but they're heavy duty They weigh a lot and they last not to mention they stock original replacement parts now part of the pervasive problem

[16:45] You see here in Latin America is even in high-end homes down here Some of the Fawcett fixtures are almost a hundred percent plastic and you know how long that stuff's gonna last again We're talking very high-end homes. What are these people thinking? So in the end pick brand names, you know and never never go cheap Even if it's in the laundry room or the maids quarters The fact is that's where you want the real heavy-duty stuff because it's the maid the nanny and the gardener if you have them Who are really gonna give those fixtures a workout over tightening water valves, etc So what do you do if you're renting a place and have crummy plastic plumbing fixtures and cheap ass wall sockets They're called Tomo Corrientes down here that after a few uses pull right out of the wall So what do you do you call the landlord right? Well, not so fast time for another thing

[17:33] You probably didn't know throughout Latin America when you rent a place It's almost always the case that you're responsible for any and all repairs not the landlord So unless you get an absolute gem of a landlord, you might as well skip the midnight phone call complaining There's no hot water or the shower doesn't work Because even if he or she likes you and says they're gonna send someone over to fix it Remember while you have goosebumps on your goosebumps in the shower. He's on manana time That means tomorrow is a couple of days away. So do note in most every rental contract. You'll find you're responsible for repairs of your own unit I know I know it's hardly fair, but that's the way it is Oh and another thing because here in Latin America a handshake does not constitute a deal That means most all landlords have you sign a contract

[18:20] But know this in the vast majority of cases when you rent a place and have a contract It's not as simple as you think you can't just sit down with the landlord and you two guys agree on the contract and sign It in most all cases. I'd say 95% of them Anyway, your landlord will drag his or her lawyer in you'll sign the contract the lawyer will certify it Then it's you who will have to pay the lawyers fee around 50 bucks or so All right, then what happens if you say to the landlord, I don't want your lawyer Let's use mine because maybe he's your friend and I'll do it for nothing or he's on retainer. Whatever Well, no dice your landlords gonna want his lawyer there. I know I know it's all a bunch of extra paperwork and BS It all goes back to Latin culture and the difficulty and being a landlord They say being a landlord in the States is a big pain in the ass

[19:07] Well, just picture a pain in the ass complicated by a very nasty set of hemorrhoids They say that's what it's like being a landlord in Latin America And that's because Latins are extremely slow and bad pairs and landlords make promises all the time and lie their asses off, too Which is why landlords love gringo tenants so much Not only do we pay on time and many times way in advance Which is something unheard of in Latin society and most times we actually leave our rentals in better condition than how we found them Not always but it's true We almost never leave the place worse off than when we first entered it by the way I've seen many a gringo and expat come down here to Latin America run a place for three four five hundred bucks a month That had a lot of superficial defects in it And after a few months of tinkering away and hanging out at hardware stores, it becomes an absolute showplace

[19:54] Yep, gone are the paint splatters and the dirty grungy light switches suddenly You can see things as they are naturally because they've changed all those ugly glaring Stupid fluorescent light bulbs to those nice little LED lights and fixtures. Oh, and that's another thing I'd say 95% of indoor Latin America is Dramatically underlit and those hideous fluorescent bulbs are everywhere I mean how depressing is an environment like that? Problem is those ugly fluorescent jobs are quite noxious and poisonous if they break You know mercury and other toxic gases and eventually as they burn out and end up in garbage cans and dumps They all break. Well from the beginning those things were really a bad idea But at least they were a short transitional stage to LEDs

[20:42] Alright now said about that, you know lots of times expats come down here stay for a while And they move back to the states because they just can't make the transition Of course, there's a lot of reasons that can happen Sometimes couples come down and one wasn't really interested in doing in the first place that person came down reluctantly And that wears on them and well that causes a rift that gets bigger and bigger and one or both of them ends up Going back. So on that note, here's a little article that talks about that very subject Entitled when gringos end up going back home and I'll paraphrase and condense this a little bit because I can It starts with the question. Do I really belong here in Latin America? And then it states expats some of them anyway often mourn for their own culture Which is why so many gringos and expats whose Spanish really sucks end up on the gringo tours trail

[21:32] Because it really is and it was for me too when I first came down a soft landing All right. So this article is written by a guy named Robert Catlin. Oh, he's living in Cuenca, Ecuador Then he says so you've been here in Cuenca or another Latin country for a spelling after a year or two You're asking yourself do I really belong here? And why do some expats stay and others leave now as for me Johnny? I've seen him come and go in fact You might say I have a sixth sense about sizing up whether a person is gonna be able to hack it as an expat Generally, I can easily tell when I'm doing a phone consult or when I'm sitting down face to face talking with someone for a few Minutes, I'm thinking here's a guy who's really gonna make it and this other guy. Well, it's a crapshoot though I'm not infallible. I've been wrong a few times Usually I can tell who's gonna end up on the gringo tourist trail forever and ever and who's gonna venture out learn Spanish and blend

[22:22] In with the culture, but that's a topic for another show. We'll get to it So the article goes on to say many immigrants and expats experience a loss of their culture because it's true when you move You lose your birth country values the traditions of your homeland your songs and familiar food Which is probably why a lot of people go to Costa Rica Because it really was the first place in Latin America to have all the comfort foods fast foods and junk foods Just like back home then it says and psychologists say and generally I could give a rip what psychologists say But it's here in the article Social status and significant relationships will also be lost which is true But then again like expat Eddie always says all those time vampires jerks and deadbeats in your own family

[23:08] You can leave them far far behind But if you don't move they'll always be in your life popping up like bad pennies But who knows maybe you're living in Argentina Belize Honduras Whatever and they're still sucking energy from you on what's up for Skype My advice find that off switch and another reason next past leave is because of perceived safety issues Mostly because they don't know the country at all. They haven't been around They don't know the neighborhoods all they have is what they've seen on the internet or maybe from Skyping with a few of their friends That made the move earlier It's also true a lot of expats are coming from places that were dangerous like me from Chicago But I also know Chicago in which places and neighborhoods I'd never want to work play live hang out or walk through alone

[23:54] And of course when moving to a Latin country, you've got no handle on that whatsoever Except for what you've got from the net and heard from maybe your friends living down there already So it is natural anyway for you to feel a decrease in safety and connectedness to others And you just might have some trust issues with the new people you meet unless of course you're Canadian then you trust everyone Hey, then you've got that language barrier. And if you're not on the tourist trail, you're completely disconnected from deep communication with others So definitely you'll be stereotyped by the locals gringos We have our stereotypes, you know, though, they're almost always positive and good There are things about it. The Latin's just don't get and why they call us gringos locos Though they always say it with a smile Like for example the other day when shopping with one of my expat buddies

[24:41] He also came down to one of my earlier expat insider seminars and ended up staying Anyway, we were in the checkout line at a big Latin supermarket He slipped the lady who was bagging the food about a buck in the local funny money He handed it to her and at first she didn't take it She looked at him looked around and thought it was a gag because as it turned out No one had ever given her a tip before just for bagging groceries And since we're way off the gringle tourist trail 99.99% of the clients are Latinos who would never think to tip like that now this gringle friend of mine I know him well, and he does that all the time He's a hell of a nice guy and when people see him doing that to say man You're generous and he says well It's my way of paying things forward and he says the fact is they're gonna remember me and someday who knows I might have a flat tire

[25:26] In a parking lot and guess who's gonna be the first one out there to help me not that I'm waiting for some kind of reciprocation I'm not hey if a buck tip puts a genuine smile on the face of somebody why not then of course I reminded him that Latin's are always smiling buck tip or not then he said yeah But that'll give him something to talk about at the dinner table and that in a way is why Costa Rica can't cool and and all those gringo tourist traps have gotten out of hand When you repeatedly hand out money like that people get used to it and come to expect it Which is why it's a great thing to do every once in a while But not to the same people over and over though many fresh green gringos and expats think I'm a jerk for saying so That is until they've been down a while and see the effect of spreading a lot of dough around For basically just doing their jobs that can't help but alter the Latin stereotype of us now

[26:16] We can't help the way we stereotype others and they can't help the way they stereotype us And you know you hear people say all the time you can't generalize To which I say if you're walking down the street And you see a couple of skinheads with face and neck tattoos walking straight at you Are you gonna be the one to move as they pass are you gonna wait for them to move hmm? You know they might be born-again Christians So when you come to Latin America you're gonna drag along a lot of your own values with you Which is a good thing in a way why when a gringo sets up a business or moves into a Subdivision his house and his business always seem to be a cut above the Latin competition That's part of your gringo advantage But then there's that creeping problem of not being able to accept the values of the culture you've landed in and sure some of the

[27:01] Things you'll never accept like the way people drive and the conditions of most bathrooms But as expat Eddie likes to say any bathroom is better than an outhouse Sometimes now the more you're on the gringo tourist trail the more you can cling to your first world cultures and attitudes and conversely the more You can avoid dealing with the culture you've dropped yourself into which is why so many expats will go to the same restaurants Other expats go to the food might suck But it's all about the fact that the menus in English and the waiters speak English, too You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com better yet If you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the states

[27:49] Just sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files.com Academy