Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller discusses the ongoing effects of the coronavirus lockdown in Latin America. He highlights the challenges faced by non-essential businesses, which are struggling to stay afloat as governments slowly reopen economies. Johnny also touches on the lack of enforcement of lockdown rules due to limited police resources and the general public's desperation to return to work. He mentions the situation with gyms and health clubs, which are facing financial difficulties due to the lack of new memberships. Johnny also references the economic differences between Latin America and the United States, noting that Latin governments cannot afford to bail out businesses like the U.S. can.
Johnny then shifts to discussing the effects of inflation, explaining how those who receive money first retain its value while later recipients experience reduced purchasing power. He uses examples like eggs and oil to illustrate how inflation impacts different groups. He also warns about the potential long-term effects of creating excessive money supply and suggests relocating to areas with stable food supply and fewer mandates. He then shifts to discussing the challenges faced by health clubs and gyms in Latin America due to lockdowns and the impact on athletes, including a personal anecdote about a Venezuelan baseball player who has gained weight during the lockdown. Finally, he questions the source of remittances from the U.S. to Latin America despite lockdowns and expresses skepticism about government control over essential services.
In another segment, Johnny discusses his experiences in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, highlighting the challenges of dealing with corrupt systems and the complexities of expatriate life. He shares anecdotes about the exploitation of indigenous communities by foreign 'do-gooders' and the difficulties faced by Venezuelans and Cubans trying to escape their home countries. Johnny also talks about his interactions with a young Venezuelan baseball prospect named Jose, who is navigating the complexities of the U.S. legal system and the challenges of transitioning from Venezuela to the United States. The segment also touches on the use of Bitcoin in Venezuela as a means of circumventing economic instability.
Johnny then discusses the challenges expats face when learning a new language, such as Spanish, and introduces Captain Mango's cryptocurrency course. He highlights the confusion surrounding the crypto world and how Captain Mango's service provides guidance. Johnny also shares insights about the current economic climate, including the movement of assets to Latin America and the importance of owning physical gold and silver rather than storing them in third-party vaults. He then shifts to a conversation with Venezuelans who have migrated to the U.S., explaining the differences between Democrats and Republicans. Johnny notes that the Venezuelans, having fled their oppressive government, tend to favor Republicans, but he also emphasizes that all politicians are corrupt and that he identifies as a libertarian, which confuses the Venezuelans.
In the final segment, Johnny discusses the real estate market in Latin America, emphasizing that it is currently stagnant with many properties listed but not selling. He mentions checking real estate listings on OLX.com and noting that properties remain unsold despite being listed for extended periods. Johnny also addresses an email from John M, who questions the value of attending seminars with children and the decision to move from Wisconsin to a foreign country. He responds by explaining that they have experience managing children during seminars and that he is considering the trade-offs of community life in Wisconsin versus re-establishing it abroad. He also touches on the potential for real estate investment in the wake of economic crises, suggesting that while listed prices may not drop, desperate sellers might accept lower offers. Johnny outlines a strategy for making low offers on properties to capitalize on the market's instability. The segment concludes with an invitation for listeners to sign up for an upcoming seminar.
Topics
Coronavirus lockdown effects in Latin America, Economic differences between Latin America and the United States, Challenges faced by non-essential businesses, Enforcement of lockdown rules, Financial struggles of gyms and health clubs, Inflation and its effects on different groups, Impact of lockdowns on businesses and individuals, Remittances and their sources, Government control over essential services, Expatriate experiences in Latin America, Cultural and social dynamics in Latin America, Exploitation of indigenous communities
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:01:14 Coronavirus and its effects in Latin America 00:01:18 Reopening of non-essential businesses 00:02:56 Restrictions on mall capacity and enforcement 00:03:15 Enforcement challenges and public desperation 00:04:34 Financial struggles of gyms and health clubs 00:05:47 Inflation and the First to Receive Money 00:06:13 Inflation and Its Impact on End Users 00:07:22 Short-Term Deflationary Effects and Long-Term Inflation 00:07:38 Relocating to Avoid Inflation and Mandates 00:08:44 Venezuelan Baseball Player and Lockdown Effects 00:09:55 Source of Remittances During Lockdowns 00:11:49 Exploitation of Indigenous Communities by Foreign Do-Gooders 00:12:36 The Disastrous Impact of Free Vaccine Programs in Indigenous Communities 00:13:18 The Political Transformation of Cubans in the U.S. 00:14:29 The Challenges of Transitioning from Venezuela to the U.S. 00:16:59 The Risks and Rewards of Bitcoin Mining in Venezuela 00:17:08 Language Learning for Expats 00:17:32 The Need for Cryptocurrency Services 00:18:05 Asset Movement and Economic Uncertainty 00:18:29 Investment Strategies in Gold, Silver, and Crypto 00:19:57 Political System Confusion Among Venezuelans 00:21:23 Political Ideologies and Libertarianism 00:22:39 Real Estate Market Stagnation in Latin America 00:22:50 Checking Real Estate Listings on OLX.com 00:23:00 Properties Listed for Extended Periods 00:23:05 Email from John M on Seminars and Family 00:23:41 Experience Managing Children During Seminars 00:24:14 Deciding Between Community Life in Wisconsin and Abroad 00:24:52 Real Estate Investment Strategy During Economic Crisis 00:27:02 Capitalizing on Market Instability with Low Offers 00:27:32 Introduction to the Expat Files Podcast 00:27:36 Call to Action for Consultation 00:27:44 Introduction to the Expat Insider Seminar
Transcript
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 ex-pat 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 So have you got all your designer masks laid out at the kitchen table? Are y'all masked up? I'll tell you who's got real problems in that regard ZZ top, you know Billy Gibbons in the boys I bet you they're doing some real soul-searching right now
[00:46] Or maybe they got some custom designer figuring out how to cross a regular n95 mask with a pair of Kim Kardashian's underwear Hmm think about it ZZ top in the age of corona guys in that club, you know have a problem I bet if Billy dug deep he could produce more than a few Panama red seeds from the Woodstock days Those big old beards, you know act like a filter in a shop vac Then again, maybe we've been fooled all along and they're just Hollywood glue-on props Anyway speaking about the corona virus and its effects down here in Latin America Little by little things are opening up and business owners who have products and services that are considered non-essential They're all pissed off and dying on the vine, too So a lot of them have decided clandestinely to open in fact just yesterday morning
[01:33] I hit the bank and along the way I noticed here and there certain businesses had blinds that were halfway drawn Whereas over the last six weeks or so storefronts have been closed as tight as a drum But now there's signs of life I've noticed some lights flickering where there were none and people mulling around in so-called Non-essential businesses like for example one of the local hardware stores I watched as a guy knocked on the door and they let him in and as the door opened two guys walked out They were carrying some plumbing stuff in a toilet seat I hope it was a new one and I realized they'd purposely parked to block down So that they wouldn't arouse suspicion that the owner had violated the lockdown come to think of it What can you do when something breaks around the house leaky faucet balloon circuit breaker plugged up drain?
[02:22] How about that notorious ball and flapper in your toilet tank? Those things are always breaking now I know depending on where you live some of the big supermarkets have hardware sections where you can pick up supplies and parts But you know, I've heard up in the States at least they won't even allow you to buy non food related stuff Though thankfully here in Latin America, that's not the case. There's no restrictions You can buy anything that's on the shelves in the store Oh and I'm seeing all kinds of projections about reopening in the Latin American media For example, most countries are saying now that the malls will reopen But they'll be restricted to 30% of their normal capacity So I guess they'll have rent a cop said the entrances counting heads like they do now in most grocery stores Hey, at least they've got a reopening plant. Oh, and I was talking to a cop the other day Of course, so Latino cop and it was in Spanish
[03:07] he said I don't care what the media or the mayor or the governor or the president says about the lockdown and curfew and how Long it's gonna last the fact is we don't have the personnel to enforce the rules People are desperate and they need to go back to work. So there will be violations Then he said just look at all the people who routinely run red lights They do it when the cops are standing right there and we don't write them up if we did He said we wouldn't have time for anything else Same thing for these lockdown violations. He said except for the real flagrant ones. We don't plan on interfering He said our job he says is to keep the peace not restrict people from making a living Of course, that's not the party line either he said but realistically that's our party line between us cops
[03:55] In fact, he said right now I could go down to one of the big markets and find dozens of businesses that are not considered Essential sort of open for business including beauty parlors clothing and jewelry repair shops They sort of pretend to be close But most of them have their storefront shutters halfway open which is a signal that you just knock on the door And they'll let you in some of them. He said looked open entirely even though they were considered non-essential So what are we supposed to do? He said go around finding these guys and make enemies We've got to live in this city, too And when everything's back to normal or at least everything's opened up again. He said we don't want the public to hate us Then there's the problem of health clubs and gyms You longtime listeners may have heard me say that before this show
[04:41] I had a couple of different radio shows throughout Latin America and one of my main Patro sinadores one of my main sponsors was gold's Jim and I still on occasion am in contact with the owners I remained friends with them the other day. I got kind of a panicky email from one of these guys He said all my buddies who own gyms are on the verge of bankruptcy Why because their cash flow comes from new memberships not existing ones and no one's signing up and no one's renewing either And he said you know here in Latin America unlike the states There are no bailouts for businesses and Latin governments can't turbocharge the printing presses or they'll end up like Venezuela Meanwhile the US is pumping out trillions of dollars of Franklin's 24 7 now If you don't think the US Treasury and the Fed aren't secretly panicked about that
[05:29] Then you've probably never heard of the Coralinus inflation effect. I think that's how you pronounce it Coralinus anyway He was a 17th century French mathematician and economist He derived a mathematical formula that shows when the government prints money the first people or entities or banks or whatever To get it and they always get it first they don't see the effects of inflation at all, but then as they spend it and give it to their employees or buy tools or Supplies with it as that excess dough filters through the system the more hands it goes through the so-called velocity of money The more people it touches the more it flows the more inflation kicks in so there's very little inflation at first But for the end users somewhere down the line Inflation is severe. In other words if you're first in the money holds its full value when they spend it
[06:20] There's no inflation But the person or entity that gets it down the line always has a bit less purchasing power and on and on So in the end as usual the little guy gets screwed and if you think there's no inflation coming Well, I just talked to some of my family up in Chicago and they said already it's starting with food. Take eggs They're now twice as expensive in certain stores as they were two months ago Meanwhile chickens, they don't care about the coronavirus They're still laying the same amount of eggs as always So the supply is the same only there's more fiat money floating around to buy them. Then again, there's market manipulation Everywhere take oil prices. They've tanked because there's no demand and even when oil tanks It's only the oil prices that go down. It never trickles down to anyone else Do the plumbers prices go down because he pays less for gas?
[07:08] No way does your electric bill go down because these electric generators have a cheaper operating cost. No Way. Anyway, just a little advice right now and probably for the next six months dollars are in high demand Why because everyone's bills are coming doing they got to pay the rent, etc And that in the short run is deflationary, but when the dust settles and I say give it six months You're gonna see the terrible effects of creating massive doses of funny money That's why I say man. You got to get that plan B going You've got to seriously think about relocating to a place where you've got no heating bill Where the supply chain for the food is mostly local a place where they won't have round after round of mandatory Vaccinations, but you knew that already, right? Where were we? Oh, yeah talking about health clubs and gyms in Latin America
[07:56] Well talking to my buddy who owns a few of them He said everyone's on the verge of bankruptcy and there are no bailouts coming. They're dying to reopen But it will be tricky since everyone's sweating spit flying breathing heavy leaving moist munged up towels everywhere What about soaking in your own sweat in a sauna and moving from your sweaty machine to someone else's sweaty machine? The owners of health clubs are very worried about that and there's real thought to banning clients over 60 years old The real question involves masks who's gonna wear a mask while working out talk about uncomfortable and how about the almost? impossible task Disinfecting machines and barbells between every use so man you think you got problems as a business owner think about those guys
[08:43] Oh, and this is good for a chuckle You know, I have a few Venezuelan friends and one of them's an 18 year old guy Who's on his way to becoming a major league baseball player in the US? He's got one of those 90 mile an hour fastballs, you know You see most major league teams up in the states have training camps down here Because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to put up a guy and train him down here than it is up in the state Besides if you've noticed there are lots of professional baseball players who are Latinos anyway I hadn't seen this guy for about a month and a half and man, is he the specimen solid muscle like a rock big thick chested guy The kind you'd never want to get in a fight with however, these guys are on lockdown too So they're not working out and man does he show it? He's got a pot belly now But I guess that's normal for baseball players. Naturally. He's depressed as hell cuz he's getting soft
[09:31] He's fallen into the same trap as 99% of Latinos during this lockdown They sit at home watch YouTube or Netflix suck down beer and junk food. That is if they've gotten the extra dough Sound familiar and most of them do scrape enough pesos together to keep that pattern going Especially since the remisses are still coming strong. Of course, you remember a couple of shows ago. I said that's the big conundrum How could all those remisses come from the states beyond the increase when there's a big lockdown up there and nobody's supposed to be working I don't get it. Really. No one's been able to answer that question, but it's true if you need proof You should see the lines down here at the Western Union and moneygram offices I just don't get it someone. Please fill me in where they get in the dough to send the remisses back
[10:18] I mean look up in the states by you Latinos are on lockdown, too They're at home. They've got corona fear that is watching YouTube and Netflix and pound and down Cheetos, too Being that corona and Cheetos are Essentials, right speaking of essential and not essential the government came up with those terms Of course who in the hell puts their faith and trust in government these days But when you talk about non essential services and people You know, we could get very precise and technical here and make our own long list of non Essential people starting with Anthony Fauci bill and Melinda Gates all of Congress the FBI Homeland Security the IRS the Federal Reserve Wall Street Jamie Diamond Wells Fargo City Bank
[11:06] To each bank anyone and anything having to do with a reality show to me the list of non Essential services and people goes on and on who'd I miss and you know This planet's in for a hell of a ride and who do you think will be in charge of global famine? Why it'll be Bill and Melinda Gates, of course Isn't that nice? By the way, have you ever bothered to watch Bill Gates when he's doing an interview? There's something wrong with that guy something malevolent. His eyes are hollow and dead like two pissholes in the snow Man, am I glad I had the dumb luck to end up in Latin America Where you really don't have to deal with freaks like him Although that's usually where he tests out his Vaccines in those poor and indigenous communities where they think first-world gringos and white smocks
[11:56] Ended up free medicines and injections and sometimes not free They'll actually give you the equivalent of five or ten bucks just for your troubles. Yeah, right Hey, I've had plenty of indigenous cleaning ladies maintenance guys and gardeners and all of them tell a story or two of some gringo Do-gooder group shuffling in for a week or two and offering free medicines and vakunas vaccines In fact in my various travels in the compo and the boonies throughout Latin America I've seen and photographed various announcements on telephone poles and bus stops Where some do-gooder group is offering free vaccines including that dreaded human papilloma virus That's supposed to protect women against cervical cancer You know that one turned out to be quite a disaster didn't it? And if you don't believe that this happened send me an email the expat files at gmail.com
[12:44] And I'll shoot you the pictures. I actually took of these things Oh, and I mentioned before I know quite a few Venezuelans who've escaped and I know some Cubans too and some Cuban doctors Want to hear something funny? I was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast and he was mentioning how a friend of his knew some Cubans who'd escaped and When they ended up in the States in Miami, that's where almost all Cubans go You know at least at first they've all got relatives there He said every last one of them when they finally got their green cards And they got to know the system and how it works up in the States. They all to a person became Republicans Alright, so I heard that on his show a while back and I thought it was interesting. I remembered it anyway then coincidentally Just recently I had the opportunity to put it to the test myself
[13:30] I was sitting around with all those Venezuelans at the baseball players mother's house By the way, this guy is looking at a multi-million dollar contract if you can believe that in fact He asked me to look over the contract he signed with his US manager slash agent and then by the way I passed that contract on to my seminar lawyer just to see what he thought of it before the kids signed Of course because who else they're gonna lean on but a gringo for such things Especially coming from a socialist country where they got no idea how the law works in capitalist countries So a month or so ago I gave Jose a copy of that contract and what most people don't know is that my seminar lawyer Jose He's been with me for 17 seminars since day one thing is he's actually Represented a couple of baseball players who came over from Cuban Venezuela who are now playing in the United States
[14:20] So anyway as a favor I passed the contract on to him And he said definitely that manager slash agent is heavily gouging if not totally ripping law buddy But you know a young guy like that a real prospect for the major leagues coming from Venezuela Doesn't matter who you are what your talents are they almost always get out by the skin of their teeth with practically nothing For him hooking up with that manager was the only game in town in fact He was the one that greased the skids and paid the way for him and his family to get out of Venezuela Now of course these baseball prospects and such have no way to get to United States just like any other Venezuelan They can't get a pizza. So where do they go? Well, some of them end up in Colombia, but that's really not the ideal place. I bought a chip put it into place That's not really where they want to go. They want to go to the DR Dominican Republic
[15:07] Why because the DR is the only Latin American country besides Cuba and Puerto Rico But Puerto Rico is a US protectorate where their national sport is baseball not soccer So anyway Jose my expat insider seminar lawyers said the contract was shite If I remember right the manager slash agents cut was 20% Jose said it's usually 5 to 10 percent But again since it was the only game in town he signed it So now he's got a manager in an agent who'll be negotiating with two or three clubs up in the states Of course after the lockdown by the way This kid is the nicest most polite guy in the world and he's Hollywood handsome, too Though very protected by his dad and his mother so he's kind of an innocent and that spells trouble when he gets to the states
[15:53] Oh, and here's another thing. He said to me Johnny. Look when I finally signed the contract How about help me put a couple of hundred thousand bucks into Bitcoin this from a poor 18 year old Protected kid from Venezuela. I said Pedro. How'd you know about Bitcoin? He said because his brother Jorge who lives in Caracas He uses that all the time now Jorge the only family member who didn't escape stayed in Venezuela because he's got a good job Getting paid in US dollars, too, which is highly unusual. He works for the Red Cross that Cruz out Roja Pedro's brothers head of a medical team and a medical department and Wouldn't you know what his brother and some of his friends are secretly into Bitcoin? it's not illegal to have but if the cops or authorities find out your mining Bitcoin and
[16:42] They can tell when your electrical use on your meter goes way up not your bill though because electricity in Venezuela is basically free That's why Bitcoin mining is one hell of a good deal So technically you can mind it and have it but if the cops or authorities find out they'll let you keep on mining But they'll charge you weekly or monthly protection money like the Mafia does So anyway, the kid wants to put a couple of hundred granted to Bitcoin you hear that Captain Mango That means you'll have to learn some Spanish Now Captain Mango, he's one of those expats who keeps on saying I'll learn the language Manana, of course, you know, Captain Mango's developed his own cryptocurrency course specializing in Bitcoin and how to keep it safe Buy it sell it, etc He's put together an info sheet which explains his course and what he can do for you
[17:28] In short, he'll hand hold you through the entire process and man Does the world need a service like Captain Mango's to the novice the crypto world seems so confusing Millions want to get into it, but they don't know where to start or who to trust Well, I certainly trust Captain Mango myself. He gets four stars from me But I'll never try to out drink him and you know these days now that corona has popped the everything bubble The future is terribly uncertain that said all the smartest people I know and a lot of them people a lot smarter than I am They've bought gold silver Bitcoin and crypto and they've liquidated or are in the process of liquidating Their assets in the states and moving them down to Latin America In other words, they've got their plan B Well underway and most of them are also biding their time and waiting for this real estate reset
[18:16] Yep, real estate here and up in the first world to is absolutely hit a brick wall And I predict starting in a few months the bargains will be amazing now I'm no financial advisor, but I'll tell you what most of my very smart friends are doing again It's gold silver Bitcoin and crypto and they're buying land and property or looking to buy land and property in Latin America Of course, it's easy to buy gold and silver You gotta buy the right kind of course But you just go down to the pawn shop where you order it online from one of the well-respected bullion houses They'll ship it right to your door And I'm not at all for having your gold and silver whatever stored and someone else's vault not your vault not your gold same thing with crypto if you don't have your crypto on a hard wallet like a treasure or nano and You've got on some kind of exchange like coinbase then it's not really yours
[19:03] Of course, Captain Mango will explain all that to you Just send me an email to expet files at gmail.com and I'll send you captain mangoes Bitcoin and cryptocurrency info and checklist now I do understand how getting into cryptocurrency could be intimidating especially for the baby boomer generation Gen Xers and Millennials they get it. They were born with a smartphone in their hand They feel perfectly at home with ones and zeros and software and IT stuff They have the built-in confidence to jump right into crypto and Bitcoin And that's what Captain Mango's course will do for you It'll give you the tools and the confidence you need to get going in crypto But anyway back to the point sitting around at mama's house the matriarch's house and there's something like 17 Venezuelans there Now they don't all live there just in the neighborhood stopping by cuz it's Sunday and they're hanging out and scrona virus and lockdown
[19:51] And all that anyway the kid the baseball pitchers father said to me I don't get the political system in the States Remember all of them have escaped from Venezuela and none of them have any use at all for their government. He said Johnny I don't understand anything at all about the American political system all I know he said is that Trump's a Republican and Obama a Democrat and I know he said that they hate each other He said Johnny. I know this might sound stupid But what's the difference and suddenly a light bulb went off my head. I thought to myself aha Here's the perfect opportunity to do a test to see if that guy Joe Rogan was talking about on his show was right You know that thing about Cubans when they finally get to the States Automatically becoming Republicans so I explained to those Venezuelans and they were all ears
[20:40] They all wanted to know what a Democrat was and I laid out their typical historical platform Of course, they never stick to it But I said basically they're pro-union anti-gun pro-abortion pro-working man They're for big government lots of regulations on businesses They like when the government controls schools and education and utilities They believe in a big safety net for the poor like the welfare system Typically, they call themselves the party of the working man and the Republicans I said are easier to explain They're the party of the businessman their anti-abortion pro-gun. They believe in a small government Big military and they're big on free market and hands-off when it comes to business regulations Now after I explained all that I found Joe Rogan was right all of them
[21:27] I mean all of them said they'd rather be a Republican though I did stress that even in the States especially in the States all politicians are Sociopathic liars whose job number one is getting reelected and the best way to do that Of course is to give away free stuff along with making someone else the bad guy the boogeyman Whether it's China Russia big business Whatever talking point best hit a nerve at that particular moment and man did they not in agreement on that one? Then one of them asked me which one I was I said neither I'm a libertarian and when I explained that to him Well, that was just another wrench thrown into the works and they walked away more confused than ever though One of them did say if libertarianism is as good as you say Why don't you have a libertarian presidents and I thought about it for a second? I didn't want to complicate things more and I said
[22:14] basically libertarians Insist on a very tiny government and a very tiny military and they'll never try to buy votes by promising free stuff because free stuff always has a cost someone else has to pay for it and Libertarians believe forcibly taxing a person and taking that money and giving it to someone else is theft after that spiel He grinned and nodded he got it. All right, I think now said about that You know, a lot of people are wondering about the real estate market, you know, it's completely dead in the water worldwide And here in latin america, you know, there's no government bailout and there are thousands of properties listed everywhere In fact, I just checked the real estate listings on olex.com for various latin countries And the same properties are up for sale with new ones coming on all the time and none of them are selling
[23:00] In fact, there's one i'm particularly interested in it's been listed for a year and a half Does that tell you something which brings me to this email from john m I'll paraphrase a bit because there's a lot of other stuff in this email. That's not real estate related He starts out johnny. It would be easy to think you're blowing a lot of smoke up our asses But then I recall some of the stories you related Anyway, we're supposed to be giving ourselves a long self-guided tour through guatemala right now We're going to give it another shot as soon as the borders open up again Then he says the seminar sounds like such a value, but not so much when you've got to drag four kids around All right, me johnny here regarding kids This will be my 18th seminar and many times we've had people come down and bring their kids
[23:46] Depending on the ages, of course Sometimes the kids will tag along and even attend some of the lectures and boots in the ground excursions And when we have small children even babies We'll hire a full-time nanny to take care of the kids and tag along with us They'll travel along in our buses too as we move from city to city And stay with the nanny at the hotel while we're doing lectures and tours So depending on the age of the kids we always seem to be able to work it out We're used to it Anyway, then johnny m says i'm divided between giving up a great community around our farm in wisconsin Versus trying to re-establish that kind of thing in a foreign country My wife does speak spanish quite fluently the rest of us not so much What are your thoughts on that?
[24:32] I'm not ignorant of the changes coming like everything else now I can't fathom what might happen when every possibility is on the table. I gotta say these days It's good to be a prepper and know all your neighbors that said johnny Where would be the best place to get non-inflated real estate prices as the next step of the crisis begins? I'm not opposed to trading in some fixed rate investments for foreign property right now Oh and johnny, I stopped at the bank today to pull out a few grand Wearing a wide brimmed hat and a mask, of course I started counting the bills in the car and they didn't feel like they used to and when I looked closer I found most of them were uncirculated with sequential numbers. They were series 2013 It's getting spooky out there. Johnny. All right, johnny m. Thanks for that
[25:20] Except for the part about me blowing smoke up people's asses. I try not to do that You know, it's a nasty habit and even if the coronavirus wasn't around it would be slightly less than hygienic Anyway about getting those deals on real estate now that the bubble's been popped well I've been speaking to a couple of realtors myself Like I said, i'm looking around too and they're telling me the listed prices that you see online like olx.com And in the glossy real estate magazines are not going to go down But as sellers become more desperate They'll start accepting offers. They never would have considered before offers They would have thought were an insult just a couple of months ago Oh and those real estate guys were really scared as they mentioned What they see is an apocalypse coming for commercial real estate Referring to malls and business centers. They said within a month. There's going to be massive sweeping defaults
[26:08] And that'll scare the crap out of people selling their homes and apartments And with that news sellers will become even more desperate. The problem is online There's tons of real estate and you see all kinds of pictures and descriptions even video That's not enough. You have to come down and do a walkthrough You need to see the adjacent properties and the neighborhood In other words, you're going to have to spend some time down here and get boots on the ground and here's how i'm doing it I'm going to select let's say five properties I've already got a list and as soon as the owners let me do a walkthrough I'll wait a day or two and phone in a ridiculously low offer Say 50 of the asking price and i'll do that for all five properties So i'll only buy one for me for my personal use because this market could be nuts to buy something You want to use for a rental in my mind?
[26:54] This is the time to buy the house you always wanted and even if at first they seem insulted by the offer You can just sit back and wait I think that's exactly the way you want to play this market Owners are not going to want to look desperate by slashing their prices in the real estate ads The key is to make your offers sit back and wait and people will come calling Especially as more and more houses and condos come online All right 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 free expat You can sign up now on the early bird discounts 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
[27:41] 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 Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com No spamos