Since the 1970s when we began publishing our books and reports on global investing, we have included special real estate opportunity created by distortions and trends.
In 1976, I noticed that London real estate had not appreciated while property prices in much of the USA, Asia and Western Europe had skyrocketed. Research showed that there had been a huge real estate crash in 1970 which continued to dampen London real estate prices six years later despite the rampant global inflation. This was quite a distortion so I started buying British real estate. The first house in Bedford Park (a London suburb) cost$35,000 and sold four years later for $253,000.
Our London experience led us to the Isle of Man where again real estate prices were of incredible value. After years there we headed to the Dominican Republic and finally stumbled across incredible real estate bargains in Ecuador.
We are definitely headed to Cuba but in a far different way than we did in Ecuador.
There will be real estate bargains in Cuba for sure, but a lot of the low hanging fruit is gone. Though Americans have not been able to invest in Cuba, the rest of the world has. The small amount of real estate that was for sale has been taken and is now not cheap. Some Havana apartments already have have premium prices. A recent Wall Street Journal article “Real estate revolution hits Cuba” (2) tells of one Havana penthouse listed, by a Bermudian investor, at $1.2 million.
During our first Ecuador real estate tours (in the 1990s) wonderful brand new condos in Quito were under $50,000. This is a big difference in price.
The legal situation is also very different. Ecuador had easy real estate regulations from the getgo. Anyone from anywhere could buy Ecuador real estate and were treated equal to Ecuadorians. The purchasing system was proven, understood and really easy.
Cuba has not had much of a concept of private ownership so there will need to be reform and the establishment of people and a system to convey real estate ownership. There is great opportunity in this but this will not be as simple as the “buy almost anything and it will rise” approach that was available in Ecuador.
A helpful reader shows a note that explains one complication.
Gary, the Associated Press article “Run From Cuba, Americans Cling to Claims for Seized Property” (3) tells me more than I have ever known about Cuba and makes me a bit hesitant about Latin America in general.
Mount Dora was mentioned as a home to one of the individuals in the article and I was glad to know so much more about the Mount Dora than I had ever known. I have also read about those living in North Carolina and Asheville and so forth and how many are writers and publishers from that area. Just wanted to share since I know you are focused on Cuba now.
I would not put it past US regulators to require that Americans report ownership of Cuban property on their income tax form and passing legislation that puts such ownership at risk to repatriation. This risk is increased if some of the minor presidential candidates position against US Cuba relations forces real presidential candidates to harden their position against Cuba in their platform. The spin would be something like “We need relations with Cuba but have to make sure that former American owners of Cuban real estate get their property back”.
That AP article is linked below and is worth a read if you have been considering buying real estate in Cuba.
The best investment opportunity comes from spotting value created by contrasts and distortions. There will be plenty of all three-value, contrasts and distortions in Cuba, but I do not believe the incredible early real estate opportunity we enjoyed in Ecuador will be found in Cuba by the time the market really opens there.
Gary
(1) BBC US approves ferry service between US and Florida
(2) wsj.com Real estate revolution hits Cuba
(3) Run From Cuba, Americans Cling to Claims for Seized Property
Ecuador Export Tours
Ecuador Export Business Idea
Live anywhere – Earn in Ecuador with an export business in Ecuador.
Lake Quicocha near Cotacachi.
Visiting another country is great, but it is even better if you can do business while traveling!
Come to Ecuador and learn all about exports to the USA, Canada and Europe while visiting amazing places and earning money.
* You may be able to deduct part or all of this trip from your taxes.
* You can buy products to sell back home.
* You can learn about exporting from Ecuador to anywhere.
* You can even bring ideas to manufacture in Ecuador with great quality and competitive prices.
Coming to Ecuador not only won’t cost money but will make money for you.
Make your trip to Ecuador the beginning of a great business opportunity.
Otavalo Market. Learn about Tagua…a vegetable, sustainable, renewable ivory.
Let’s see some numbers.
Tagua bracelet. Cost in Ecuador is $2.50 it is sold in the USA for at least $12.
Tagua necklace. Cost in Ecuador is $3, it is sold in the USA for at least $15.
Metal Bracelet. Cost in Ecuador is $1, it is sold in the USA for at least $10.
Shawl. Cost in Ecuador is $2.50, it is sold in the USA for at least $11.
Scarf. Cost in Ecuador is $3.00 it is sold in the USA for at least $12.00.
Alpaca Scarves.
These are just few examples of products that are inexpensive and have huge margins. But there is also another plus; you can request specific improvements on those products.
But let’s go over some numbers and specific ideas.
1- You want to sell a tagua bracelet to a University in Colorado, but everyone can do that, what they can’t do is sell a tagua bracelet with the University’s color. We can dye the tagua bracelet to match the University’s color, same goes for any other tagua designs and even for shawls and other textiles. If you make just $9 on each tagua bracelet and you sell 100 units, you are making $900 on 1 order. And this is just 1 product, and this is just 1 University. You can apply this idea to any education center in the USA.
2- You see designs of leather products that you think could be made better, or different. There is a niche market where you can sell them. The manufacturers in Ecuador can make any design, on any color with major improvements over the original idea. You can even request to put a logo and special details on the products. We have a major company in the USA that wants our leather iPhone 6 cases, but they want them with their branding and specifications that other cases don’t have. So we are making the leather cases exactly as they want them. Margins on leather products are around 60% retail and 20% wholesale. Orders for medium size companies come in the hundreds, so you can make good money selling leather. Customers and myself have made thousands of dollars selling these products.
3- Selling Roses to final customers is another amazing way of making money. What I am doing right now is reaching to people that want to raise funds for specific projects and teaching them how to use roses for that. On one specific program we are donating $20 to $40 on each box sold to a Water Project in Ecuador. The response has been unbelievable, people enjoy the beauty of Roses from Ecuador but also contribute to a good cause at the same time. Since there is no limit on quantity of flowers that you can sell, there is no limit on the number of people that you can involve in this idea.
Rose Farm Processing Facility.
4- Selling wholesale. This is the main goal for the July course that I want you to take here in Ecuador. If you find a store, a chain, a website or any other vendor that sells unique and cool products, you are in for a great business opportunity. Their orders are in the hundreds and even thousands of units. Margins are lower, but since you are selling more, that compensates. The nice thing about this part of the business is that these big companies are looking for different products, so if they buy 1 from you, there is a big chance that they will buy many, many others. Remember that our manufacturers can make the products with the customer’s specifications, so there is no restriction on design that your buyer may want.
As you can see there are many ways in which you can make money while visiting Ecuador.
Leather Duffel Bags.
The course includes taking you to the manufacturers, sellers and export companies so you will have all the contact information that you need to move forward on your business. There are dozens of manufacturers that make every type of product that you can imagine. Most of them already work with big importers all over the world and have proved that the quality of their products is amazing.
There are plenty of places to visit and ideas to explore. Among the places that you would normally visit while in Ecuador:
– Quito
– Otavalo
– Peguche
– Ibarra
– Cotacachi
– San Antonio de Pichincha
Jewelry is one of many Ecuador exports.
Ecuador has evolved as an export center.
You can learn about exports as diverse as jewelry or wood products.
Ecuador has great art exports.
There are wonderful handmade crafts like the chess set below.
In Zuleta they create handmade “green” cotton-one-of-a-kind tableware, shirts, specialty items.
Here you see them in hand sewn embroidery from the village of Zuleta. In this Andean community near us hand embroidery has been an important form of artistic expression and adornment for centuries. Andean cultures have long boasted superior textiles, far surpassing those of Europe. The weavers of the Andes could produce material with as many as five hundred two-ply woolen wefts per inch compared to one hundred in Europe.
The women of Zuleta are renowned for unique hand embroidered designs and colors. Their styles are so unique they have become a form of cultural identification.
Flowers are popular in Otavalan sweaters as well. Plus the ladies of Intag make flowers from plant fiber.
One Ecuador export business sold to the Texas Rangers.
Texas Ranger badge.
Almost everyone has heard of the Texas Rangers. They are the oldest law enforcement body on the North American Continent and have helped bring in many famous criminals like John Wesley Hardin and Bonnie and Clyde.
Wood Carver in San Antonio de Ibarra.
Come to Ecuador and make extra income while learning about global trade and expanding your possibilities.
Ecuador has amazing products that are unique and very affordable. This makes them more attractive and more lucrative. Additional to this you don’t need to make thousands of items to get a good deal. In Ecuador most products are hand made, which means that specifications and quantities match what the customer needs.
Have a great experience in Ecuador while doing business. You will learn about Ecuador, the products and the people.
Why You Can Learn Spanish in Three Days
You can learn Spanish in a day, or a week, month or any time frame that works for you.I’m Gary Scott. Over fifty years ago I started a business that has helped hundreds of thousands of subscribers learn about investing in Hong Kong (1960s and 1970s), Switzerland, London, Isle of Man (1970s and 1980s) and across Europe. My wife Merri and I took thousands on investing tours to these countries.
In the 1990s we began taking investors to Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador. That’s when we realized an incredible need for an easy, super fast way to learn Spanish. Our delegates were business people with hard schedules and tight deadlines. They did not have months, or even weeks to learn a second language.
Plus, even though these delegates were successful international business people, most did not have degrees in grammar. When it came to sentence structure, punctuation rules, parts of speech, morphology and especially derivation of verbs, they were at a loss. They wanted good basic ways to communicate in Spanish that worked and sounded eloquent, right now, without having to become educated in grammar.
Fortunately there is a scientific method of learning (called Super Learning) that was created and refined by a Soviet educational master, Georgi Lozanov. Lozanov transformed the entire Soviet Union’s educational system to such a degree that this third world nation beat the USA into space.
My wife Merri was lucky to be one of a handful of students outside the Soviet Union who were taught this system by Lozanov himself in the early 1970s. She practiced this unique and remarkable form of education for decades so we used it to create a Super Spanish course that has helped thousands of subscribers learn Spanish in three days and less.
This course is now available online.
Merri teaching a Super Spanish course in Florida.
Does it sound impossible to learn Spanish in three days? Yes, it is impossible when you try to learn Spanish in the old, traditional way, but the scientific Super Learning method of learning… proven and described in numerous best selling books creates educational jumps by making education natural, easy and fun. This course works because it is education without stress!
How The Course Works
The first tactic is to use Baroque music to create Relaxed Concentration in the learning process. At least three best selling books, “Superlearning”, the “Mozart Effect” and “Superlearning 2000” have revealed insights about how to learn and think more powerfully based on systems drawn from the Soviet educational master, Dr. Georgi Lozanov.
You gain six valuable ONLINE Baroque Relaxed Concentration Sessions in the online course that is delivered via the internet.
The second tactic uses 17 unique lessons to provide Spanish fluency in a short time. Let me prove to you how this tactic works by teaching you hundreds of Spanish words in less than 30 seconds.
Here is the proof.
“Most words in English that end in ION are almost identical, just pronounced differently.
For example action is accion.
Education-educacion.
Manipulation- manipulacion, etc.”
There you have it. How long did it take you to read these four sentences?
Ask yourself. “How many words do you know that end in ION”.
You now know all these Spanish words that you will never forget.
How long would it have taken you to memorize all those words? How soon would you have forgotten them?
The next lesson teaches how to pronounce each of the nouns.
The third lesson teaches almost as many verbs, almost as quickly.
The fourth lesson shows how to avoid conjugating verbs by sticking with the infinitive (far easier than it sounds). This simple lesson leaves a person sounding like a Spanish professor without ever conjugating a verb.
Lesson five shows how to sound infinitely polite and yet get almost anything desired in Spanish.
Lesson six gives valuable connectors and the seventh lesson triples the Spanish capacity with three words for “yesterday,” “now” and “tomorrow”.
In an incredibly short time you feel comfortable speaking Spanish.
Plus the system is Impro-Dynamic. This means your Spanish keeps getting better even though you do not seem to be studying… practicing… or speaking Spanish.
I was amazed by this as I traveled back and forth from the USA to Ecuador. The longer I was away from Ecuador… the better my Spanish became. My second language was automatically improving. The self improving feature comes because you learn to create Spanish sentences rather than remember them.
The portion of the brain that creates is more powerful than the portion that recalls. When your mind creates something… it owns it! You do not have to remember .
During the course you learn 4005 Spanish words that you already know. This eliminates the need to memorize 99% of Spanish words.
You then learn how to create Spanish sentences from these words.
Throughout the course you learn how to pronounce the sentences you create.
When the course ends… the mind keeps working… and creating… so next time you begin to speak Spanish you’ll be surprised . You improve even though you have not actively worked on your lingual skill.
Due to the difficulty of getting groups together to learn this valuable technique, we created an online program for subscribers to use the Super Spanish course at home. The normal three day in person course fee is $499 ($749 for a couple).
The ONLINE course is available at the highly reduced price of $149, but in this special offer we are knocking another $70 from the price so you can start now for only $79.
The ONLINE course has our, full satisfaction or money back, guarantee. Try Super Spanish for 60 days. If not fully satisfied, simply let us know for a full refund.
Learn Spanish online $79 - using coupon code SPANISH70 at checkout to immediately save $70 off the regular price of $149.
Here are some testimonials from the course.
Here are a few quotes from delegates of the course.
One delegate from St. Louis wrote: Hi Gary, Just ended forty-five years in dentistry last week, and I’m on to a new career. What is my new career? Still formulating, but the eye -opening,mind expanding Super-Spanish course last weekend in St. Louis surely shows me the opportunity exists to expand my horizons.
Besides having a lot of nice people to learn our new language; the methods Merri and you developed proved to be just what you said they would be. We all and I in particular relaxed our way to new learning. I feel so very comfortable with the basis of my new language skills that I know I will be spitting out great Spanish sentences by the time I reach Ecuador in October. Last year I spent six weeks in Ecuador and now I plan on conversing with the people.
Today’s excerpt of your newsletter really hit home. You do what you say you will. There are no surprises or hidden sales tricks. The only tricks are beneficial to our learning. Thank you for a wonderful experience that I was quite unable to grasp how you would pull it off. You did, however, and I look forward to other courses that you offer, and I have absolutely no doubt they also will work beneficially. Best regards, Denis Molloy.
Another wrote about the Super Spanish course: Buenos Dias, here is a testimonial for Super Thinking-Super Spanish. Please feel free to use all or part in promotions for the course. In addition, you may give my email address to any prospect “on the fence” about enrolling. Yesterday, in Cotacachi, Ecuador, I finished Super Spanish. I had high expectations for the course and they were exceeded.
After three days, I can speak Spanish in complete sentences. In simple conversations, such as buying groceries or ordering a meal, I can make myself understood. I think that’s incredible!
Although I am far from the competence level of a native speaker, I feel I’ve taken a giant step forward in learning Spanish so that I can experience the people and culture of Ecuador. The foregoing benefits would have more than justified the time and money I invested in Super Spanish. And learning some Spanish was not the most important benefit I got from the course.
Prior to leaving the USA, I had felt for some time that the pace of life there was unhealthy for me (and for most people) and I did nothing about it.
I’ve thought about the pace issue during the course. One of the key elements Merri Scott designed into Super Spanish is placing the student in the optimal state for learning. In class, the past three days, I’ve been re-introduced to guided journeys and introduced to the calming effects of Baroque music (www.sundaybaroque.org). What a blessing! I’m inclined to make one or both a daily part of my life. Rob Christi. Cotacachi, Ecuador
Another attendee from a course wrote: “I took this incredible class a few weeks ago, and I would like to tell anyone that is interested, that it is an amazing three days of learning with lots of laughs included. You leave everyday wanting to learn more and are so excited to do so.
“Other Spanish classes and tutoring made us feel like it would take forever to get to the point where we could put it into practice, but this method gave us a more fluent use for everyday life almost immediately AND the confidence to use it. It is a fantastic way to show people how much they know and give confidence to learn and use Spanish creating a momentum.
“They made learning Spanish easy and fun in a very relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. I would definitely recommend this course. Even if you know some Spanish, this helps make it easier because of the less stress that no verb conjugations gives you. This gives you more confidence in yourself to try and speak it more.
“I liked how simply the course was organized and the positive attitude about learning. Thank you so much for helping me to learn Spanish!” Nadine Taylor
The ONLINE Super Spanish course has our, full satisfaction or money back, guarantee. Try Super Spanish for 60 days. If not fully satisfied, simply let us know for a full refund.
The course is available at the highly reduced price of $149, but in this special offer we are knocking another $70 from the price so you can start now for only $79.
Learn Spanish online $79 - using coupon code SPANISH70 at checkout to immediately save $70 off the regular price of $149.
Still not sure?
Take just ten minutes to let me prove to you that this super fast way to gain the basics can let you can communicate in Spanish in an incredibly short time.
Gary
Click here for FREE Super Spanish video.
The ONLINE Super Spanish course has our, full satisfaction or money back, guarantee. Try Super Spanish for 60 days. If not fully satisfied, simply let us know for a full refund.
The course is available at the highly reduced price of $149, but in this special offer we are knocking another $70 from the price so you can start now for only $79.
Learn Spanish online $79 - using coupon code SPANISH70 at checkout to immediately save $70 off the regular price of $149.