gouchobob
Registered
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2009
- Messages
- 1,051
- Likes
- 358
MorganF said:My philosophy (when I bought my apt): I didn't approach it like an investment; it's not obvious or clear in any way that a real estate investment in Argentina will be profitable for you.
However, when I bought my (awesome!) apt, I took into account to a significant degree the non-financial factors: I can never be kicked out, I never need to hunt for another place to live, I can paint or knock down walls or anything reasonable I want to at all and no one will ever tell me not to (I just did knock down a wall a few weeks ago btw!), I can finally, after years of searching, have a place I call "home".... now, lets say I value all of these things at $X,000 (fill in "X" with whatever value you would place on all of those, and any other psychological/emotional factor) -- therefore, even if the value I paid decreases by $X,000, I still come out ahead!
Economics isn't about money; it's about happiness. (Or "utility", which is basically the economist's way of technically talking about something that approaches the fluffiness of happiness.)
Depends, if at some time you decide to leave and can't because you can't sell your property or have to sell it at a loss, then your going to think renting would have been a much better option. My guess is that a very high percentage of expats buy in Argentina then after a couple of years decide Argentina isn't for them and are unhappy because they have to wait for the property to sell(sometimes at a loss), sometimes literally for many months or years. If you are a renter and decide to leave you just go to the airport.