Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2013 | Page 58

OFFSHORE INVESTMENT

BY SCOTT PICKEN

Buying Trips

Make sure you invest in the right property

M

ore than 80% of South Africans who
invest overseas actually lose money!
This is because they make crisis
investments! Either the Rand is falling and they
panic or they fly to somewhere like London for
a week and expect to find a good investment. I
always turn it around and ask how successful
a British person would be if they arrived in
Johannesburg for a week and expected to find
a good investment.
Most people who go overseas to buy have
accumulated wealth through property in South
Africa. They are experienced, have the right
partners, have experience and most importantly
they have a “gut feel” which has through the
years with their experience really helped them
make the right decisions. Now they book a trip
to London / Sydney / Atlanta, etc for a week,
with the expectation of buying a property and
using their “gut feel” and it DOESN’T work.
Let’s look at some scenarios. When you arrive in

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March 2013 SA Real Estate INVESTOR

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