CR-Home Launches New Investment Fund: You're Invited!
As the staff at CR-Home has grown, nearly tripling in 2006, we're finding more and more excellent real estate opportunities, both on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast and in the Central 
Valley. Many of these opportunities do not last long: ocean view lots, including in the area of Bajamar where we've been selling to clients for more than a year, are now often sold a mere few days after going on the market.
As the popularity of Costa Rica grows, we've come to realize that when we see truly outstanding values, putting an offer together right away (while doing all due diligence) is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, we're finding more and more opportunities for large parcels of land and for "high-end" (absolutely stunning) land -- land at higher prices, but still extremely attractive prices that, with enough funds, we would scoop up for resale in a heartbeat. Because if we wouldn't scoop it up right away, someone else here would.
Given these increasing opportunities, today we're excited to announce the launch of a new investment fund as a way to capitalize. Starting today, we're raising $500,000 from investors who can invest a minimum of $50,000 each. Our objective with this money is to buy grossly under-priced real estate for resale. We foresee making three to five such transactions a year, and our goal is to earn at least 50% on each transaction. We've done this before privately, so we feel that we have a very good sense of what is undervalued and what properties can be sold at.
We ask that investors be willing to invest for at least three years to start. You know what you will receive from us:
- Full accountability and full transparency
- Regular updates (at least twice annually) about fund activities and assets
- A completely safe Costa Rican corporation to hold the fund's assets, making this investment fully collateralized for each shareholder
- Full due diligence and care with every purchase
- Availability to talk and answer your questions at any time
- An open door policy: come to Costa Rica and see what we're doing, not just with this fund, but with our cabinas project, our new gated community above Grecia, our ocean view properties, visit our new office, and more
- An annual pig roast at Randy and Rhonda's! (OK, this is tongue-in-cheek, but also true: every reader of CR-Home and every investor is of course welcome to this annual gala event, currently held in January.)
- Dispersal of all fund profits when promised, within three years (if so desired by the investor) of the fund's launch.
Note from Randy
My wife Rhonda and I have lived in Costa Rica for five years now, growing our business, completing literally hundreds of real estate transactions for clients, and enjoying ourselves and our new friends along the way. But CR-Home grew too much to keep it to ourselves, so working with us on this investment fund in particular is Jeff Fischer, one of the earliest employees at the financial media firm, The Motley Fool (www.fool.com). Jeff, author of a best-selling investment book, has been investing in public and writing about it for 12 years, currently at his own business, Complete Growth Investor (www.completegrowth.com). He started visiting Costa Rica in 2005, and within a year of his first visit, began to invest in the country. Now he's living here, working with CR-Home on our investment projects.
Ask Jeff, "Why Costa Rica?" and he answers, "Because the climate and scenery are beautiful, the people are warm and friendly, the healthcare system is excellent, the country is safe and peaceful, land ownership is fully titled, and it's close to the United States. But as much as Costa Rica's reputation has grown around the world as a tourist destination, investors are still only arriving to the country, so opportunities still abound."
And we're in a particularly good spot to find those opportunities, now employing four Tico (Costa Rican) scouts who are finding new land offerings for us and our clients literally daily. Helping us keep an inventory of all of the best land is Steve Ness who started with us in August of last year and has quickly become invaluable to all our operations. So, we're now in a place where we can do this. This new $500,000 fund will take advantage of some of the best larger opportunities that we find. This is our fourth investment fund to launch.
CR-Home's first two funds, the oldest two, have done exceptionally well, with a 73% gross return in 14 months for the first fund, and a greater than 80% gross return for the second fund likely to solidify the coming month. The third fund, our cabina fund, is just starting but also promises such returns each year or two. This fourth fund now promises equally strong returns: again, we aim to make at least 50% per transaction, buying and reselling in most cases, and make at least three such transactions per year. We'll cover all expenses (which are substantial, including the salaries of our scouts) and do all of the work for a 50% share of profits.
This will be our fastest-moving fund to date, because we have properties right now that we want to purchase once this fund is launched. We're also expecting a high turnover in properties, so we should see results sooner than usual, too. If you're interested in investing, please note that the minimum is $50,000 per investor, and we'll close the fund once we have 10 investors lined up.
