Moving to Colombia solo

Cheryl : Great : i live in medellin and travel avianca frequenty : Triathlete coacH in latin america for USA sports,conglamerate.
Heres my advice:
Have a,plan
Have enough money to support plan + contingency
Stay away from toxic people places and things
Use common sense
If you are in colombia,for fun and sex / great hope you have your shorts and socks left in end of evening / no cash and cellphone for sure

The culture is very different in Colombia compared to the USA or even most of Europe.

Do not lend anyone any MONEY, no matter what they say............if you do, expect to lose it......99% probability.............I have been ripped off by many, even pastors.

Do NOT take anyone´s word at face value.........Colombians have NO problem looking at you straight in the face and lying to YOU!

Do NOT go into any business with a Colombian as a partner.............you will lose it all.  Either do it on your own or do NOT do it at all!!!

If you rent make sure it is in a building with good 24 hour security.

Do NOT rent.............buy the property...........Colombians do not honor contracts..........I lost close to $100,000 thinking that Colombians honored contracts or their WORD!  BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you just had a bad experience. I don't understand how you lost $100,000 renting. Was this for a business deal? While there are many chances of that happening, renting is not all bad. I rent an apartment in Bogota and the landlord is great. She had it as an AirBnB, and we negotiated a monthly rental. Everything is included. Electric, cable, water, Wi-Fi, all appliances, and even Netflix. It has a security gate with a code, a main door with a code, and then a coded apartment door. I pay the upcoming monthly rent on the last day of the prior month. We have a great live on property manager as well. Been there for a year. See, not all are bad.

AgroSurAmerica wrote:

Colombians do not honor contracts..........I lost close to $100,000 thinking that Colombians honored contracts or their WORD!  BIG MISTAKE!

What exactly happened?

I think Agrosuramerica meant to say 100,000 pesos not dollars or about $25.

AgroSurAmerica wrote:

Do not lend anyone any MONEY, no matter what they say............if you do, expect to lose it......99% probability............I have been ripped off by many, even pastors.

....Colombians have NO problem looking at you straight in the face and lying to YOU!

Do NOT go into any business with a Colombian as a partner.... you will lose it all.

if you get ripped off once, shame on the 'estafador'.

If you let it happen over and over again, shame on you.

cccmedia in Santander

I rented a farm in San Cristobal, part of Medellin, for 5 years.  I built a Vertical Tower Farm with a system I imported from the USA.  I put alot of upgrades into the house and with all the cost involved I easily had $100,000USD invested.......after 1.5 years behind my back, the owner an elderly lady..............came in and took over the house that I was getting ready to move into-----------she refused to vacate.....went to the lawyers...........who all told me the same thing.  The judges are not going to rule against the elderly lady regardless of the contract I had with her.     NOT GOING to happen...... ***

Awesome advise and so True!!

And what happened to your Agro Business? Can you still use it or move it to a different location? It hurts to be deceived.

I think it is pretty silly to put a $100,000 investment into a rental property anywhere without appropriate contractual arrangements.  If I had been the old lady renting to you, I would have done the same thing she did.  Word promises mean nothing, only legal documents count in Colombia or anywhere else.

Ok, well that is not nearly the same as renting an apartment, condo, or house. Where as, you said to buy and not rent. I think what was being said before is that it is better to rent first and learn your environment before buying.

Into the house I put about $2000..................the rest went into the Hydroponic Vertical Tower System, $98,000 plus.

There was no clear reference to an attorney-approved written contract signed by the Expat/builder and the owner prior to construction .. and no clarity has yet been given as to whether there was a written contract at all.

Prudent renters/buyers/business people do not put $98,000 US into a project without crystal clarity in the paperwork .. and the stakeholders' signatures on the relevant documents.  That goes double if one is endeavoring to construct a tower on another party's property.

cccmedia

What are the economics of a hydroponic garden in Colombia, very strange indeed.  Sounds like $98,000 put into the toilet.

In the toilet, when old lady decided to NOT honor the contract!!!!!   I will not do any agricultural business in Colombia...................heading to the USA shortly and will build one in central Florida.