JF 4143: How to Buy International Real Estate Without Costly Mistakes ft. Michael Cobb

The Best Ever CRE Show

Best Ever CRE

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 996 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ash interviews Michael Cobb, exploring how Michael built an international real estate, lending, and development platform across Central and South America by identifying gaps in foreign buyer financing and leaning heavily into community-centric development. Michael shares why legal systems, zoning assumptions, and cultural norms differ dramatically outside the U.S., and how misunderstanding those nuances can derail overseas investments. He also explains his long-term strategy of creating purpose-built expat communities using New Urbanist design principles, why branded resort residences in markets like Belize sit in a “sweet spot” for appreciation, and how thoughtful diversification outside the U.S. can strengthen both lifestyle and portfolio outcomes. Michael CobbCurrent role: Founder and CEO, ECI DevelopmentBased in: Belize / United StatesSay hi to them at: https://ecidevelopment.com Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/ Join the Best Ever Community The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria. Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:56.0	Structure is the strategy for the modern capital raiser, and this is where the industry is heading.
1:01.0	To succeed in the future of work, forward thinkers use AI to deliver measurable results.
1:06.3	Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that frees you from the mundane so you can focus on more
1:12.1	meaningful work. Workday, moving business forever forward. Hey, best ever listeners, thank you for
1:18.5	joining again on the best ever CRE show, I'm Ash Patel, and this is Beyond Multifamily. We have a
1:26.1	really interesting episode today. Michael Cobb is the co-founder and CEO
1:30.9	of ECI Development. This is a wild story where he was on vacation. He wanted to buy a property
1:38.5	overseas, couldn't get lending, so he set up a lending company. It now lends all over the Caribbean, South America,
1:46.4	builds communities. And one thing I want to stress is at the end, he offers to give you his
1:53.4	e-book on how to buy foreign real estate. He talks about it being a really inefficient market.
1:59.8	There's so many opportunities.
	...

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