RETA Archives

I've just signed off on a deal that I couldn't wait to tell you about. So, I've interrupted our regular schedule...cleared the decks...to give this deal the space it deserves.

Sometimes my scouting trips turn into magical mystery tours—where taking a side road or an unmarked turnoff leads to some amazing finds. That's what happened on a scouting trip on Panama's Pacific coast back in 2007

With rugged cliffs and vast swathes of beach, Portugal's northern Atlantic coast is stunning, but you don't expect to find a tiny old chapel surviving right on the ocean's edge.

"The early morning has gold in its mouth." I hear Benjamin Franklin translated that from a German proverb. It's apt. When I'm on the road, I rise early. It's when I speak to my contacts across the world, get updates on our opportunities and hear about new ones..

I'm writing to you from the town of Carvoeiro. It's one of Portugal's pretty resort towns, a place with a long history and a booming tourist trade.

I love a good fire-sale hunt. My bag is packed. My scouting itinerary set. In three days I'll be coasting the roads of Portugal's Algarve exploring our opportunities. This is prime bank fire-sale territory. Yet less than 1% of Portugal bank fire-sales cut muster for us.

Yesterday, on page five of your August issue, I told you how you could buy a condo in a 16th-century former convent in Portugal with someone else's money.

I recorded your latest Notes from the Field from the cliff-top town of Carvoeiro. There’s a welcome sea breeze here. On Portugal’s Algarve it’s 46 C (114.8 F). This part of Europe is experiencing a heatwave. But it’s the wave of bank fire-sales and special situation opportunities I discuss in this podcast that brought me here.