How to Invest in International Real Estate: Turnkey Rentals, Golden Visas & Global Deals

Jerrod Pickering (00:00)
I think as Americans, we like right now, and I know a lot of your investors that have been on your show and things, they’re used to, hey, I’m gonna make you an offer on a home and we close in five days. You know, it doesn’t work that way in international real estate. It is a process. It can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on where you’re purchasing property. You’re not always allowed to purchase property as Jerrod Pickering. You may have to set up a trust.

Issa Hanna (02:03)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have Jerrod Pickering with me, a Dallas realtor who’s making big waves in the international market. Jerrod, welcome.

Jerrod Pickering (02:14)
Thank you so much. I’m glad to be on the show with you this morning.

Issa Hanna (02:20)
I’m glad to have you. Not a lot of real estate, fellow realtor over here, not a lot of real estate agents decide, you know what? I’m gonna dip my toe in the international market. So, for people at home, can you give us a little rundown on what you got going in Dallas and then also international?

Jerrod Pickering (02:35)
Yes, sir. And so, let’s just be honest. You can’t throw a rock without hitting at least five different realtors. So we’re all in this little pond together, and you look for different ways to find your niche.

I was also, at the time, I was also a travel agent. And I know every time I took a trip, I would be getting on local realtor apps or whatever, going, man, we’d love to live here. We’d love to, we’d love to maybe invest here. And so I’m like, wait a minute, why not start looking into that? And so that that started me down this path of looking at international real estate and then beyond that, international investing as well.

Issa Hanna (03:18)
Hundred percent. And your investors that invest in this, it’s passive income. it’s a really good return. I mean, up to up to ten, twelve percent sometimes. So I wanna ask you, why did you choose first the Dallas market here? And then also why international? Why the passive investments? Why is it so good?

Jerrod Pickering (03:41)
Well, Dallas market, I live in the DFW area currently. And so that’s my base market. I do work for a brokerage, a local brokerage and called Major League Realty, and she allows me to do her international arm and lead her international arm of her brokerage. And as far as international, it’s really hard.

It’s really hard to find good deals. Yes, I know, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and sometimes even here in the United States, because especially a few years ago, when everybody was paying top dollar for real estate and everything else, it made the margins very slim. It and so it was really hard to get a good deal whenever there’s a whole world of investment out there that goes beyond the United States, and depending on where you go, you can find some really great deals and get some awesome returns for up-and-growing markets.

Issa Hanna (05:25)
And when you have an experienced realtor such as yourself who knows how to look at this, who’s been in this game, you can navigate and help these investors a lot and when they’re choosing. And another thing that stuck out when I was reading about you, you mentioned something about Greece as a golden visa program. So I just kinda wanna throw that out there and ask about it.

Jerrod Pickering (05:45)
Yeah, that’s a really neat program. You might have heard of Spain’s golden visa and Greece’s golden visa. When you buy a property here in the United States to use as passive rental income or whatever, or fixing and flip, you get a nice return. You get some money, but you don’t ever really get dual citizenship in another country. And that’s the neat thing about Greece’s program. With different investment types, depending on what part of Greece you’re investing in, along with the purchase of your property, you can receive a dual visa, not just for you, but for up to three generations of your family, which means you have access to Greek health care, you have access to Greek schools and Greek services as well, but you still retain your U.S. citizenship as well. So it’s a really unique program that has really helped Greece’s economy rebound. I know everybody remembers fifteen, twenty years ago how Greece was struggling, and they started introducing programs like this to help rebuild their economy, and it has been awesome.

Issa Hanna (06:52)
Definitely. I mean, we’re investing anyway. We’re all real estate investors. Why not get some Greek citizenship? You can go into Mykonos and whatnot, and then the free health care, that’s our problem here.

Jerrod Pickering (07:04)
In addition to that, once you get Greek citizenship, that also gives you an EU, European Union citizenship as well, which gives you access to all those other countries in the European Union as well. It’s a great way, especially if you ever plan on moving abroad and trying to get into some of those other countries like Italy or Germany or France. That that gives you that pathway there as well. So it opens up all sorts of doors with.

As minimum of an investment is two hundred and fifty thousand, depending on depending on which part of Greece you’re investing in.

Issa Hanna (07:43)
Hundred percent. That sounds really good, and for a lot of Americans, we’re scared. We’re scared to cross that pond, and a guy like you can really hold their hands and be like, Hey, there’s real money, there’s real euros to be made over here.

Jerrod Pickering (07:55)
That’s it exactly. Well, and the thing is, we don’t just pick something off a website. I work with actual developers that are building or renovating these spaces, and they offer a complete turnkey process from ever every part of every step down the line.

Issa Hanna (08:16)
Yep, so you don’t have to get your hands dirty. You don’t have to fly to Cleveland, Ohio, from Texas to take care of your rental properties. It’s passive income. It’s turnkey investments. And then another thing I noticed in your bio, short-term and long-term rentals as well. So can you kind of elaborate on that? Yeah.

Jerrod Pickering (08:36)
And that doesn’t work with every property, but there are properties. I have some properties in the U.K. that, again, are part of these turnkey development properties where you can utilize them as short-term rentals. Now, then invariably the next question is: Do I get some of the bonus depreciation and things like that that I get here in the United States? You don’t get the actual that big bonus depreciation. It’s the regular depreciation schedule, but you still qualify for those tax benefits and things like that just as if you were investing in the United States.

Issa Hanna (09:12)
That is, I mean, it sounds super cool, and a lot of investors, they just need a knowledgeable guy like you to be like, Hey, I’m over here. This makes money. And I could see a lot of Americans turning to Europe. Anybody that watches this show, for sure, could, you know, it’s very appealing to me. And I wanna shift gears just a little bit and get a little history on you. So we all gotta “I got into real estate somehow” story. Let me hear yours.

Jerrod Pickering (10:14)
So again, I got into real estate because I enjoy helping people, number one. I was a teacher for a long time. And so I know teachers to real estate agents is usually a natural path as well, just because we enjoy helping people, we like imparting knowledge, we like taking complex topics and boiling it down to help people who think that this is some crazy complicated issue. And it and yes, there is some tediousness to it, but it’s not hard. And we break it down to where we make it simple for people to understand and make it easy for people to get into. And I enjoyed doing that. And so real estate was a natural way of doing.

Issa Hanna (10:58)
Definitely. And a teacher, you guys are really good at breaking things down, making people understand stuff. So I could see how Passports to Property has grown so much with with your teaching background and then your knowledgeable years in the real estate game. So that’s why I wanted to get a little bit of history on you. I knew there was.

Jerrod Pickering (11:17)
And I know, here’s the deal. I’m the one here on your show, but it’s a whole team. I have a whole team of great people. I have attorneys, CPAs. I have a whole team of people that jump in on this, foreign transaction experts that help through the entire process. And it’s just a great team to be a part of.

Issa Hanna (11:39)
Definitely. Real estate’s a team sport, you guys. Lone wolves. We don’t do too well out in the world by ourselves. We need that network. So you’ve grown that network amazingly. I mean, it it’s super hard to grow an international network, and not just one country, but multiple. So I definitely want to applaud you for that. And then now I kind of want to pivot into, you know, if people are interested in this international, in these international deals, can you give them some of the unexpected pitfalls Americans might not see?

Jerrod Pickering (12:10)
I think as Americans, we like right now, and I know a lot of your investors that have been on your show and things, they’re used to, hey, I’m gonna make you an offer on a home and we close in five days. You know, it doesn’t work that way in international real estate. It is a process. It can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days, depending on where you’re purchasing property. You’re not always allowed to purchase property as Jerrod Pickering. You may have to set up a trust.

For example, in Mexico, especially if you are buying along the coast, they have special laws that you cannot own it as an individual. You have to set up a trust, which that in itself could provide some benefits as well. So if you’re wanting to buy a beach house and several families go in on it together, you can all create this one trust that purchases this property and share it among yourselves over the course of the year. But again, understanding that the wheels move a little more slowly when you’re dealing anything international because there’s a lot more steps to it and being patient. That is probably the biggest pitfall. The other, the second thing is understanding exchange rates. Exchange rates change on a daily basis. And so again, having a good team that’s helping you make those choices. Again, when it comes to that, it’s not going to be me personally telling you what day to make your deposit or to do your exchange rate. I have a foreign exchange team that that’s all they look at and that’s all they do. And they help you get the most for your dollar whenever you’re doing those exchanges.

Issa Hanna (13:53)
I love that you guys know what you’re strong at and guys handle your strong suits and delegate the rest to the professionals. I love that. It seems like a very organized Passports to Property, super organized, super good to do business with people that are really organized, that know what they’re doing, that are experienced because I, right now, if I wanted to invest overseas, you’d be the only guy I know. And even trust just because, you know, the knowledge that you have. You’re probably one of the top in the world in knowledge, in terms of knowledge, doing this kind of stuff, Americans going overseas and investing, so that’s amazing. And then I wanna pivot a little bit to future. Now, five years down the line, are you still in America? Are you still in Dallas? Are you somewhere in Europe sipping some wine and selling houses?

Jerrod Pickering (15:21)
It’s funny you ask that ’cause we’re actually, me and my family are actually in the process right now of moving to Italy. It, again, it’s not—you don’t just pack your bags like you do on vacation and go and plant roots in another country. There’s a process, a visa process and an application process, just like those people trying to come into America. I’m not renouncing U.S. citizenship or anything like that, but we are looking at trying to pivot and move over to Italy, at least for the next couple of years, and see how things go over there. That gives me a chance to be able to go put eyes on properties in Europe. And I will still have my team here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as well to continue to handle that part of it. I’m not going to vacation. I’m not going to retire. I’m going over there to work as well.

Issa Hanna (16:13)
It sounds like you’re going there and you’re gonna super grow that business now. If it hasn’t already been growing leaps and bounds, you have boots on the ground over there. I can see it growing exponentially. So that’s amazing. And then how cool, how cool Italy, man. Good food, good wine, good weather. Why not? Why not? If you can do it, why the heck not? And now I wanna get your advice. I wanna pick your brain for our younger viewers, right?

You’ve built a network that is so unique, right? You’ve got business relationships all around the world. So for people that are just getting into the real estate game, they just got their license or maybe they’re new investors and they’re struggling to even make that first business relationship, that first contact, what advice would you have for them on just getting the ball rolling on this?

Jerrod Pickering (17:05)
Nothing—it doesn’t matter what leader you ever study—nothing ever really just falls in your lap. You have to be working. Fortune favors the bold, all those different sayings. You have to be out there. You have to be working. You have to be attending events. You have to go through LinkedIn, find people who are and just reach out to them. The worst they’re gonna say is no, or they’re gonna ignore you, but every now and then someone will say, Yeah, let’s visit for 15 minutes, and pick their brain and ask them questions. You know, people get flattered when you talk to them and they and they you defer to them and ask them their questions, and you know that they’re the expert. They love sharing that knowledge a lot of times. And then guess what? You’ve also made a connection too. And you’ve made that relationship.

And you never know where those might lead. But it takes work. You have to go out and look. You’re not going to do it by, just sitting around at home or going, and hoping somebody calls you one day because you wrote some good SEO copy on your website.

Issa Hanna (18:13)
Great advice. I mean, take you, for example. Your boots are hitting the ground in Europe, and you said, I’m not going on vacation. So even at this stage in your career, you know, you’re still hitting the ground, you’re still put, you know, you’re still establishing relationships. So, young guys, nothing is gonna come to you. Like Jerrod said, nothing’s gonna fall into your lap. You need to get out there. You need to project it to the world, and you know.

One deal comes in, you could tell a hundred people if that if one person calls you, that’s a nice fat commission check. And if you treat them right, that one commission check will turn into a garden of commission checks just from a referral base. But you have to treat the people right. You have to do business with integrity and honesty. That’s how you succeed in our world. Jerrod couldn’t get to where he’s at right now with these international deals in Dallas and whatnot if he didn’t do business with the utmost integrity and with honesty, as if he was buying homes for himself. That’s how you get the investors to stick around. That’s how you build your real estate business. Sorry I kinda added to your advice. Really good advice here.

Jerrod Pickering (19:25)
And you hit the nail on the head. Great, great thoughts.

Issa Hanna (19:29)
And now I kinda wanna—we’re running out of time—so I wanna give you a little bit of a plug. If people wanted to get involved with what you’re doing, where could they get a hold of you?

Jerrod Pickering (19:39)
Simple. passportstoproperty.com. You can go, that’ll kind of get you started. I’ve got all sorts of overview videos, graphics to walk you through the process. If you’re nervous, my services to investors won’t cost you anything, unless you need me to fly overseas and go take do a walkthrough of a property or something like that. My services are not going to cost you a thing, just like traditional real estate agents will get paid commission somewhere along the back end of the deal. And so I am happy to work for you. I will spend as much time walking you through the process as you need to be comfortable. And so just by starting, going out to passportstoproperty.com. I mean, you can find me on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and all those places as well. But if you’re really serious about getting started, you’re not watching TikToks about me. You’re gonna go to the website, and let’s get down to the meat of the matter.

Issa Hanna (20:37)
Hundred percent. So make sure you guys check out passportstoproperty.com. Jerrod is super knowledgeable, like I keep saying, very personable guy. We’ll definitely take care of you. So if you’ve ever thought into investing in international real estate, you found your guy right here. Make sure check him out. Jerrod, I’d like to thank you so much for coming on the show. I wanna invite you back on. Maybe you can tune in from Italy and show us your beautiful surroundings.

Jerrod Pickering (21:05)
That would be ideal to get rid of this artificial background and actually have Cinque Terre or the Amalfi Coast in my background for real. So I agree. Thank you for letting me be on the show.

Issa Hanna (21:17)
Man, we—it was a true honor. I don’t get to talk to a lot of people doing big things internationally. So it was very refreshing conversation. I really enjoyed it. And to our viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed my conversation with Jerrod and want to see more just like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.