How to Invest in International Real Estate|Makeda S. on Global Property,Legacy, & Dual Citizenship

Makeda Smith (00:00)
it’s been mindset. I always tell people that my body went international because I was so excited about going to Bali, Indonesia to show people real estate opportunities, to show them what the beaches look like and being able to stand on the cliff and look out to what looks like Gilligan’s Island. But it has been mindset.

Michelle Kesil (01:53)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Makeda Smith of Kingdom Citizens in Real Estate, supporting investors in international investments. So excited to have you here today, Makeda.

Makeda Smith (01:54)
Thank

Thank you, thank you, Michelle. Thank you so much for having me here. I’m looking forward to this conversation. I know so many people, especially at this time, is interested in international estate.

Michelle Kesil (02:21)
Perfect, let’s dive in. First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?

Makeda Smith (02:28)
Yeah, so my company is CEO and founder of Kingdom Citizens and Real Estate. And our main focus is helping investors, mostly US diaspora investors, but we have people from all walks of life who is interested in traveling, investing, and selling international real estate beyond borders. So not just one continent or one country or currency. We’re focusing on all of them. So wherever they feel called to or led.

We’re willing to explore that right now. We have been to Latin America, of course North America because I’m from America, but then we also have been to Asia. We have focused on Europe and then now Africa.

Michelle Kesil (03:10)
Awesome. And how does this process work?

Makeda Smith (03:14)
So basically our company, we help people to be educated when it comes to investing in international real estate because it is new market, new territory, even though a lot of them have invested in America, their home country, but now they’re looking to explore how can they have property beyond the borders? Like what can their passport do for them beyond just going to neighboring countries? And so how the process work is that every week,

Our community, put on a weekly webinar where we are featuring different companies. Last week we featured Ghana. This week we are featuring ⁓ Nigeria and then we also have Tanzania. But most people are focusing on Zanzibar because they believe that that is the next ⁓ Maldives, especially of Africa. And the process is work. Basically, we show them the opportunities that are available. We show investors what the numbers look like. And if they’re interested,

they put down their deposit and then we wait for their property to be built or become available because most people are buying new construction properties.

Michelle Kesil (04:18)
Amazing. So are you the one sourcing the deals for the investors?

Makeda Smith (04:23)
Yes, I am. I’m mostly working with developers who are in most of these countries, which are foreign nations. And we have our own due diligence process where we’re getting paperwork to make sure that they’re actually able to sell the land that they are building on, that they have all of their paperwork in order before we even bring it to our investor clients because we want to make sure, one, that they’re legitimate, that there’s no scams going on.

so that we’re protecting our investors, protecting our community. And then once they get in and they present what they have to offer, the investor themselves are looking at, this make sense for my investment portfolio? Does the numbers, do the numbers look good when it comes to their return on investment? And if it is, they say yes, and then we just prepare what that payment plan would look like. And most of those, they’re cash payment plans. These are cash investors that are coming in.

They are able to negotiate if they are putting down a larger Let’s say down payment on the actual payment plan that they’re looking for and in some cases because there’s so many investors now that are interested Some may not have all the capital or prefer not to use all of their capital. So we now have ⁓ Mortgage companies that are partnering with us to provide that for some of the investors as well

Michelle Kesil (06:35)
Amazing. And what do you feel have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to grow and run successfully?

Makeda Smith (06:43)
It’s been the people. It’s been the people because when people come in and they realize what we’re doing, we don’t only just host these virtual calls, but we’re actually taking our investors on the ground to these countries and we’re going to look, touch, see, and feel these properties stand on the land so that they can see. Because even if they’re buying land and it’s new construction,

What are the surroundings? What are the landmarks? What is tourism like in the country? And a lot of times they are going in and staying at the hotels so that they can get a touch, see, and feel of what their potential guests and their Airbnbs would look like. And the key to my success has been happy investors. We just closed today. had three investors who purchased five studio units.

in an up and coming luxury hotel model where they are going to get ⁓ income just from that investment. But because we took three investors, they purchased five units, now they’re going to be able to split the shares of that, split the profits of that, but it lessens the risk and responsibility.

of the finances on one person and now it was split across an entire group. And so that investor texted me a little while ago and said, Makeda, we did it. And so that is something that has been a key to our success because the investors are happy and now they have something that they can have inside of their portfolio that expands beyond their home country.

Michelle Kesil (08:17)
Is there a specific criteria for the type of investors you work with?

Makeda Smith (08:22)
⁓ not really a specific criteria. I would just say the first thing that an investor want to do is to get educated. the second thing is that you must have some type of capital, to be ready to invest. And even if it is you, like I said, partnering with another investor could be a friend, could be a family member or, Michelle, what people have done on our trips because they’re coming on these retreats that we’re hosting with real estate tours.

they find their business partners on the ground with us. And so sometimes they connect with each other and say, hey, I didn’t know that you were interested in this. And they get together and they just form these alliances and business ventures. And it’s not just real estate opportunities that are available to them. I just hung up from a call with another business development in Nigeria where they have a pineapple farm. And so he just did a presentation of what that looks like in terms of

the low down payment, was $4,500, and then them being able to make 30 % every single year from that investment that they put down. And so that’s another opportunity that I get to bring to my community. And so no criteria except to be educated, come get educated and be open, but you must have some type of capital to invest.

Michelle Kesil (09:42)
And what role do the investors play? Are they just passive investors that deploy their capital or are they more involved in the process?

Makeda Smith (10:26)
All of my investors are involved in the process because we want to pull them in. This is not, you know, Makeda decision. It’s not a Kingdom Citizens and Real Estate decision or whoever the developer is. We want them to be completely involved. And so most of our investors are passive investors. They’re looking for additional income. But also we have investors who are retirees and they want to relocate to another country. And so we have some investors.

who have purchased because they do plan on retiring ⁓ outside of their local area. But most are passive investors looking for a passive income.

Michelle Kesil (11:04)
And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Makeda Smith (11:08)
My focus, because I’ve been a real estate broker here in the States for 22 years, is also always have been about legacy. So here at home, helping people around the Chicagoland area to invest, it’s been about legacy for them. What can they pass down to their family? The same thing has now transferred to the international investors legacy for them.

What can they hand down to their family? My husband and I, we don’t just teach other people how to invest. We also are investors ourselves. And we have from that, the next thing is to help them not only to invest in the properties, but how can they now get dual citizenship? How can they get multiple passports, residency in these countries? And my husband and I, I was alluding to.

We just became dual citizens of the nation of Ghana. And so now we’re able to lead by example because not only do we have now two passports, we also have to pass it down to our children. So now they can become citizens of another country, their children. And so now the next step is getting these investors passed just investing in a property, but how can we now open up offshore bank accounts?

How can we now register our businesses in these countries? How can we get the multiple passports, citizenship, and residency? So that’s the next focus and step.

Michelle Kesil (12:34)
Yeah, that’s an amazing opportunity.

Makeda Smith (12:36)
Yeah, so we’re excited about that. And just for my husband and I to be leading by example, people were so happy for us. So now they get to see that if Makeda can do it, like we can do it too. And so I’m looking forward to welcoming more people to have dual citizenship so that they have options. It’s not about running away from home. It’s just about being able to have options. A lot of times we hear about how people that have billion, you know, near status

that have these options, but you just have to be educated and to know where the opportunities are in order to make it work for you. So you don’t have to have a lot of money.

Michelle Kesil (13:14)
Definitely. What have been some of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome in this role?

Makeda Smith (13:15)
Yeah.

it’s been so many, but I’ll just tell you maybe two. I’ll start with the number one has been mindset. I always tell people that my body went international because I was so excited about going to Bali, Indonesia to show people real estate opportunities, to show them what the beaches look like and being able to stand on the cliff and look out to what looks like Gilligan’s Island. But it has been mindset. And so I didn’t realize

that for me, my body went international before my mind went international. I thought things were gonna be easy like how it is here at home in Chicago when I’m familiar, but I really had to step back and learn how to operate in these countries as somebody who is a foreign investor and someone who is coming in, bringing international investors with me.

And so how do I connect with the local governments?

to let them know what we are doing, what they can contribute. Because I was taking on a lot of the financial responsibility on my own, instead of looking at like, this is not a Makeda thing, it’s not a Kingdom Citizens and Real Estate thing, but it’s a community thing. So how can I get my community involved? Because there’s people who want to go outside of the country, but they can’t. And so how can they also contribute to the cause? And so those are some of the things that we are looking at.

because some people want to go, but they can’t, but then there are people who can afford to send people to these nations. So the number one was my mindset and thinking differently and globally, going from that local mindset to a global mindset. And then the other thing was learning the laws of each country. And with me working across multiple nations, every nation law is different. Some countries allow you to sell real estate without having a license.

Some allow foreigners to be able to buy without being limited and some do not. There are countries, you know, that allow you to become citizens of that country, but some countries do not. You know, like Dubai, the UAE, they only allow you to have residency with their Golden Visa program, but they don’t allow you to become a citizen of their nation.

Michelle Kesil (16:13)
Yeah, that makes sense.

Makeda Smith (16:14)
Yeah.

So a lot of the countries that I have been selecting have been like, where are people going? So when I thought about the UAE Dubai, their number one goal was to be the number one destination in the world for tourism.

Michelle Kesil (16:17)
And how do you pick the countries that you’re working with?

Makeda Smith (16:36)
So they’re in like the top 10. Don’t know where they are now with everything that’s happening, but they were in the top 10. And so they had accomplished their goal. So where are people going that they would need access to development, that they would need access to Airbnbs or luxury hotel type models that investors can buy in? Like for an example, Michelle, there’s a hotel in Ghana that is a hotel style model.

It’s a beachfront resort that allows you to come in to purchase a unit. It looks like a double queen bed room and you can purchase that but then the investment pretty much looked like 75 % to the actual owner and then 25 % to the beachfront development. And so where are the opportunities? People love the beach. It don’t matter what continent or what country it’s in. People love beach and water.

Michelle Kesil (17:33)
Absolutely. And so are the projects mostly like these more vacation rental styles?

Makeda Smith (17:40)
They are, but they are also like apartment buildings. So pretty much apartment buildings to where people can rent Airbnb. And I’m sure you know, Michelle, that a lot of the Airbnb type properties are now on Expedia.com, they’re on Booking.com, they’re on Travel.com. So you have all of these different websites to where you can go and actually…

vacation or you can live there for two to three months at a time. When my husband and I went to Ghana last month for our citizenship process, we actually stayed for 30 days and we chose to stay in a Airbnb that was a luxury apartment type. They have the swimming pool amenities, they have the spa, they have the restaurant. So a lot of where you vacation at for these amenities.

they’re happening in people apartment buildings. And so it’s a mix of both.

Michelle Kesil (18:33)
Right. And so where, like, where do you find the investors that you partner with?

Makeda Smith (18:39)
So the investors typically find me. ⁓ I do a lot of organic marketing on my social media page, from my personal page to my Facebook, from LinkedIn. I’m posting everywhere. And then because I’ve been in real estate for 22 years, I’ve been hosting my own annual conference for the last eight years. I started in Chicago and now we are hosting it in international countries. We haven’t been back to Chicago in the last four years. And so…

The really where they have been finding me is word of mouth and then on social media because I’m very big on mine.

Michelle Kesil (19:15)
Amazing. And are there any other big opportunities you have your eyes set on right now?

Makeda Smith (19:21)
my opportunities are set on finding more hotel style investments. So hotel style investments to where people can partner in and become like an equity investor, ⁓ in that project, or they can, you know, buy a unit and earn income from their unit. but I’m really focusing on that for our community because it’s less for them to take care of. Cause the number one question people ask all the time.

Makeda, I live in another country. How am I buying real estate in this country? Who’s going to take care of it? And so there’s property management companies for each one of the developers that they have, where you can either hire someone local on your own to manage your property, or for the most part, the developers have their own property management company that will manage for you. We have people that have ring doorbells and CCTV cameras like outside of their door.

so that they know when the guests are checking in, when they’re checking out. We have in those hotel style investments, people are checking in with the reception desk, just like you would at a hotel. And so those are the things that I love. And even meeting with an investor, a developer last month, he was telling me how they have a rooftop restaurant. my concern was, the public be able to have access to these floors?

as they’re going up to the rooftop restaurant. And because of the security that he put in with the elevator, they will only be able to have access to the top floor to get to the restaurant, but they will not have access to be able to get to the units of individual floors. And even if you are owner, if you have a unit on the seventh floor, you can’t get to the fifth floor. You can only get to the floors that have the amenities. So I thought that that was very, very like well advanced.

So next step for me is focusing in on more hotel luxury boutique style investments.

Michelle Kesil (21:20)
Amazing, that’s exciting.

Makeda Smith (21:21)
Yes.

Michelle Kesil (21:22)
Well, before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more about what you’re up to, where can people find you and connect with you?

Makeda Smith (21:30)
They can find me, if you Google my name, Makeda Smith, and you Google real estate, you will find everything you need to know about me, including videos of destinations that we have been to, but something on the more formal side, you can go to our website, Kingdom Citizens in Real Estate, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, we’re in threads, we’re all over the place. So just put in Google my name, company name, and everything is gonna come up.

Michelle Kesil (21:57)
Perfect, we’ll appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Makeda Smith (22:01)
Thank you, Michelle. appreciate you inviting me.

Michelle Kesil (22:04)
And for those tuning in, if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Makeda who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on our next episode.