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Investing in European Real Estate: Tax Advantages, Arbitrage & Lifestyle Shift

By February 23, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews Nathan Guilford, an experienced real estate investor who transitioned from the American market to investing in Spain. Nathan shares his journey of investing in various properties, the differences he encountered in the Spanish real estate market, and the importance of building a reliable team to navigate the complexities of international investing. He discusses the challenges and fears he faced, particularly regarding tax implications and the need for local expertise. The conversation highlights the benefits of living in the community where one invests and the value of hands-on management in real estate.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Nathan Guilford (00:00)
    Sure, ⁓ to tell you a little bit about myself, I started investing in real estate before I was 20. Bought my first investment property outside of Phoenix, Arizona ⁓ in the 90s and been an active real estate investor, agent, commercial properties, bought tons of properties in Arizona, done well over $100 million in transactions, bought in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.

    And for the last two and a half years, I’ve actually been living in Spain.

    Micah Johnson (02:05)
    Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Nathan Guilford, who has been doing some really cool stuff in real estate investing, actually invested for a long time in America. Now he’s overseas in Europe. I’m pumped for this conversation. I think y’all are gonna get some value out of it. Nathan, welcome in man, glad to have you.

    Nathan Guilford (02:25)
    Great, thanks, glad to be here.

    Micah Johnson (02:27)
    Absolutely, man. Like I said, I think our listeners are really going to get some value out of someone with your level of experience in American markets and then making the shift to international ones. You’re a good bridge for this conversation. So I’m really excited about it. So for folks who may not know you yet, tell us what is that main focus right now and a little bit more about yourself.

    Nathan Guilford (02:50)
    Sure, ⁓ to tell you a little bit about myself, I started investing in real estate before I was 20. Bought my first investment property outside of Phoenix, Arizona ⁓ in the 90s and been an active real estate investor, agent, commercial properties, bought tons of properties in Arizona, done well over $100 million in transactions, bought in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.

    And for the last two and a half years, I’ve actually been living in Spain.

    found it difficult to find the properties that we want at the at the risk tolerance that we needed. that’s when I say we, I mean, me and my wife, we’ve been active together. It’s been difficult to find properties. And we also decided we wanted a different change in our lives. I have adult children, so I’ve got some more freedom and we wanted to start to take a look at the world. So.

    After doing tons of research, we landed in Spain and we’re really happy here.

    Micah Johnson (03:52)
    Now what about Spain attracted y’all?

    Nathan Guilford (03:55)
    Right, well, it’s, I mean, there’s some great things that are other than real estate. The weather is great most of the year. The people are very friendly. The cost of living is very low. I live outside of Valencia and that means I’m on the Mediterranean. And so it’s nice to have, it’s nice to have the sea very close. Did I say the food was good? The food is wonderful and not full of a bunch of crap. Yeah, it’s really good.

    Micah Johnson (04:20)
    Yeah.

    Nathan Guilford (04:24)
    The food, a lot of places that you go, the food is handmade, of. Well, like I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s, you know, where it’s like mama’s cooking kind of thing. It’s the food here is really good. Did I mention it’s cheap? It’s very inexpensive to live here.

    Micah Johnson (04:40)
    Yeah. All right. I see why some of my friends have moved there now too. I get it. I get it. I’m gonna have to make a visit. Well, all right. So you invested in America for a long time. Now you’ve made this shift over the last two, two and a half years where it wasn’t, it wasn’t just a, I’m gonna go find new markets. You were seeking out a new life. You lived one version of it, raised those kids. Now you’re more lifestyle, you’re mobile.

    Nathan Guilford (04:43)
    Thank you.

    Micah Johnson (05:51)
    You and your wife are together. So you get to Spain.

    How long were you in Spain before you were like, all right, what are we gonna do here? We buying something or was it you already knew you were doing it on the way?

    Nathan Guilford (05:59)
    Oh man. No,

    it’s, I mean, it’s, kind of my, it’s like built into my DNA. So being in real estate for, oh my goodness, forever, about 30 years. It’s just in my DNA and I’m looking around going, wow, how much is that apartment? 80,000, 250,000 to live on the ocean or it’s the sea. I got to get a piece of this. So,

    But it took, I really wanted to work it right. It took about a year and a half to really lock down my first two buildings. bought ⁓ retail space, which was a really good move. I bought two retail units that were next to each other that were just over 2000 square foot each. I paid 100,000 each for them in a major city just outside of Valencia.

    ⁓ They cashflow really well, about $1,500 each.

    Micah Johnson (07:04)
    Wow, man, we ain’t finding a lot of deals like that in America right now.

    Nathan Guilford (07:05)
    So, and I’m talking in your… Yeah,

    and then I started looking at buying ⁓ apartments, which they call pisos or apartamentos, and the margin wasn’t there. So, and this is still, go back about a year, maybe a year and a half. ⁓ A friend of mine, who she’s an architect, she’s like, you really need to look at rehabbing full edifices. Those are buildings.

    And I’m like, I don’t know if that’s something, you know, I’ve done, I used to do fix and flips and used to buy trustee sales, are foreclosures in Phoenix. And so I’ve got a lot of experience doing fix and flips in the U S. So I’m like, okay, I’ll take a look at it. And it took us about six months to put a team together. That architects, I’ve got the lawyers, I’ve got the Hestor’s, Hestor is like an accountant. They deal with the government. I’ve got a couple of builders. I’ve got a designer.

    And we’ve got our first building now that we’re working through right now. So I’m very excited. I bought a property that’s almost 3000 square feet for about 170,000 USD. So very good price and 200,000 in reforms and that building should be worth 550, 600 here in a few months when we complete it. So very strong rental market. Sorry. Yeah, keep going. Go ahead.

    Micah Johnson (08:17)
    Wow.

    Man.

    No, you’re good. just like, I’m impressed. So what’s been the, what’s the biggest difference that you notice or few differences? Obviously there’s more than one between, you know, the market that you came up in and the one that you’re in now.

    Nathan Guilford (08:45)
    Right, so Arizona is a pretty fast market. You can buy a property very quickly in Phoenix. You can go in and do a rehab. ⁓ I’ve done rehabs as quickly as 30 days. And 90 days is kind of pushing it unless you’re doing a full rehab. But here in Spain, there’s a little bit more of a process. You really have to have your ducks in a row with doing all your due diligence to make sure it’s through the city hall before you start to work on a project because ⁓

    They don’t do the things like in Arizona where they’re coming and checking electrical and plumbing and all that, but they have a pretty… The bureaucracy right at the beginning to get the building approved for apartments can take up to a year. So that really has to be kicked out before you even purchase the property. The property I have now was contingent on it being approved for

    by the city to make it three apartments. So that’s something that we had to deal with. And then the work-life balance is different here. my trades don’t work on the weekends. They don’t work after five o’clock at night. They don’t work any holidays, which it seems to be we have like 50 holidays here. It’s crazy.

    Micah Johnson (09:46)
    Okay.

    You and your wife are together. So you get to Spain.

    How long were you in Spain before you were like, all right, what are we gonna do here? We buying something or was it you already knew you were doing it on the way?

    Nathan Guilford (10:47)
    Oh man. No,

    it’s, I mean, it’s, kind of my, it’s like built into my DNA. So being in real estate for, oh my goodness, forever, about 30 years. It’s just in my DNA and I’m looking around going, wow, how much is that apartment? 80,000, 250,000 to live on the ocean or it’s the sea. I got to get a piece of this. So,

    But it took, I really wanted to work it right. It took about a year and a half to really lock down my first two buildings. bought ⁓ retail space, which was a really good move. I bought two retail units that were next to each other that were just over 2000 square foot each. I paid 100,000 each for them in a major city just outside of Valencia.

    ⁓ They cashflow really well, about $1,500 each.

    Micah Johnson (11:51)
    Wow, man, we ain’t finding a lot of deals like that in America right now.

    Nathan Guilford (11:53)
    So, and I’m talking in your… Yeah,

    and then I started looking at buying ⁓ apartments, which they call pisos or apartamentos, and the margin wasn’t there. So, and this is still, go back about a year, maybe a year and a half. ⁓ A friend of mine, who she’s an architect, she’s like, you really need to look at rehabbing full edifices. Those are buildings.

    And I’m like, I don’t know if that’s something, you know, I’ve done, I used to do fix and flips and used to buy trustee sales, are foreclosures in Phoenix. And so I’ve got a lot of experience doing fix and flips in the U S. So I’m like, okay, I’ll take a look at it. And it took us about six months to put a team together. That architects, I’ve got the lawyers, I’ve got the Hestor’s, Hestor is like an accountant. They deal with the government. I’ve got a couple of builders. I’ve got a designer.

    And we’ve got our first building now that we’re working through right now. So I’m very excited. I bought a property that’s almost 3000 square feet for about 170,000 USD. So very good price and 200,000 in reforms and that building should be worth 550, 600 here in a few months when we complete it. So very strong rental market. Sorry. Yeah, keep going. Go ahead.

    Micah Johnson (13:04)
    Wow.

    Man.

    No, you’re good. just like, I’m impressed. So what’s been the, what’s the biggest difference that you notice or few differences? Obviously there’s more than one between, you know, the market that you came up in and the one that you’re in now.

    Nathan Guilford (13:32)
    Right, so Arizona is a pretty fast market. You can buy a property very quickly in Phoenix. You can go in and do a rehab. ⁓ I’ve done rehabs as quickly as 30 days. And 90 days is kind of pushing it unless you’re doing a full rehab. But here in Spain, there’s a little bit more of a process. You really have to have your ducks in a row with doing all your due diligence to make sure it’s through the city hall before you start to work on a project because ⁓

    They don’t do the things like in Arizona where they’re coming and checking electrical and plumbing and all that, but they have a pretty… The bureaucracy right at the beginning to get the building approved for apartments can take up to a year. So that really has to be kicked out before you even purchase the property. The property I have now was contingent on it being approved for

    by the city to make it three apartments. So that’s something that we had to deal with. And then the work-life balance is different here. my trades don’t work on the weekends. They don’t work after five o’clock at night. They don’t work any holidays, which it seems to be we have like 50 holidays here. It’s crazy.

    Micah Johnson (14:34)
    Okay.

    Nathan Guilford (14:51)
    It’s wonderful. It’s what makes life wonderful here. ⁓ They take August off, all of August, to spend at the beach with their families.

    Micah Johnson (14:55)
    Mm.

    Nathan Guilford (15:42)
    And so you and as well as two weeks for Easter. So the process can be eight months for a reform, maybe 10 months to do it right. But the value is there. So we make sure we build in enough value in the price. So but that’s that’s a few things that are different. Also, the labor here is much cheaper than the US way cheaper, half a third what I would pay in the US.

    Micah Johnson (16:02)
    Right.

    Nathan Guilford (16:12)
    And materials here, I’m finding, are about half of what I would pay in the US for similar materials. So I’m really able to go in and do a very nice reform and keep my costs much less per square foot than I would spend in Arizona.

    Micah Johnson (16:26)
    Yeah, whole month of August off. All right. I’m a Mediterranean. That’s pretty, that’s pretty interesting. And it’s what I find interesting, man, you just run, you run into different cultures and different things. And it’s not that it’s good. It’s not that it’s bad. It’s just different. That’s the environment that you’re in. How do you, how do you occupy it? How do you still do the things that you want to do? And that’s what you’re finding. Now, what were some, what were some fears you had going in?

    Nathan Guilford (16:29)
    Yeah. Yeah.

    just different.

    Micah Johnson (16:53)
    projects that you had to overcome upfront that you wanted to make sure I got my ducks in a row here.

    Nathan Guilford (17:00)
    Well, it’s the main thing is the professionals having the right lawyer, having the right architect. ⁓ The architect or the also we get it appraised and inspected before we purchase it. It’s a little different than the US. And so I have a professional who’s been in the business almost 25 years who will come and say, look out for this or look out for that. And really, until I had those pieces right, there was some maybe not fear, but hesitation.

    Because do I want to deploy my capital into something that maybe I have no recourse on? Maybe it’s great, I own this building, but I can’t do anything with it, right? So you hear stories coming over as an American and you hear stories also that they do to the Germans and the Brits that, well, it’s great, you own this property, but it’s protected or there’s something where you can’t tear it down, but you can’t reform it.

    By having the right lawyers, attorneys, architects, notaries, we really alleviate a lot of that. And ⁓ the other thing is, and we were kind of speaking to this earlier, ⁓ one thing that my investors are dealing with, because we put up capital into our own deal, but we raise capital as well, right? So the one thing that my investors have been concerned about is tax implications here in Spain.

    Micah Johnson (18:04)
    Mm.

    Nathan Guilford (18:25)
    So we’ve alleviated that by having all our investments actually in the US with the tax treaty between the US and Spain, and then the money is lent to our Spanish company. we’re not able, so we don’t actually show returns until we get the money back into the United States. So.

    Micah Johnson (18:44)
    Okay. That

    makes sense. it’s, and you were saying in the pre-recording part, yeah, that was pretty much the main fear you were dealing with was a lot of tax implications. What are you going to do? And y’all went through a lot there to get it set up where it’s not even a worry anymore.

    Nathan Guilford (18:58)
    Yeah, really. mean, as long as you follow the process and don’t take gains here. Well, we can get the US and Spain has a 15%. The first 15 % actually goes right to the US. And the way that the companies are scheduled in Spain, because we’re a special entity just for real estate and real estate investments, we only pay a 15 % tax. So it’s really nice. All that money is just sent back to the US.

    so we don’t have to deal with the Spanish taxes, which can be in some cases 40%. Can be, yeah, that really stops the Spanish investor from buying the same properties.

    Micah Johnson (19:34)
    Okay.

    Interesting. So you kind of got a little tax liability shield there that gives you an edge.

    Nathan Guilford (19:46)
    Yeah,

    a nice little arbitrage that the USS has negotiated with Europe.

    Micah Johnson (19:53)
    Now, what are some other fears that you’ve dealt with having, you know, trying to raise some private capital over there? What are things that people that ended up investing realize, okay, I don’t need to worry about that anymore.

    Nathan Guilford (20:07)
    Well, really, the main thing is the hands-off aspect, right? We manage the full process. We have tenants that are pre-screened. The tenants have to get insurance. One thing that you might hear on the news is a thing called a coupes. That’s where someone stays in the property. It would be like a tenancy at Severance in the United States where a tenant does not leave after a lease. So we have insurance companies that we deal with. Actually, it’s a really great thing.

    the city that I’m in, which is just outside of Valencia, ⁓ to get people out of the short term. We don’t do any short term rentals, only long term rentals. So to get investors and companies to stop doing short term rentals, they actually cover the insurance. If someone stops paying, then the city steps in and we can get somebody out fairly quickly. But if not, the insurance will continue to pay the rent just like they’re paying it like normal. So that’s something that, you know, that

    that we’re, you know, maybe a mom and pop investor in the US or maybe I live in California and I have some rentals in Texas and I can go to Texas, you know, it’s only a few hours away. You know, here to get to here, it’s about 15 hours by flight from LA. So by really having us on the ground and have us plugged in, I live in the community that I invest in here in Spain. So I live here. So we, we make sure that if any changes come down or that we are

    on top of every little like, we’re gonna give 100 % tax credits for all new windows. So that means that our property is absolutely getting new windows, right? So we are boots on the ground. So that helps alleviate a lot of the fears.

    Micah Johnson (21:54)
    For sure. mean, it’s a huge aspect. We all know in the industry, if your boots on the ground, belly to belly, can, you do way better virtual every day. Not that you can’t do virtual. I’ve done it, but it’s knowing the nuances. Cause I’m sure the similarity to the European markets and American ones are there is no national statistic. It’s nuanced. It is down to the differences in Florida and Texas, just like it is there.

    You know, even in Florida, you know, there’s a huge difference between Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami here. So it’s even localized being there on the ground. I, yeah, that makes people feel a lot safer if they’re going to put their money into it. Cause you see it each day. And like you said, you built that team. You put the string of folks together that gets you through the bureaucracy of the process where without that, you can be stuck. You can be dealing with a lot of things that folks from.

    Nathan Guilford (22:47)
    Yeah, no, would. Yeah, I

    would never do it without my without the team. And that’s why it took really two really good years to get it down. My background is in engineering. I used to I went to school for engineering. used to work on satellites for Motorola in the 90s. So I have that engineering look when I look at something, I need to make sure that it can dissect and that it can run systematically. And

    That’s really what the last two years have been to make sure to do the POC, the proof of concept, to run properties through and make sure that before I’m going to ever offer anything to somebody else, that I’m going to invest in it. And that’s the other thing too. We go capital to capital. So the current project that we’re in, we’re investing more capital than the investor that we’re working with.

    Micah Johnson (23:38)
    Okay, so y’all are even involved

    in the each project too, which that makes investors always feel better when.

    Nathan Guilford (23:43)
    Well,

    it’s very important for me because I would never, I would never sell a property that I wouldn’t put my money on the line for.

    Micah Johnson (23:52)
    Love that, love that. All right, man, so the engineering background, it makes complete sense now why you had the success you did in America. And you built a machine that trades in real estate. Now you’re building another machine that trades real estate in Spain. So for those out there that are listening that would be interested in learning more from you, possibly partnering with you on a deal, what’s the best way for them to find you?

    Nathan Guilford (24:17)
    Right, so the best way is to go to our website, which is honeycutproperties.net. Do want me to give you my phone number as well?

    Micah Johnson (24:25)
    If you want to, that part’s up to you.

    Nathan Guilford (24:27)
    Yeah, yeah, I’m also on WhatsApp. So I have both the Spanish and US number, but the best way is to reach me in my US phone number, especially if you’re calling from the United States. It’s area code 480-495-8839. Again, that’s 480-495-8839. You can call or text me. Just make sure that like for the East Coast, I’m about six hours ahead. So don’t text me at

    Don’t text me at 6 o’clock at night because it’s like 2 in the morning here. ⁓ Or you can email me at Nathan at honeycuttproperties.net. So, ⁓ and I’m on Facebook and you’ll see, you’ll kind of see me everywhere.

    Micah Johnson (25:04)
    Perfect.

    Perfect, we’ll

    make sure your links are there. So if you’re listening, check the show notes, find Nathan’s links. If you’re interested in working with someone who not only has an established career in the States, but now is establishing the same concepts overseas, reach out to him. If you’re interested in those projects, partnering, possibly lending, work with professionals. I say it over and over again. That’s why we bring folks on this show who can showcase they know what they’re doing. If you’re gonna work with someone, make sure they know what they’re doing, right? ⁓

    I’m actually listening to ⁓ the book, Richest Man in Babylon right now, right? Don’t take your advice from the brick maker, right? Work with people who are doing it, who are on the ground. So Nathan, thanks again for being here, man. I really appreciate your time, your story. I think we need more folks that do it like you. Build that machine, build it right. Thank you everybody out there that’s watching, listening in.

    Nathan Guilford (25:45)
    Right.

    Micah Johnson (26:03)
    If you got value out of this episode or know someone who could get value out of it, interested in a project like this, share this episode with them, please. Like this episode. As always, don’t forget to subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you that are following along out there with us. We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Nathan out there building a real business in the industry. Thank you all for joining us. We’ll see you on the next episode.

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