It's been too long since the last EcoBank update, please forgive me - today I hope to make it up to you all. We headed up to Casa Lago this afternoon, and snapped some pictures and had a good meeting with our socio Mr. Daza.
It really is a beautiful property, and Mr. Daza has been making drift wood lamps and hanging them in all the units, very unique and pretty additions to the rooms.
The lake has been cleaned and is now filling again naturally, although the bridge went down and needs to be rebuilt, something to add to the checklist. As I walked around, I remember why we considered buying it - and the coincidence of wants that resulted in us raising almost just enough money to buy 50% of the property.
Remember that we built the suite on the left since buying in.
During the summer tourist season, we have taken advantage to continue upkeep and maintenance on the property. All the electricity has been updated and reinstalled, and these stairs entering the property are getting an upgrade. Some paint has been applied around the place, and this weekend the bookings are full again as both Libano and Murillo, the two towns we are situated in between, are having events this weekend.
The admin suite unfortunately has not seen much progress, but we made plans with Mr. Daza to begin immediately next week, and work to finish up quickly. The structure is done, including the layout and second story - the roof needs to be finished and then its on to tile and finishing the inside.
The property has come a long way, and we are eager to get it looking its best, continue reading to learn more about our motivations.
The neighbors on both sides continue building - the space is quickly becoming a tiny resort hamlet - perfectly situated in between two booming municipalities. One of our neighbors, a canadian family, has begun to reach out, separately to both Mr. Daza and myself, to inquire about purchasing the property.
After some discussion, we are interested as well. And so as they continue to build, so do we. We will finish off our improvements, and look to close this chapter of our investment.
One thing we definitely want to do, is complete these stone walls all the way along the property. It looks great, even if some of these stones are getting a little rusty. It will tie in better to the style that the neighbors are working with, and support the whole place structurally for many years to come.
This is basically our list. Rebuild the bridge, finish the admin suite, plaster up some stone walls all the way around the property. It can be done, and we don't plan on delaying any longer, as there are hardly any minor details left to attend to.
I can't yet say how much we will sell it for. There is a lot to do, and a lot to negotiate. Maybe we won't sell it. But we have something to work on, something to look forward to. Combined with the USD-COP conversion rate in our favor in the meantime, and the increase in value of the property, I think we can get substantially more than what we paid for it out.
Flip it, as it were, and then decide our next moves.
And this morning we talked to @juan.manuel - we have also received some interest in our other property. Here the numbers are not quite as exciting, well we haven't yet developed the property. But interest in real estate in our area is growing, things are happening.
I am not nearly as interested in selling undeveloped land as I am in flipping Casa Lago for a profit, but we will see what opportunities arise. Our land portfolio could soon give us some governance options - which I think would be quite fun for this moment in the bear market.
We could do another project with Mr. Daza, we could look into developing our own infrastructure on our larger piece of land, we could buy another 'fixer upper' property that might be undervalued, we could buy a bunch of HIVE, or we could do another local development project completely unrelated to tourism. Or perhaps a combination of two or more of these options.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I will keep you updated as best I can.