Welome to Chile-Yen. Relocate, Retire, Invest in Real Estate in Chile

Hola! From Chile!
Dateline Chile • November 2005

We are sitting in the living room of our new, custom
designed and built home in the Lakes District of Chile,
each sipping a glass of just one of Chile's finer
Cabernets. Gazing out at the gathering moonlight as
night settles upon our small slice of Paradise we look
at each other and smile. The last light from the sun's
rays which graced the tops of the Andes just a few
short minutes ago has moved farther along the earth,
rapping our house near the lago in another night of
silent, star-filled beauty. The quiet is broken only by
the sounds of the Treile (Tray-leh) birds. We call these
bird neighbors of ours "The Watcher Birds," because
they will squawk if a person down on the road so
much as yawns. A family of Watchers have made a
new home for themselves on the grounds surrounding
our new home. Our two dogs have now begun using
them as an early warning system: they listen for the
Watchers and then will look at each other, as if silently reciting the canine version of Hamlet, "to bark or not to bark, that is the question."

We have been reminiscing about our recent journey and its many adventures as we slowly savor the rich flavor of our wine and agree, "WHAT a ROAD," what an experience, to think that it has been almost two years. We find it hard to believe the time went so quickly. We shake our heads, because maybe this is alll just a dream. Unbelievable! We call the past two years "The Paulsson's Journey to Paradise." Any experience in Chile deserves a grand title. In its quiet way, this country has been growing, educating itself, and so much more. Chile is coming into its own at long last.

The tail end of February 2004 was the beginning of a dramatic, grand and spectacular adventure for our small family. At that time, three of us (our daughter was not able to make this vacation with us, she was away at college) were making a mad, last-minute dash around our home in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California as we struggled in vain to win "The Battle of the Overweight Luggage" a war we had been engaged in for almost two entire days. We finally realized that, no, we would not be bringing the kitchen sink. It certainly seemed as if we had packed everything else, though!

We were taking our first-ever, longer-than two week vacation and we had chosen Chile....with our two dogs in tow, ummmm....might as well tell you now, our dogs are Pit Bulls.... So, there we were, beginning a new adventure with very overweight luggage, most of which was literally for the dogs. OK, okay, we can almost HEAR the sound of muffled screaming, not sure if it is coming from our readers, friends or family, "Traveling to Chile with TWO PIT BULLS??? You guys are not only crazy, you are Certifiable!"

Aside from the fact that everyone from family members to our closest friends were questioning our sanity, we had been assured by all the people who truly mattered (government officials, and the like), that bringing our dogs would NOT be a problem. No quarantines were in effect as long as we had their Rabies Certificates and a Certificate of Health, one for each animal signed by our Veterinerian. All assurances aside, not ONE person in the US thought we were doing anything right, but heck, when it costs $2,200 to board two dogs for an eight week trip vs $400.00 to TAKE them with us....uh, YOU do the Math.

To be perfectly honest? The money was not really THE issue. We were secretly, in the depths of our hearts, hoping that we would like Chile so much that we would not be bringing the dogs back. We had been harboring a growing dissatisfaction with the direction the US had been heading for quite a while now. Many nights would find us pouring over books, websites and whatever we could get our hands on. We were looking for an escape hatch, or better yet, a place, somewhere safe for all of us, where we could live within our means and enjoy a decent quality of life. Guess what? Our hearts won and whoever it was that originally said to "follow one's heart," was right on the mark.

Oh, by the way, "we" are Gary and Bonnie Paulsson, our then 19 year old son Kris and our two dogs, Reilly and Bozco. We did go one step further for the dogs and had ID chips inserted under their skin, because we do look upon them as part of our family. "We" also includes that daughter, Jessica, the college student and part-time model we mentioned above.

There are so many great articles packed into the archives of Escapeartist.com. We have been reading the accounts of those who have gone before us for at least four or five years now and we have to tell you, if not for the great stories, we doubt that we would be sitting here now, over eight thousand miles away....a pretty long distance from where we began. Having the benefit of knowing that there are others out there in the world like us, people who have tried and succeeded, somehow gave us the strength we needed to follow our hearts.

We lived in our prior home for over twenty-five years, had our two wonderful children there and have many boxes just bursting with photos of friends, family and our numerous pets over the years as well. No one would consider us the sort of people who would just pack up and move anywhere on a whim and we aren't. However, we needed to make a change in our lives.

Since we were not necessarily impulsive people but we felt something needed to change, why were we thinking about actually leaving the US? Would this be something we actually wanted to do once all was said and done? We have talked with and read about people who seemed to share a similar dilemma with the same growing feelings of dissatisfaction over their lives in the USA. We are proud to call ourselves Americans, but unfortunately, being an "American," is now very different in meaning from what it once truly meant.

The general consensus seems to be that there is an increasing difficulty in maintaining the same lifestyle, quality of life and values that were once synonymous with being an "American." In our case, we were not only dissatisfied with our degenerating quality of life----having to work harder and longer hours to just keep up every year, but we were sincerely concerned about what the future would hold for our children.

A person would have to be residing on the dark side of the moon to not realize the fact that life is becoming a much harsher reality for many Americans and it is becoming more and more unlikely that our children will be able to attain the standard of living they had grown accustomed to, at the rate things were changing.

This has nothing to do with us being wealthy, because we are not! We have, however enjoyed what we consider to be an above-average lifestyle in the USA. Like all caring parents we want our children to one day be capable of attaining a lifestyle at least comparable to the one they have had while growing up, if not better.

Did this mean that bailing out of what we considered to be a sinking ship into a sea of sharks is a solution? We hope not, but while there are sharks in every sea, some seas have far more vicious and sometimes deadly varieties in far larger numbers. Maybe we did bail out of a sinking ship but we don't feel it was into a sea of sharks. We feel we boarded a ship to much safer waters.

This very-condensed version of our motivations to start searching for a new life leads us to the next question, one we seem to be asked on a daily basis, "WHY Chile?" Good question, but after much research, soul-searching and many nights spent deep in conversation about the world we were a part of, we began to ask ourselves, "Why not Chile?"

We think the first bit of insight we gained, while broadening our own horizons was that most people are basically closed-minded. We are sure that we were once this way as well, but something happened to us over the years. We believe a part of it was the growing dissatisfaction we mentioned above which made us feel more uncomfortable and unsettled with the status quo, but more than that it was the growing anxiety in the pit of our stomachs that was pushing us to look outside of the US. Then again, maybe it was that age-thing (@#$%#) when we hit the half-century mark.

Now, if you are a non-Spanish-speaking person looking for information about retiring in or relocating to Chile, you might as well look for a magic bottle and rub it, hoping that a Genie will appear to grant your wish. Most books or on-line info that we managed to find had next-to NOTHING to say about Chile as a possible spot for Relocation, at least not information that was relevant to people like us, a family with family needs, like a comfortable place to come home to, a home with modern conveniences, a place for our animals to be happy (like NO TICKS, few fleas and virtually no mosquitoes!). Living in an apartment in Santiago, is just NOT our cup of tea. Call us spoiled I guess but we have standards. We were not looking to lower our standard of living, we wanted to secure it. Shure, we were willing to make some changes but we expected to gain more than we were giving up.

The only relevant information AT ALL that we could find was an obscure Spanish-language Internet search site. You have to understand, without the ability to speak Spanish, we did (and still do) need to depend on Alta Vista's Babelfish Translation tool quite heavily. We were able to find what appeared to be relevant information, so we sent them an email. Oh, did we forget to mention that we spoke next to NO Spanish at this point? So, we broke with "tradition" and sent an English email to a Spanish site, in hopes that someone would be able to understand and respond.

As those Fates would have it, at first no one COULD understand our email, so the original recipient gave our email to a second person who also was not able to completely understand our questions. By a stroke of luck, our email found its' way into the hands of "The Baron." He was quick to reply, he answered our questions and the beginning of our friendship was in the works. We were amazed that the Baron seemed to be thinking and relating to the world in much the same manner as we did!

For at least nine months prior to our trip from the US to Chile, we corresponded with the Baron, whose land development sounded like it was right up our "looking for Paradise in a safe place" alley. The "Baron," as we teasingly call him, is Chilean, born to German immigrant parents. His parents fled Nazi Germany just prior to WWII and he seems to have a bit of a soft spot in his heart for Immigrants. We became friends almost instantly, because we share similar feelings about the world at large and the US in particular.

The Baron had worked for a US corporation for many years and his English is quite good. Had we not found a true good friend here in Chile, to guide us, look out for us and to come to our rescue when we needed help, we are convinced our entire experience would not have been at all the same. To be very honest, we probably would not have stayed in Chile.

Now we find ourselves in a similar position as the Baron was for us. We are now able to help future Expats, people that come this way searching for their future, or simply people that need a friend in a place so far from what and where they were used to. Now we are "Barons" for a new group. We will assist when and where possible, lend a helping hand in the fulfillment of their dreams as the Baron so kindly did for us. There is nothing quite as wonderful in a strange land, as a friend you can trust who also understands you, literally and figuratively.

Working with a budget of only a fraction of what would be needed in, say, California or other premium areas of the USA, we are able to live here in a beautiful, new (designed and built to our specifications), custom lake-view home on an acre and a quarter. Our new home borders a year-round stream in a private, gated community, complete with underground utilities, cable internet and cable or satellite TV. We are very close to a popular resort town complete with supermarkets filled with the freshest meats, produce and bakery goods. We have daily housekeeping services (and WOW! can our housekeeper, called Nanahs, here, cook!) plus we have our own swimming pool along with every other amenity we could possibly dream we might need. Here in Chile, we can live a lifestyle we would only be able to dream about in California and we actually made a decent living there.

We could have had our pick of many different types of areas here, each with their own special features, like an ocean view golf/country club setting, or a horse-focused development complete with private, well-maintained riding trails and a community stable where each horse has its own private stall plus pasture rotation in the green, lush year-round pastures. But for us, we chose the beauty and simplicity of the Lakes District resort community of Pucón, a reminder of the Lake Tahoe area of years past, back when it was pure and uncluttered by hoards of people and one could look down one hundred feet and actually see the white, sandy bottom. If we moved the custom home that we have here in Chile up to Lake Tahoe, we would have to share it with about 20 families to be able to afford it in today's market!

We feel that the Chilean Real Estate market is very much like the California market of our youth. If there is one thing we have learned in the many years we spent living in California is that the very best areas always have a market and they will always appreciate in value the most, over time. For this reason, we have looked very closely at the prime areas of Chile. Chile is the new California, it just so happens to be in another part of the world!

In the resort areas of Chile, while it does seem that Chileans are the ones that own most of the second or vacation homes, people from all over the world also own homes in these areas, as well. The most interesting factoid about the homes that are left vacant for periods that may range from six to nine months a year is that the homes remain completely untouched There is not much need for a boarded-up window or door, because no one bothers these homes. Maybe it is the Watcher Birds, we can't be sure, but the nights around here are so peaceful. Actually everywehere we have gone in Chile, we have always felt completely safe. Our dogs prefer to guard "their" swimming pool, which is the place you will find them at any given time during the Summer months. We are beginning to wonder exactly WHO the swimming pool was really built for......

Chile is a unique country for more than a few reasons. When reading reports regarding many other countries as possible Expat destinations, we cannot help but notice a common thread in all of the advertising/articles: "Lots of Expatriots here!," "Special Economic Incentives for Expats!," "Growing, but Still Reasonable Real Estate Prices for Expats!," and the list of "Expat lures" grows longer with each passing day.....

We just do not find Chile to be this way. Chile has been quietly doing its' own thing, maintaining its position as the leading Latin-American economy in the world. Chile has held this title for almost fifteen years now and we see nothing to indicate that it will be letting up any time soon.

This has created a strong Chilean foundation, built WITH Chileans, from the inside. Yes, Chile has instituted foreign investment policies that have been designed specifically to encourage foreign investment IN Chile, but the real growth has been with the Chileans.

Chile has a lower severe poverty rate than the US and a low unemployment rate, an excellent educational system (English is now mandated in all the schools), a high literacy rate and a solid and growing middle class. Chile's per capita GDP is over three times that of Panama's.

With Chile's strong, well-educated middle class, vast amounts of open space, its bounty of natural resources and low crime rate, Chile is poised for many years of growth, development and prosperity. This is something not only important to us, but to the future that lies ahead of us, our children and hopefully our children's children.

Chilean housing and Real Estate are great bargains right now but not because the general populace is poor and Americans think they can just swoop in and grab up all of the great deals (Read exploitation). To be more accurate, housing and land is reasonable because there is an abundance of open land. Chile has fewer people than LA County, but is comparable in length to the Pacific Coast from Alaska down to the middle of Mexico. Just imagine if the Pacific Coast of North America was populated ONLY by the residents of LA County. That is more than the entire population of Chile! Also, over a third of the entire population of Chile resides in the greater Santiago area. This leaves a lot of very desirable, beautiful, buildable open land available for sale.

Furthermore, Chile is very rich in natural resources with copper being its leading export and forestry products second on the list. This means copper pipes and wiring, wood framing and siding, floors, concrete and almost every item needed for construction of a home is produced right here in Chile. I might also mention that Chile has an abundance of fresh, pure, clean water and most of the power is generated by Hydro.

There is a different attitude in a country that is neither poor nor over-populated than in a poor and overcrowded country. Also, Chile does not have a serious immigration problem, although that is changing a bit with the influx of some illegal low-cost Peruvian and Bolivian laborers. Still the population growth is well under control. I think it is interesting that very few Chileans are immigrating to the USA and there is a relatively small population of Chileans in the US. However, US Expats and Retirees are welcome here, but not as an object of money. Rather, they are welcomed as friends and neighbors from an interesting and in many ways an entertaining country. This is how most Chileans view the world's citizens. We think we are the comic relief for our particular town. Many people smile when they see us, we even have local merchants wave at us and say, "Hola Bonnie, Hola Don Gary!" We are all still getting used to that Don Gary name....

Believe us, there is a very different mentality among the people here than in any of the many other countries we have visited. Chile actually views itself as European rather than Latin. Immigrants started settling here, from their homelands about the same time as they did in US. Also, due to a special Homestead Initiative instituted by Chile in the 1850's, many Germans emigrated to the Lakes District of Chile. They were able to acquire rich and productive farmlands in exchange for all of their hard work developing the land. As we walk around our local lakeside town, with it's abundance of German wood architecture, it is almost as common to overhear discussions in German as it is in the Castileano Español.

Aside from all this, the concept of a tropical location is not necessarily suitable to everyone's tastes. For us, the tropics conjure up images of sweltering heat and humidity, numerous bug bites, mosquitoes, Dengue Fever and nasty third degree sunburns, not to mention venomous snakes. While Chile has beautiful primeval rainforests, you can scratch off the venomous snakes and Dengue fever along with most of the other not-so-pleasant aspects of the tropics. You will still need your sunscreen though.

California is very well-known for its' temperate climate, particularly along its coast and in the foothills of the mountains. The problems with CA are the absolutely outrageous property prices and the staggering overpopulation (30 million and growing) of a once-beautiful state. Both problems show no signs of reversing. The entire population of Chile is less than sixteen million people. Chile's climate is very similar to California and the entire North American coast, for that matter depending on where one travels in Chile.

For all of these reasons and for a million more which we will go into in future articles, we have chosen Chile as the ideal location for us to call home....then again....we could ask, did Chile actually choose us?? We are working on answering that question but in the meantime, Chile IS and will always remain a beautiful enigma.

After 50 years, Gary and Bonnie pulled up stakes and moved their family, animals and two 40' sea containers packed with all of their worldly possessions from their home in CA to their new home in the Lakes District of Chile. They are offering Property Investment, Retirement and Relocation Tours to Chile, will happily assist with any needs involving your Relocation and are offering an E-Book detailing their entire adventure.