By: Jeanette Schnall

Lakes area Chile 1

My husband and I came to beautiful Southern Chile in 2004 and fell in love with  the incredible scenery, and who wouldn’t? Considering the abundance of  glistening lakes and snowy, white-capped mountains, the area is sometimes  referred to as the  “Switzerland of South America.”

Safe, politically stable, well-capitalized, with a liquid banking system and an uncorrupted police force, the country has a lot going for it.

Author and her husband on their farm in Chile.

Author and her husband on their farm in Chile.

By many measures Chile is Latin America’s top country. In many parts of Santiago you might forget that you are in a developing country; but out in the countryside where the populations are small, growth is small as well. But with that slower rise in GDP is preserved the old world charm. A place where men can still be seen dressed in traditional cowboy clothing riding into town on a horse, and doors to stores and restaurants are still held open for ladies. A place where people greet each other with a polite, “Buenos dias,” before beginning even to check out their items at a cash register.

Pucon, Chile

This was the allure–the small town, rural life where you’re free to be left alone, mind your own business and live a quiet self-sufficient type of lifestyle, with an awe-inspiring view, high up in the mountains, far away from the maddening crowds and darkening skies of North America.  A great getaway and place to diversify our assets with a piece of land–a tangible asset.

 

So we bought our property in Chile, holding on to our dream of an early retirement and eventual exit from growing problems in a changing homeland we had grown leery of. But after six years of working hard earning and saving, we could see that our investments weren’t growing as fast as the problems we saw on the economic horizon. So what should we do? Stay and slog through or cut and run?

Not an easy decision for any of us and one that takes a lot of courage, fortitude, sacrifice and planning–not to mention a bit of start-up capital. So move we did in 2010, with the plan to work in a real estate company with someone we had met on one of our trips there. Our plan was to help them expand their sales-reach by being available to assist English-speaking buyers with showings and, over time, learn both the language and the way real estate functions in the country.

But as plans often go in life, things soured with the idea when we realized that one of the key people we needed to make this plan work was planning to semi-retire soon. Without his guidance and tutoring we had no way to support or communicate with the office staff to be left under our charge. How were we to be in charge when we didn’t even know how things function.

What a blow! What a disappointment!

We still needed an income so that we could keep from eating into our not yet mature investments. We had given up our employment back in the States and moved to a foreign country with the understanding that we had a “job” waiting for us. So rather than fall into a prolonged state of despair, we determined to go it alone.  I recalled the lyrics of an old song my grandmother used to sing,”you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again” . . .

My husband is an engineer and I had worked in both an international and a small business. And together the two of us had spent the previous ten years buying property, fixing it up ourselves and selling it for a tidy profit as a sideline. I come from a family of trades people and know some construction basics beyond just how to run power tools. Perhaps not the most highly regarded industry or line of work, but knowledge of building construction has a lot to offer one in time of need.

Strange as it might sound, after all, what is life (or business) but one giant ongoing building project? With a house build, it seems that nothing is ever on time, on budget, or there when you need it. So, as the builder, you are constantly in a state of affairs where you need to improvise, innovate and work with plans that just keep changing–remodeling yesterday’s blueprints to keep up with new incoming demands.

So falling back on our experiences with building, we decided we would just have to throw away our blueprints, roll up our sleeves and reassess the situation. We were shaken by fate, but not afraid of a certain level of either adversity or hard work. Something we were about to get a lot of because of the twists and turns in which our fortune had just taken us.

(In part two I will tell you how I became an entrepreneur at 48.)

You can read more of Jeanette’s articles at links below:

But Why Chile?

8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Chile

Street Smart Spanish

Jeanette and Martin Schnall began their pilgrimage to Chile about eight years ago. They purchased several hectares in the beautiful Lakes District to the south, later built their home and finally made the move complete. Along with their real estate business, they are developing water-generated power and other means of independence on the land. They are settled expats who enjoy sharing information with those interested in considering Chile as an investment option. Jeanette and Martin’s  web site is www.SouthernChileProperties.com

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Copyright 06/25/2012 all rights reserved.