One of Henry Kaufman’s most recent real estate investments was in 2006 when he bought a third of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma for a little over US$100,000,000 and having spent a decade working on Wall Street myself, I was delighted to receive an invitation to interview Henry Kaufman this afternoon the 27th July 2009

At 84 years old Henry Kaufman has been investing professionally for longer than I have been alive… And I must admit to being somewhat embarrassed to discover that Henry remembers the people at my old firm – Drexel Burnham Lambert – better than I do … He is one very sharp cookie!

While the biggest single investment client portfolio I ever worked with had
US$25 million invested, the majority of my clients had smaller portfolios… This was small potatoes compared to the numbers that Henry Kaufman is
accustomed to working with…

We only had half an hour or so but Henry Kaufman and I discussed a number of things including his Spanish language skills 🙂 and how his allergy problems have disappeared completely living in Costa Rica.

Amongst many other questions, we asked Henry Kaufman:

1. In your long and clearly successful investing career, you’ve often been a bit of a contrarian with your investments and it’s been written that you are not presently invested in real estate or securities in the US or in Europe so why invest in Costa Rica real estate?
2. What would you say are the major attractions in this area for Americans thinking about living and retiring abroad?
3. What’s the overall concept behind this particular project that you are investing in?
4. In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake that people make when investing in real estate?
5. What sort of return are you hoping to achieve with your real estate investments in Costa Rica over what period of time?

Henry Kaufman has made a fortune investing in distressed real estate but he made it crystal clear that he does not anticipate making the same kind of very high returns typically associated with “distressed” real estate investing in Costa Rica because he does not believe that Costa Rica real estate is at all “distressed”.

In fact, Mr. Kaufman is clearly impressed that Costa Rica real estate prices have remained so stable whilst so many other real estate markets are plummeting in value.

For the average Joe who sits there on the sidelines always waiting for his ship to come in, the fact that Henry Kaufman is investing millions of dollars in Costa Rica real estate is probably not ‘news.’

But, when sophisticated real estate investors – who are accustomed to making serious money while the average Joe remains on the sidelines – see that a real estate investor like Henry Kaufman is investing in Costa Rica real estate, it is very, very good news because it tends to give a little push to these people who then start buying…

You can of course sit there and do nothing if you wish however, if you have been waiting patiently for an opportunity to invest in Costa Rica real estate – or buy a home for your well deserved retirement – may I humbly suggest that you don’t wait around too long because although this kind of news may take a while to bounce around the world, once it’s been read a few times and totally digested, prices in this very attractive area will most likely be going higher!

My ‘video guy’ is doing his thing with the video footage as I type this and we’ll publish the video within the next week so stay tuned!

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore and the Director of Costa Rica Living & Retirement – Secrets To Happiness, a new DVD which reveals all with 14 in depth interviews..

If you are serious about buying a home, apartment or land in Santa Ana or Escazu, then please contact us using the simple form below:

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.