World-Class Golf in Los Cabos: Courses, Views & Events

Video Transcript - (with Maria and Zach)

Maria:

Hi everybody. This is Maria Ocampo, business development manager for MoXi a Global Mortgage Company. And here we are in one more of my episodes of my storytelling section. So right now I decided to make a very different interview because I would like to show what is behind the people that decides to invest or get enough financing to buy a property with MoXi. So right now I invited Zach Peters, he's a very good friend of mine. And he is a passionate golf player, so he choose to come and invest in Cabo because, I don't know if you know, but in this destination we have 18 golf courses. So that makes this place very important for golf players. So Zach, thank you for coming to this interview.

Zach:

Well, thank you, Maria. I'm very happy. Maria is a very close friend, and the place that we're at right now is Quivira Beach Club, but this is one of, like she said, 18 places where you can experience the best of beach, golf, and lifestyle. So I'm excited to talk about it and give a little bit about my experience. And yeah, happy to be here.

Maria:

Okay, Peter, let's start. Tell me your story as a golfer.

Zach:

So my story isn't anything all that crazy with golf. As an athlete, I was a college basketball player. I played at the University of Kansas and the University of Arizona. So I was a top collegiate athlete, and like much basketball players or many basketball players, after I retired, I had to find something to give me a competitive edge, and golf and pickleball were those things for me. So I now play pickleball competitively, and I try to play golf competitively, much like Steph Curry and Michael Jordan. It's a sport that none of us could seem to master after we've retired from our given sport.

Maria:

Yeah, well, he's so young and handsome, he still have a lot of [inaudible 00:02:18] playing golf.

Zach:

Exactly. Well, I'm a big believer that golf is the one sport that the 10,000-hour rule applies to. So if you can put in enough time, it doesn't matter what size you are. If you're 6'10" like me, or if you're 5'8"-

Maria:

He's very tall.

Zach:

... you can master the game of golf if you put the hours in. And that's what I love about it because anybody can play it.

Maria:

Okay. Well, tell me, I think you have played in almost all the golf courses in Cabo.

Zach:

Yes, 12 of the 18. Is that how many there are, 18 courses?

Maria:

Yeah.

Zach:

Pretty crazy. Yeah. So I have been coming here since I was in high school, and then in college and then for business after college, and now I live here. So the experiences that I had starting at high school all the way through my young adulthood led me to believe, and then COVID, that this is a place that I'd love to live if I could. And the golf is a big part of what draws me here, and the beauty, as we're looking out at the ocean. So at Quivira, where we're at right now and which is where I live, we have a top-100 golf course in the world. And right next door we have Diamante, which is another top-100 golf course. And then on the other side of Diamante, we have Rancho San Lucas, which is arguably a top-100 course, and it's definitely top 20 in Mexico, top 10 perhaps. So you look at that and you start thinking, "Gosh, why are all these top golf courses in Cabo?"

Maria:

Yeah, it's going to be the next question.

Zach:

Exactly. And I look at it, we talked about this, in the US we have Scottsdale for bachelor parties, bachelorette parties. And Scottsdale, I don't know how many golf courses they have, but it's comparable to this in terms of their quality and the level of prestige that they have. And what I'm starting to see is that my friends, I'm 31, and my little brother's friends who are in their 20s, are starting to come to Cabo instead of Scottsdale for their bachelor party, their bachelorette, their birthday parties. Because why would you go to Scottsdale and look out at the mountains and desert when you can come to Cabo and look out at mountains, desert and ocean? So you get the best of all worlds here, and it's a two-hour flight from Dallas, two-hour flight from San Diego, Los Angeles, Tijuana, wherever you want to fly out from in California. Same thing with Phoenix. So it's kind of the perfect destination for people my age looking to celebrate whatever it is. And that's what we have here. So it's awesome to be a part of it and to live it.

Maria:

So you are buying a property, another property here in Cabo, isn't it?

Zach:

Yes. So as a family, my family is invested in both Quivira and Diamante, and we're now currently looking in Puerto Los Cabos. So those of you that don't know, Quivira and Diamante are on the Pacific side of Los Cabos, which is totally different, a world away different from 45 minutes away in San Jose, which is where Puerto Los Cabos is.

Maria:

Yeah.

Zach:

So where we're at right now, it's actually 5 to 10 degrees cooler than if you were to go to San Jose and go shopping and get dinner. And it's because of basically the refrigerator that you have on the Pacific side that is blowing all this wind, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on if you're playing golf or not. And so we want to invest in all of these communities because we believe in what they offer to people, and that is the best of all worlds, two hours away.

Maria:

Yeah, I think one of the reasons that we are receiving so many people from US here as residents and investors is because precisely the proximity that we have to California. We used to say that we are a kind of extension of California, isn't it?

Zach:

Exactly. Well yeah, it's the Baja California Sur, right? So it's got it in its name.

Maria:

And also the lifestyle, isn't it? Don't you feel it?

Zach:

Yes.

Maria:

When I just got here for the first time, I didn't felt like I was in Mexico.

Zach:

Exactly. That's what a lot of people say, especially when you get on the new tollway and you drive through some of the new infrastructure that we have here. It's like, "Wow, am I in Los Angeles or am I in Mexico?"

Maria:

I think we still have to do a lot of even... talking about infrastructure.

Zach:

Yes, maybe that's a knock on Los Angeles infrastructure. Maybe a little investment needs to be done there. But I think it's crazy. You got Costco here, Walmart, every big chain is starting to move here. The mall in San Lucas now has Gucci. It used to not have these things. The way that things are going, it's like, all right, this isn't Mexico. This is an extension of California now, which is pretty cool and good for investors to see.

Maria:

Yeah. And also, what about taxes, for example? Is it more convenient to the expenses that you have to make for a property, in terms of the taxes or maintenance compared to the US?

Zach:

Yeah, so I mean, it just totally depends on whether or not you're a resident or if you're on a temporary visa like me. I like to tell people, "I don't really exist here. I'm a ghost." When you move here, you still-

Maria:

Yeah, which is much better-

Zach:

Yeah, when you move here, you still pay taxes to the US, unless you completely expatriate yourself. You're going to pay taxes to either Mexico or the US. And on the real estate side of things, when you invest in a property here, the thing that... and I think this is what you were leading to. In California and in Texas in particular, Texas has very high property taxes.

Maria:

Yeah.

Zach:

And so people are investing in real estate in the US and realizing, you know what? It's getting harder and harder with the high interest rates and the high property taxes combined to invest and get a good ROI on real estate in the US. The difference is, here, the property taxes are almost nothing. So when you calculate that into your ROI, you're like, "Holy crap, I can come here, buy a piece of land or a piece of property, and say nothing happens, my cost to carry is almost half the price or half the cost of what it is in the US, especially Texas." So that's a huge thing that people realize. It's like, "Wait, my $5 million house here, I'm going to pay 1/3 of the... even less... 1/10 of the price or cost of taxes as I would in Texas."

Maria:

Wow.

Zach:

Which is a big deal that people don't really know.

Maria:

And also you have some other things, like he said, the view, the margaritas. You don't drink, but anyway.

Zach:

Diet Coke.

Maria:

Diet Coke.

Zach:

Diet Coke is more expensive here. That's the one thing.

Maria:

Well, but look at this. We are just right in front of the sea, so we are having a very nice view while we are talking with you. So what would you say for this audience that they are golf players or they like... well, what would you tell them about Cabo? Come and invest... And what would you tell them?

Zach:

I would say two things. I would say definitely invest, and come here, all the communities have an opportunity to play their courses. If you're looking to buy real estate, you can go play Querencia, you can go play at... I'm not sure about El Dorado. Probably not. Quivira, Diamante. If you're looking to invest, come try out these courses. Because I've played all over the world, I've played Pebble, I've played literally everywhere in the US, top 100s, and when I come here I say, "There's nothing about this place that doesn't compare to those or better because you're looking out at this." And so find a community that is at your price point, come stay for a few days and play the golf courses and everything. Because the second part of this is a lot of the communities are becoming private, and what that means is you're not going to be able to come and stay at The Hilton-

Maria:

Any... yeah.

Zach:

... in the corridor. Yeah, you're going to have to be in these communities to have access to the golf. And one of the cool parts about living here is once you live here and you get your network here, you meet people that live in other communities and then you have access to all of them. But as a tourist, you're not going to necessarily have access to all of them. Quivira you will because it's got a hotel as an anchor. Some of the others have hotel anchors, like Palmilla, that I'm sure you'll be able to stay in and play the courses. But if you want to come and play Diamante, you have to stay in Diamante. And now you might be able to get a timeshare deal or whatever, which is not worth it. Don't do it.

Maria:

I don't think there's too much timeshare-

Zach:

No.

Maria:

... or units for rent in Diamante.

Zach:

Exactly. You need to rent in Diamante or you need to know somebody that owns in Diamante so that you can get on the course and play. But that would be my advice. Come out and check out these courses now before it's too late because the initiations are going up, just like in the US. It's crazy how expensive golf has gotten. And so there's still opportunities to get in early in a community that's offering great deals on memberships and initiation, and get locked in. That would be my advice.

Maria:

Wow. Yes. Zach, my last question would be, you know that in my company we do financing for US citizens. In the past it was no possibility of getting mortgages in Mexico. So what do you think about this kind... Because I have always heard that they say that people that have the budget to buy a kind of property of 5 million, or they're like golf players, these people pay cash. They don't need financing. What do you think about that?

Zach:

Well, I think that if you look at investing, real estate investing, and you listen to all the gurus on YouTube and everybody, nobody buys real estate with cash. If you have money-

Maria:

[inaudible 00:12:50] the mortgage in the US, they bring the money to Cabo.

Zach:

You want your money working for you and you want it to be diversified. And if you put $5 million cash into one property, you're stuck in that property. But if you can leverage, like what you're talking about, and use financing or whatever vehicle you can to purchase a property without putting that much into it, that much capital into it, then you can go invest in other things and have your money working for you. And so that's where, traditionally in Mexico, that hasn't been offered. And now it's a really good opportunity, and it's opening up the amount of people that can actually purchase here, which will increase demand and raise prices ultimately.

And I do think there's going to be a correction here at some point because it's been like this for two, three years, but nothing too crazy. I think it's a great time to get in, and if you can, definitely leverage. Because why buy one property when you can buy two, when you can buy three? And especially if the rental income is covering, then you can wash and rinse and repeat. That's the model. Whatever your risk appetite is or whatever your investment strategy is, it's always better to leverage if you can.

Maria:

Well, Zach, I want to thank you very much for your time.

Zach:

Absolutely.

Maria:

This is so nice of you, I'm so excited to see it on our MoXi social media. Thank you very much.