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Get a Load of This Beach

If you enjoy sunshine, warm weather, and a pristine, natural setting, it hardly gets better than this.

I took this photo several years ago, and it's been imprinted on my mind ever since. In fact, it's the screensaver for my laptop, so I see it often.

We were hiking on an island in a little-known part of the Caribbean one day on one of my early assignments for International Living , following up on a tip that I'd gotten from a friend about a beautiful beachfront property for sale. After walking for almost two hours, we crested a small rise and stopped in awe as this small, hidden cove stretched out before us. I knew we'd found the property, because my friend told me it was 50 meters beyond the green fishing boat tied up by the beach you can see in the photo.

But we didn't go to see the property right away. Instead we walked down to the beach and stopped for a while to simply relax on the powder-fine, white sand, and enjoy a swim in those crystal-clear, warm tropical waters. If you enjoy sunshine, warm weather, and a pristine, natural setting, it hardly gets better than this.

After looking at the palm-fringed beachfront property, we waded in the shallow surf on the way back, rather than taking the path. In fact, we didn't leave the water for the beach again until we saw a small shack selling lobster dinners for $7.

For me, the picture of the cove is a reminder of what happens when we broaden our horizons beyond U.S. shores, and begin to consider buying a home in a sunny clime overseas. But this trip was more than a fond memory, and more than the beginning of a long, successful stint in the search for overseas properties to write about. It was the beginning of a big idea--an idea that's finally come to fruition.

"What if we could catalog the best of our collective property-hunting experience in sunny destinations, and put it into a single volume?" This was the question posed by our publisher almost four years ago. A country-by-country compilation, she said, not only examples of what's on the market, but also how to buy, what to watch out for…even what you can do for residency.

Think about that.

When it comes to finding a home in a place where the sun is shining and warm weather always awaits, such a book would showcase our best efforts in the hemisphere. It would be a one-stop-shop where you could pick and choose from the best of what's out there. There would be nothing else like it, available from any source.

But we've done it.

After three years of travel and investigation, thousands of hours of research, and with the first hand experience of dozens of expats, scouts, and readers, our newest special report is finally in print:

Your Own Second Home in the Sun

To be honest, this report took me by surprise. I see most everything that hits the shelf in the IL bookstore, and I have to say that this is the single most useful publication that I've found for people who are considering the purchase of a home in the balmy, sun-drenched venues of the Americas. When asked to review Your Own Second Home in the Sun , I was only halfway through when I started passing it along to the editors and staff members who hadn't seen it yet, telling them that it was a "must read," even for those of us who report on countries and properties for living.

It's a "must read" because it's about more than the beaches. You'll explore beautiful valleys that enjoy near-perfect weather all year as well as some of the Americas' original colonial cities with their cobble-stoned streets, wrought-iron balconies, and grand courtyard homes from days gone by.

Of course it has plenty of good property examples--for all tastes and budgets--in each part of every country that's covered. Not hypothetical indications of what things should be worth, but real properties on the market, with the name and number of who's selling it. Anyone with a budget of $15,000 or higher will find something to think about in this report.

If you're happy to dream for now, just browsing through the properties in this book will be fun in itself. Your Own Second Home in the Sun , however, has so much more to offer than that. For those who are ready to take action with respect to evaluating a primary home, a second home, or an investment property, Your Own Second Home in the Sun will provide the no-nonsense information that you'll need about visas, taxes, closing costs, and restrictions on foreign buyers--in addition to all those great properties.

Frankly, you'd spend hundreds of dollars trying to get the information in this book any other way.

For anyone who is considering retiring, living, investing, or buying a second home in the sun-drenched quarters of the Americas, this publication is indispensable. For $34.95, this conveniently book-bound report is the best investment you'll ever make toward an overseas property. But for this week only, you can get Your Own Second Home in the Sun for just $29.70. Read on for the full story.

Lee Harrison
Roving Latin America Editor, International Living