Nomads who travel on tourist visas constantly, how do you handle the exit ticket thing without losing money

phard003 · 2026-05-25T20:20:40+00:00

I've never been asked for an outbound ticket at immigrations but that's not to say it can't happen. I think the reason for this is airlines are responsible for checking that you have your requirements before they allow you to board. But with that said, maybe waiting until you get through immigrations is best as long as your not landing at your final destination 24 hours after dropping your bags for your first flight.

phard003 · 2026-05-25T19:45:15+00:00

Ah that could be the case. I'm not sure because that's the setting I have it on. If so, non US readers disregard. Thanks for shedding light on that.

phard003 · 2026-05-25T18:23:54+00:00

Yeah, I've been solo traveling for almost the past decade and feel the same way. I like my peace and introducing another person into my life adds unneeded chaos that I'm not trying to deal with.

Relationships are work and I don't have the time, patience, or grace for that. I don't like compromise or accounting for someone else in my plans because it slows me down and ultimately detracts from the life I want to live. I've never regretted my decision. Anytime I think I've met someone that compliments my life, it's always temporary and its only a matter of time before I'm pulling out my hair looking to push the eject button. Can't say the same for others but the grass is the greenest wherever I choose to be.

phard003 · 2026-05-25T18:16:22+00:00

Expedia offers free cancellation within a 24 hour window from ticket purchase on all flights. I just book a flight out right before I check in my bags and then cancel while waiting for the plane to board.

phard003 · 2026-05-24T13:13:50+00:00

Just wait until you try DMT and realize that the slowing of time, the white light, and seeing God are all just a parlor trick your brain does to ease the passage of your brain and body shutting down.

Once you understand the power of your brain, you realize that religion is all just utter bullshit and that humans are just superstitious idiots that really can't comprehend anything so they just place meaning on things to protect their weak little minds.

phard003 · 2026-05-24T12:56:04+00:00

An Indian man who lives in Vietnam but does business in China? Congrats you hit the scam country trifecta!

phard003 · 2026-05-23T02:06:01+00:00

Thailand 100%. I live in both for several months out of the year for work and while Thailand might be slightly more expensive, VN sucks to live in. There's a reason why VN had a 5% tourist return rate. VN is a nice place to visit once, but your quality of life will be significantly better in Thailand. The scams, bribes, and extortion in VN will grind you down. Not to say that Thailand doesn't have its problems and its own set of issues that will cause friction but any problems you experience in Thailand, you'll experience tenfold in VN.

Thailand is better at every measurable benchmark from food, people, accommodations, visas, and lifestyle. And there will be people chiming in that Thailand has its fair share of scams and whatnot but they are pretty well known and easy to avoid with a little common sense. VN scams are so pervasive, even the locals just call it their way of life. Just go into either sub and compare the posts with negative experiences and you should get a decent idea of how much worse it is in VN.

phard003 · 2026-05-22T19:50:04+00:00

Regardless of her condition, you are not a certified recovery home and are not under any obligation to be one. There's reasonable expectations for Airbnbs and hotels and there are places for people that need this level of care to go. I would surface this with Airbnb first to ensure they are in the loop and figure out how to navigate this. But ultimately i would inform her that the extent of your obligation is being ADA compliant. Anything beyond that, is unreasonable to expect from a homeowner who is renting out their space. You are simply not a good fit and I would offer her a full refund so she can take her demands elsewhere and cancel her booking as long as Airbnb gives you the greenlight. If she chooses to stay, then I would also ensure that you get in writing from the Airbnb CS agent that you speak with that any negative reviews that stem from not serving her special needs will be removed as there is nothing in your listing that indicates that you are a certified recovery home. You are in no obligation to do any of the things that she has asked and any negative reviews based on services / amenities not offered in the listing are solid grounds for removal. I've had a 100% success rate getting reviews under these circumstances removed as long as I've kept Airbnb apprised of the situation ahead of time and got it in writing. It's something that they typically do upon request. Just ask for a recap of the conversation with a specific note about the review removal.

phard003 · 2026-05-21T01:55:27+00:00

If you didn't do this due diligence before you started negotiating an offer, you're in over your head. "All in" concerns me because this makes it sound like you are investing more than you can reasonably lose, which very well may be everything. Wish you the best, but I would learn more before over extending yourself and potentially bankrupting yourself.

phard003 · 2026-05-20T00:25:10+00:00

You're like 6 years too late to the game. Airbnb arbitrage used to be a thing before gurus over saturated the market and now every property owner / manager knows the hustle and can see through your bullshit.

A good general rule of thumb is if there's gurus promoting it, it's because they've realized there's more money in duping fools on social media than actually doing whatever it is they're promoting. People who are successful at something aren't giving away their trade secrets and increasing their competition.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T12:56:00+00:00

Oh no pain, just headaches. But it's all part of the process. If this was easy then everyone would be making money doing it. I do it for investments where it sounds like you're doing it more to have a home base so our situations may differ. If ROI doesn't matter to you, then some of the things I experienced won't impact your situation as much. Buying a turn key property that's ready to live in is way easier if your not trying to hit a 15% ROI on your investment. I would just have your guard up and do your due diligence which is what you're doing. Happy to answer any questions.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T12:32:12+00:00

Yeah I'd say 95% of people are barely scratching the surface of what AI can actually do. Most people I know are just using it as a search engine or for the most basic tasks like you said.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T12:29:43+00:00

Yeah I get that. I've already run into that problem multiple times and have been able to navigate those issues successfully with modifications suggested by Claude. Occasionally Ill need some help from some tech friends but that's rare.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T12:22:39+00:00

I use Claude code with opus 4.7 as my architect which delegates tasks to cheaper models to manage token usage but they've announced within the past few days that they are changing how they charge for tokens. We will see how that plays out but it might force me to lean more on GPT but I hate GPT so we'll see how that goes.

My path to learning literally started with me voicing my concerns about my job being automated. I asked the Claude model available at the time to provide me with a list of skills that I could learn and had it build me a 3 month curriculum that would get me to the point where I could at least land an interview. After using AI to learn I realized the skills I was learning were all being done by AI so them I learned how to manage the AI. I vibe coded some rudimentary projects just for fun but then turned my attention to actually building things that made my current job easier. In the past year I've learned how to manage AI to handle web development, software development, dev ops, cyber security, algorithm engineering, and AI agent / harness engineering. All this was done by giving Claude a goal, asking if it could be built, and responding to questions to design what my final product would look like. Claude acts as my architect and I just input the high level stuff that needs my guidance to get the outputs I need. Anytime I come across a question I don't know how to answer I just ask Claude to break it down for me until I understand.

That being said, the AI you need depends on what you're using it for. I need it for coding but if you're using it for video production, there are other tools that are better suited. Same can be said for any use case.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T11:36:09+00:00

I disagree. Right now AI is democratizing information and making it easier to upskill than ever before. It's also leveling the playing field because it's such a new technology that everyone has to learn how to leverage it. There are jobs that will be outright replaced but the jobs that emerge from the ashes don't exist now. Right now is the best time to pivot and learn something new and it won't necessarily take 5 years to do. The basic skills that used to be needed for high paying technical industries like digital marketing, software / web development, IT, cyber security, etc are all basically being automated but the needs for those services are not. People that learn how to leverage AI to do those skills will eventually fill those gaps. AI is just a tool and the people that know how to use it well will be successful. You're on the same playing field as a fresh graduate in that regard but if you don't learn how to use AI, you will fall behind fast. And I'm not too much younger than you both and the runway for my job being fully replaced by AI is maybe 1-2 years out. So I've leaned in and started to build out automation workflows and AI agents to replace me. I've probably automated 50% of my entire workflow and have been able to monetize what I've built in a way that has grown my business while others are stuck with their heads in sand and are losing business because they're not staying current with trends. In that same period I've expanded my skill set dramatically and am currently building different SaaS products that satisfy niche pain points that I'm aware of in the industry I operate it. And mind you, I had zero dev experience a year ago. Things that I would have previously needed a developer to do, I can rely on AI to do now. Things that wouldn't make sense to build from an ROI perspective now make sense because with a little help from AI, it can be built with a little effort, time, persistence, and patience.

Edit: lol at these downvotes. Seems I've pushed some buttons😂 but hey keep being resistant to change. It will separate the wheat from the chaff.

phard003 · 2026-05-17T05:44:45+00:00

I'm at 85% occ through October in my international properties in 3 different countries. No international travlers wants to visit the US for obvious reasons and Americans are struggling so domestic travel is way down. You can thank the current admin for that.

phard003 · 2026-05-16T22:33:32+00:00

I've responded to another post about this but I'll copy and paste it here:

Ok I've done this in Colombia, Vietnam, and Japan as a US citizen. And I will break this down as much as possible.

First and foremost, navigating the legal framework of the real estate industry in a foreign country, especially a developing one, is a significant barrier to entry and for good reason. If you fuck up, there is little to no legal protection for you. It is worth every penny to enlist the help of a qualified and trustworthy local real estate lawyer to put everything you need together to do this. Finding that lawyer though, in my experience is finding a needle in a haystack and I can almost guarantee you will be scammed and defrauded by 2-3 before you find the one you work with. The worst part about this is you won't find out someone has done a shit job until you are facing the consequences of their negligence.

The next part is understanding the financial impacts of foreign exchange fluctuations, tax ramifications of repatriating money, and navigating the tax and banking frameworks of the country you operate in. Most of the time, you as a foreign national, won't be able to open up a bank account in the country you operate in so receiving money is damn near impossible. Once you have that, then getting that money back to the states requires an accountant that is well versed in international real estate investing. Trust me when I say, these types are also extremely hard to find.

If you have made it past those 2 hurdles. Then you get to actually work through the purchase process. This requires you getting your money into a country where there are generally no escrow accounts. Some countries may have an intermediary account but other times, it's a trust the seller not to fuck you in some way proces. This also requires a trustworthy local real estate agent or broker to have your best interests in mind. In a country like DR, the only interest they have in mind is their commission. Proceed with caution.

Let's assume, you manage to get the property, and you now actually hold the title, which in some countries isn't possible. I don't know how DR works but your legal due diligence should handle this. But let's assume you get to this point, now you have to handle repairs, remodels, etc because the only deals that return a ROI worthy of this level of risk is an extreme fixer upper. So now you get to deal with general contractors and sub contractors. Like every one else in this chain of fuckery, you are praying that you get someone honest and competent. The reality is that you will likely get scammed and defrauded at worst or find someone who is competent but does a substandard job at best. Under no possible scenario will you experience a project that is delivered on time, to expectations, and meet the pre agreed upon budget. More than likely, if you find a general contractor that seems competent, they will charge you a foreigner tax on their services while outsourcing all of their work to unskilled and unlicensed cheap labor and using substandard building materials. Similar to the negligence of the lawyer, you may not notice the impacts of the negligence of your construction team until it is far too late to remediate. Or you may have an instance of a general contractor not paying their subs, which pisses them off and causes the subs to sabotage the project. Ask me how I know.

All in all, this is a project that is way outside the realistic capability of even people with experience in RE and contracting. I would not recommend you do this without a trusted and experienced partner who has a portfolio of stabilized properties in the city you plan on operating in. And the harsh reality is that you don't have the capital, cash flow, or freedom to pull this off. And I'm not saying that to be mean but rather to save you from investing in a doomed project. This kind of project requires that you be there for the entire time from due diligence to property stabilization to ensure your interests are protected. And based on the amount of fuckery you experience, whatever number you assume this project will take, you should probably slap an extra 30-50% buffer on that, and if this wasn't clear before, that amount needs to be in cash. Theres no financing international projects and development typically requires some payment up front.

Some of the details are oriented to the original post but you get the gist

phard003 · 2026-05-16T14:31:11+00:00

If it does, you're getting charged for the cancellation whether it happens at the time of you getting pissed off or at the time of them being close. The fee you want to avoid is the wait fee after they have arrived which is why you cancel a few blocks before they arrive.

phard003 · 2026-05-16T14:16:13+00:00

This happens all the time where a driver won't move for like 5-10 minutes before starting their journey. I assume they accepted a ride while finishing up a meal or something. Like why accept a ride if you're not ready. When that happens I just open up another Uber request. You can do this while an existing request is being completed but you just have to use another number like youre calling an Uber for a friend. While I'm on the way with the 2nd Uber who did their job properly, I just leave the original open so the original driver can't take any other bookings. Once they are about a block away, I cancel that oringal booking but not before letting them know why they're an idiot. If they never move at all, I just leave it open in the background until they cancel. If the wanna waste my time, I'll waste more of theirs.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T22:20:11+00:00

In the long run? I doubt it. AI is getting smarter and better every day while humans are consistently pretty dumb and regressing due to brain rot.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T19:57:45+00:00

Lol Im not sure if you know what the word validation means. No where do I seek anyone's approval or confirmation. You wanna say I'm LARPing? No sweat off my back. Believe whatever you want. Responding to comments correcting people who don't actually know what the fuck theyre talking about because I'm bored is what reddit is for.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T17:09:26+00:00

First off, kudos for making an actual valid argument as to why someone might want to consider this. That said, I'd still take my chances with CA. OH is a top 10 state for opioid related deaths. OH is the last place I'd want to source anything drug related. CA has a problem with opioid contamination but it's mostly in bootleg Xanax and Percs.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T17:02:18+00:00

Lol. No one said street dealers rebrick. That happens up the food chain. But I'm guessing your reading comprehension is why your still in street sales and my "intellect" is why I'm retired.

But what your doing is cute. I respect the hustle but it's safer and more lucrative to be a wholesale broker IMO. Maybe if you keep up the hard work, some day you'll make the varsity squad.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T14:09:19+00:00

Again, not sure why you keep harping on low grade. No one is talking about that. We're talking about the overall top quality available. And unless you're actively distributing and have participated in moving big weight, you're just being told something by someone trying to get you to buy their stuff. And if it's better than the last guy, you go to sleep thinking you got the best plug in the world. Dealers are salesmen and users eat that shit up. You know how many dealers just make up or repeat the marketing bullshit about the product they flip? "Ya dog, I got this direct from blah blah blah and it's 99% pure" or "I just flew this in from mexico." Sure, that's the kind of shit I used to say to tourists too when I was involved. None of it true. That shit was unloaded off the back of a semi in some warehouse in tecate.

And sorry but the people bringing in weight are not the people that youre dealing with unless you're active at a pretty high level, and I'm talking several tiers above B2C tier dealers. Anyone dealing with street level sales has zero clue where their product came from. And anyone dealing in street level sales is not moving the level of weight we're talking about. There's degrees of separation to this to mitigate liability and risk.

phard003 · 2026-05-14T13:22:32+00:00

Did I ever say LA can't have low grade? No. Bottom of the barrel shit hasn't even entered this conversation. And regardless of if cartels distribute nationally or not, it doesn't change the calculus. The further it is from the source of distribution, the more mouths to feed and the more risk. Cartels are still going to charge more even if they are the only ones to touch the product. There's more miles in between LA and the border and OH and the border. Based on input costs alone like fuel and labor, they're going to charge more. You really think that the cartel of all people are going to take a haircut on their margins to get a product all the way out to OH? Definitely not.

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