11994
1994 · Exotic Caye Mortgage Company
It started with a simple problem. When we started building in Belize, no US bank would lend there and no Belizean bank would lend to a foreigner. So we built the financing ourselves.
The Story
A Life Built Abroad
Thirty years of putting down roots, building on them, and tending to what grew.
Plant
I didn't invest in the region from a distance. I moved into it, learned it, and built from the ground up. What grew from that small start is an ecosystem: separate companies, one root system, each making the next possible. Together they cover every layer a North American family needs to live, invest, build, and put down roots in Latin America. One region, one philosophy, lived across every business.
WHERE IT STARTED
Carol and me, back when this was all just beginning.
Chronological Foundation
Foundational Timeline — At it since 1994
21996
1996 · ECI Development
I started ECI to build the kind of communities I’d want to live in, in places I actually loved. Thirty years later that’s beachfront, highland, and custom homes across Belize, Nicaragua, and beyond.
Visit Now31998
1998 · Teak Hardwoods
I’m a co-owner because the model expresses something I believe: the best long-term investments grow on their own schedule. A working teak plantation in Panama, on a 25-year cycle.
Visit Now42002
2002 · Development Advisors
Where the lessons from decades of building, banking, and living overseas become advice for people doing it now.
Visit Now52003
2003 · Caye International Bank
As demand outgrew the mortgage company, we got a banking license, hired professional bankers, and grew the financing across the region. Today, it's a full-service international bank with clients across the globe.
Visit Now62007
2007 · Karlsburg Insurance
I serve on the board of a private insurance company covering assets and operations across the region.
72013
2013 · Escape Artist
I came on as co-owner because I'd been part of this audience for thirty years myself. I wanted a hand in guiding what gets published for the people coming after me. The longest-running publication for people living and investing abroad.
Visit Now82024
2024 · How to Buy Your Home Overseas
I wrote the book I wish I'd had thirty years ago. New second edition and audiobook on the way.
Learn More92024
2024 · Teak Craft Solutions
When the farms matured, I added the sawmill. Now we don't just grow the teak, we mill it into finished hardwood ourselves.
Visit Now102026
2026 · Pansuara
I started Pansuara so the teak doesn't stop at lumber. It's where the wood becomes something you'd put in your home.
Build
The proof is in the places. Real homes and communities, standing today across Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, where people live now.
Gran Pacifica — Nicaragua
A whole coastal community on 3.5 miles of Pacific beach. Six neighborhoods, over 200 homes and condos, its own water, power, and fiber, a golf course, and a hotel.
Master Community
Teak Timber Farms— Nicaragua and Panama
You don't plant a 25-year crop for yourself. You plant it for who comes next. That's [600+] acres of Teak leaving legacies across Nicaragua and Panama.
REFORESTATION
Best Western Grand Baymen Gardens Resort
An operating Best Western resort just off the beach on Ambergris Caye, with gardens, a pool, and residences from studios to four-bedroom condos.
Resort
Belize Marriott Residences — Ambergris Caye
A beachfront, colonial-style residential resort operated under the Marriott brand, built with local hardwoods and Belizean craftsmanship.
Resort Residences
Grand Balisi — Ambergris Caye, Belize
An over-the-water tiny-home community on the quiet lagoon side of Ambergris Caye, with glass-floored homes on a boardwalk above the bay.
Lagoon Boardwalk
The Galleon at Grand Baymen — Ambergris Caye, Belize
The newest building rising at the Best Western Grand Baymen resort. Five stories of condos with a rooftop bar overlooking the island.
TAKING RESERVATIONS
Founders’ Farms — Belize
Working farmsteads on productive Belize land, titled outright, for people who want to grow their own food and build something self-reliant. Stewardship, not just ownership.
Self-Reliant Living
Freedom Village — Highlands of Panama
Off-grid tiny homes in the Panamanian highlands, solar-powered and built from natural materials, minutes from Boquete.
Eco Highlands
What’s Coming · Regional Innovations
Expanding resilient infrastructure, regenerative agriculture, and community-centric living across Latin America. Future-focused developments breaking ground next year.
Breaking Ground
30+Years of Community Partnership
“Leave the woodpile higher.”
We're staying, so we build things that remain for the long-term. It's the thread through the hiring, the partnerships, the projects. Building well and doing right by the people and places are one and the same. Charity fills a gap. What we do closes it.
Impact & Stewardship
A Legacy of Giving
Since 2016-PresentMobility
Chair the Love
More than 2,000 people who couldn't get a wheelchair now have mobility. That's 2,000 people who can move through their own lives again. Since 2016 I've helped make that happen, and I'm proud to chair it now.
$185K COMMITTED
2007Craftsmanship
Local builders, trained and kept on
Twenty-five men from the villages around us spent a year learning to build roads and infrastructure. The training mattered but the opportunities to stayed on and work with us mattered more.
Long-Term Employment
2006–2009Education
Children's Health and Educational Support Services (CHESS)
Six thousand kids across twelve schools, over three years, with USAID and Rotary. An initiative build to keep running long after we stepped back, and it did.
6,000 Children · 12 Schools
2011Infrastructure
The Bridge
A river that ran ankle-deep in the dry season rose to fifteen feet in the rains and cut a village off for days. Notre Dame engineers and our community built a bridge across it. It's still standing.
Notre Dame & Community
2016Healthcare
The Roberto Clemente III Clinic
A community clinic went up close enough that families no longer travel half a day to see a doctor. We gave the land and built the clinic alongside Rotary.
Clinic & Land Donated
2022Sustainability
Family Orchards
Our staff can grow their own food now. Fifteen families planted orchards on land we opened up for them.
15 Staff Family Orchards
Guide
Building abroad takes more than capital. It takes knowing the ground rules, and the right questions before the money moves. Today Mike puts his firsthand experience to work guiding others through the real work of investing and building in the region.