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Hi there,
I don't even need to open the link to tell you that you will never get an apartment in New York for $2,000, unless it's a burnt out property in Harlem or the Bronx that just has it's foundations left (sarcasm).
I should know, I live in Manhatten and we can barely find a one bedroom rental appartment for $2,500/month.
I've been reading a lot of press lately about the capital and income advantages of NYC, however, I'm still not sold. Personally, the maintainance and co-op fees are ridiculous. I love this city, but I would rather invest in Florida.
-Kev
Hi there,
My advice is to choose one or two markets and really focus on an extensive due diligence process. If you're an experienced investor, you already know where you want to invest, for those just starting out, choose a house in a city that you would live in. You may achieve smaller returns, however, there will be significantly less risk and stress. Obvious things to look at are schools, crime rates, infrastructure, growth rates etc. All of these really tie into the same philosophy – Are there enough reasons people would want to live in and/or move to a particular market.
My personal preference is sunny, safe and growing Tampa, FL.
-Kev
MrUniqueName wrote:I’ve been looking at some Detroit properties this morning and am seeing houses for $1,000 – and there’s nothing to say that that’s just the despoit, etc. These homes are in Dearborn which I though was a good suburb based on the above posts. Can house prices really be so low or am I missing something?I have seen houses listed for as little as $150. These are usually fire damaged or sold as ‘tear downs’. I have looked at a couple, never seriously, but I have found that they are working on a bidding system and starting low on purpose which is probably what you saw with the $1,000 listing.
I agree with morpheusbushy, the article only includes data from metro areas. I would like to see the data for outlying suburbs in Miami and Orlando especially. I do know that rents are high in these markets, but I’m willing to bet that there is a high percentage of people who can afford to live in the outlying suburbs.
As an investor in US real estate, I would by lying if my business partners and I had not seriously considered buying property in Detroit. I have a few Australian mates who have invested and are doing ok. However, I live in NYC and have a couple of native Detroit friends who often talk about how dangerous the city is. I know there are nicer areas that are less effected, but these are far and few between.
Before anyone jumps all over the article below, I want to caveat that I know this is a one off case, but it was enough to make me hold off Detroit for a while –
http://m.smh.com.au/world/aussie-trying-to-make-a-difference-gunned-down-20110510-1egnv.html
With all of the vacant factory space from the largely withdrawn auto industry, Detroit has the potential to be a gold mine if you buy now and a large industry, like textiles, has a few large corporations that re-locate there in 10 years.
However, Detroit is just too dangerous for me at the moment, but like I said people have done ok so far. Also, I noticed some posts talking about bank financing, in my experience, you can really only invest in these types of markets with cash deals.
-Kevin
Hi slowachiever,
While the storms in southern U.S. are certainly bad, they have not effected the larger cities in a major way. Despite this, you should always purchase insurance with every property to protect your investment.
-Kevin
Hi Leo,
We generally buy a max of 2-3 properties under one LLC, but this has more to do with our multiple investment partners. Every situation is different and complicated and for these reasons I agree with the post above and recommend you seek legal council.
Cheers,
-KevGreat stats. Thanks for the post.
Very interesting to see that U.S. property has still increased by 88% since 1991 despite the GFC in 2008. While no one can predict the future, these stats indicate to me that if you invest long term and ride out the crashes, like the 2008 one, your investment still has a good chance of growth.
I wonder what the stats will be saying 20 years from now?
Hi jclimie,
I agree with a few of the posters here on two vital points. Definitely hedge your bets with Australian real estate and look for U.S. properties with high net yields and low capital outlay.
To answer your question, we are investing U.S. property and our current strategy is to buy and hold properties ranging from $50-$90k with investment partners. We also buy some Australian property, although far more expensive, in order to hedge our bets.
With a strong U.S. rental market, high net yields significantly reduce capital risk. This way you are not tied to a large mortgage and over time, income generated from the property is enough to pay it off. So, even if you sell it for what you bought it for in 5-10 years, your overall investment will still do ok.
At the end of the day, do your research and invest in something your comfortable with. While the Australian economy has a far more stable outlook, the barriers are high for real estate investment in terms of price. If you have less capital I would recommend at least looking into a high income producing property in the U.S.
Good luck!
-Kev
Hi Investinusgroup,
Per the other posts, your best option would be to get an E2 treaty/ investor visa. Although, it is important to understand that you cannot begin the process of obtaining a green card while on ‘E’ classification visa’s. You can only do this on particular visa’s like the H1b.
If you are investing $500k – $1M in real estate and you hire Americans to manage, provide updates/ renovations to your properties, you definitely have a case for an E2. I would suggest that you hire a good attorney to set up the paper work, this can cost between $1k – $2.5k.
My gf is an immigration attorney and she would be happy to provide you with free advice. Just let me know.
-Kevin
Hi George,
There are many banks here in the U.S. that allow you to open a bank account via mail and do not require that you be physically present. Unless your particular bank has this specific rule, it would definitely be strange for your agent to do this.
I would express your concern again to your agent and request that it is changed into your LLC name for security and accounting reasons.
I live in the US, so let me know if you have any further problems and I will try and help.
-Kevin
Hi AussieFly, I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I have emailed them a few times and they have generally replied promptly and seemed knowledgeable. As many other posters have identified, you should definitely do a lot of the leg work yourself in terms if research. <moderator: delete advertising> -Kevin
