High management fees, high cleaning/linen hire charges, poor capital growth expectations, difficulty in exiting the property when you want to sell, tied to an onerous management agreement etc.

Are the units to be strata titled or sold on a sublease? Either way, it will be more difficult to get all owners to agree to a sale if the site is to be redevelopment & an offer made to buy the block.

Will the management retain ownership of any units? Ie their commitment to the motel.

Whilst the cost of building replacement stock in the US far exceeds purchasing high quality existing stock the construction industry & furnishings will struggle. Not so the case in Oz.

My 2 cents worth: Aud to hit $1.20 usd in the short term, $1.35+ longer term outlook. Australia is to become a bit of a safe haven due to mineral/resources wealth, stable government, strong banking system etc. US & Europe to continue their slide due to high debt levels being funded out of Asia & following Japan’s lead of a long term recession. So far Australia has avoided this outcome but it looms 10-20 years away.

Doom & gloom.

Providing the house is not too close to the runways it is generally a good suburb. Check the archives or talk to the neighbours. You can also check the Air Services Australia website.

Start thinking & doing something about your future today. Start your own smsf, have yourself & partner & working aged kids be part of the fund. Contribute $25k pa each to the fund or your maximum allowable (if work contributes 9%) – so you have $100k + in no time. Use these funds to start investing at a maximum of 15% tax and tax-free later on. Put your $25k x 4 in now, transfer your existing super & bump it again in July with another $100k. Then go for it! Super may not be for everyone but it is a wealth-builder if you don’t need access to your money, it is for retirement after all.

I’m a noob when it comes to OS investments but aren’t you required to lodge a US tax return before you can repatriate any funds to oz? If that’s the case, then US tax law would apply.

It means the agent is trying to empty your pockets more quickly.

The onus is on the property owner to register for land tax, not doing so may leave you open to penalties.

If you purchase through an entity other than yourself, it is likely that you’d pay transfer costs on the entire transfer not just the half you are buying. It will also trigger a cgt event for the lot as well.

it is quite common for strata units not to be individually metered – it means running separate metered water supplies to each unit. In this case, the water usage forms part of your levies.