Forum Replies Created
- Elle Dee Esse wrote:Hi all, I'm an overseas investment virgin and have lots of questions. Now don't jump on me because me I am poring over the threads in the forum and am on a pretty steep learning curve at the moment. The one thing I haven't found discussed as yet is the notion of the double tax whammy – so for the Aussies out there who have invested: if we are paying tax in the states then we are being taxed on foreign investments back here as well where does that leave us? I understand that at the moment the nett returns in the states are very attractive but if the after tax result is equal to or less than if I invest locally that significantly reduces the appeal.
Thoughts?
Looks like nobody wants to reply !!. I'll give my two cents worth. I have 2 properties in the US..both under the one LLC. How it works out for me initially based on numbers so far…the rent will exceed the claimable expenses by a few thousand dollars but my depreciation claims on the places will cancel that profit out on paper so I will have a taxable loss in the US personally as this would flow through to me from the LLC loss. The US & Australia have a tax treaty in place so you wouldn't get taxed twice…and if I do eventually work into a situation where I do have to pay tax in the US….I claim that as a foreign tax credit on my Aussie tax returns.
What you need to do is not take my advice but speak to a CPA who specialises in this area. James Simango is from US Tax Central based in Brisbane. James is a US CPA & an Aussie CPA so he has the benefit of being able give tax advice from both sides of the ocean. http://ustaxcentral.com/In Qld your contract would have a 10 day "cooling off" period which starts from the date the seller signs the contract….that would be the easiest way out
Herron Todd White have a good grasp of Coomera. 07 55841600 but most valuers (make sure it's not recommended by the seller) will smell a bad deal.
Pretty well most suburbs over the Gold Coast have an over supply issue and Coomera would be up there. Growth has been pretty stagnant over the last 5 years.
Being your 1st investment property…do you mind if I ask what it is your trying to achieve out of it….your goals….and why was the choice narrowed down to Coomera ?
As other posters have mentioned….sounds like your dealing with a common everyday marketing company that make a VERY healthy margin….sales tend to be over and above local comparable sales and this is why they like to also control your finance….so they can find a lender who has a "suitable" valuer that will get the deal over the line so the gravy train gets fed (recommended solicitors, financiers etc).Ferrari2803 wrote:Under no circumstances should anyone use MY USA PROPERTY. I started talking to Andrew who started the group about 2 years ago. I went to see him in Melbourne and after lots of analysing I decided to buy, I bought some land in South Florida and a Condo in Jacksonville Florida. The land was way over priced, I didnt realise until after I bought the land I started receiving mail asking if I was interested in buying more land for about 80% less. The Condo was a turn key fully rehab property. Before I purchased I went to withdraw as I found the same Condo in the same building for far less. I was told that the ones for sale were not turn key. My so called turn key is continually having maintenance problems. In 11 months only 2 did I receive the full rent. The management company (Playa Realty & Management) which MY USA PROPERTY recommended are continually making up problems so they can keep most of the rent. Last month I received $20 from $550 rent. Ive now been told that due to a lot of the other Condos in the building being in foreclosure or bankrupt the monthly fees will have to go up. Andrew from MY USA PROPERTY keeps telling me he will look into it and get back to me and get my money back but he had done nothing. Its been over 6 months and nothing has happened and he never responds to me any more. Its just not worth using MY USA PROPERTY!Unfortunately Ferrari,
There are going to be many more in the exact same boat as you. If they don’t appreciate it now….. they will in years to come…it will all get too hard and people will walk away from their investments…all made on the advice by so called buyers agents who in the end have little or no control over the wholesalers or property managers they recommend. Sounds like groundhog day to all the ones that got sucked into buying in Buffalo and upstate NY years ago on the same sorts of promised returns.
MyMoneyFinance wrote:Hi All,A client came to me about obtaining finance in the US to purchase a property in Texas (The merits of which are a little are still doubtful to me).
They are setting up a LLC to own the property, in Texas.
As a newbie in this space, can you suggest any 'Bank or Broker' in either Australia or US that could look assist me at putting such a deal together?
Thank you
From my experience so far…..my first property was north of Dallas and I used a local bank in North Texas to fund it. Forget any of the major national banks like Citibank, Wachovia, Bank of America etc….they won't lend to foreign nationals full stop. And I was only successful because the property was in their local area and I was introduced to them by someone who used to be on the bank board.
Send me a PM and tell me where they are buying in Texas exactly and I may be able to point you to someone.jacqueline231088 wrote:Has anyone had any good dealings with this company or can anyone tell me their experience with them?I am looking at buying my first investment property and I will the idea of the NRAS which i've been told you can only do with certain companies….
Jacqueline,
I'd suggest that you do PLENTY of research before you consider investing with a group like this. They all operate the same way, they probably telemarketed you, off to a seminar no doubt or what marketeers nowadays call "Expo's". If you search their name on this forum you will find plenty of unhappy customers and people who have invested with them. Unfortunately these people have lost a lot of money through their dealings and they vented their frustrations only to have them removed by the Forum Moderators due to legal reasons & at the request of ParkTrent. That in itself should tell you all you need to know.
To give you some idea….I spoke to some wholesalers in Atlanta early last year when I was looking at investing there and they were a wholesaler for 888. he summed it all up when he said that Vince from 888 had never even been to the US. So he was giving advice to his clients about US property and he hadn't even been to the US before in his life and I assume this would also mean he hasn't invested in US property himself !! Just another spruiker but this one seems to be a "new age" guy from Hippy Heaven Byron Bay
Hi All,
Thought I would add my 2 cents worth….
I got my first home underway in October last year so nearly coming up to the first anniversary….no issues at all to report in the first 11 months. This one was via a friend of a friend who had also purchased a year before me and he is still happy so I was able to get the benefit of his contacts. Local bank finance for 70% LTV at 6.75% ARM. SFM in Denison TX about 60 miles north of Dallas. $111,000 that rents for $1250 a month
The second one only came on board a few months ago and again no issues to report….too early on in the piece. This one is in Dallas and purchased from a turn key operator called Texas Cash Cow Investments. SFH $139,000 that rents for $1350 a month with a small HOA. Got local finance at 50% but when I asked about another one yesterday they informed me of new finance for 70% LTV.
Again a bit too early to be beating the drums about how great it is but it's doing what I hoped so lets hope it continuesByron
morpheusbushy wrote:RickH wrote:Each to their own ….as long as you are happy with the results thats what mattersExactly. I had every intention of doing it on my own – the administration effort ALONE made me want to look for help, not every buyers agent is bad, you just have to be careful and do your research. Even after I decided to use a turnkey company, I knew that I would not feel comfortable buying without first visiting the market in the US – even though it was clear I didn't have to – so as Rick says, each to their own.
I'd also like to add to this debate. I went across and visited many markets in the US and in the end I decided to use a turn key company……not all of them are bad…..you just need to do your homework and not jump on board the first company you come across. Not all are the same.
Maybe the trick is to forget about the Aussie based ones who are just adding another layer of commissions and fee's to the transaction and use USA based companies who don't exist just to serve Aussie investors but to mainly look after USA investors. From my experience these tend to be more focused on the actual property, it's location and tenant management and actually be on the ground then just making a quick buck with crappy properties in bad locations that unsuspecting foreign investors won't have a clue about. Just my opinion !!Dennis Chan wrote:speedy gonzales wrote:morpheusbushy wrote:speedy gonzales wrote:Hi Rodger,US Property Sales Australia is the newly created remnants of MyUSAProperty. My suggestion is to stay right away from these guys…..<moderator: delete personal comment> PM me if you want more information <edit>.
As for the other companies you listed….just a couple of more so called "experts" on US property. A dozen must spring up each week. No doubt they have all this secret information and access to these special properties that you can access once you pay a membership fee…that should be your first warning sign
Send me a PM and I can recommend who you should be dealing with.Is there no longer a my USA property? Their website is still up & running, I can't seem to find any info on US Property Sales on google..
Andrew Allen made a split with from these guys or didn't renew their license or something along those lines (probably had something to do with the additional negative publicity they received from the article in The Australian) so MyUSAProperty still exists but no longer has any Australian office addresses listed….just Florida. US Property Sales Australia is http://www.uspsa.com.au
The article in The Australian was written about the guys now operating US Property Sales Australia so beware !!Do you have the link to The Australian article? I recently attended one of their seminars, and I must say, I wasn't overly impressed.
Hi Dennis,
The link to the article in The Australian newspaper is here
morpheusbushy wrote:speedy gonzales wrote:Hi Rodger,US Property Sales Australia is the newly created remnants of MyUSAProperty. My suggestion is to stay right away from these guys…..<moderator: delete personal comment> PM me if you want more information <edit>.
As for the other companies you listed….just a couple of more so called "experts" on US property. A dozen must spring up each week. No doubt they have all this secret information and access to these special properties that you can access once you pay a membership fee…that should be your first warning sign
Send me a PM and I can recommend who you should be dealing with.Is there no longer a my USA property? Their website is still up & running, I can't seem to find any info on US Property Sales on google..
Andrew Allen made a split with from these guys or didn't renew their license or something along those lines (probably had something to do with the additional negative publicity they received from the article in The Australian) so MyUSAProperty still exists but no longer has any Australian office addresses listed….just Florida. US Property Sales Australia is http://www.uspsa.com.au
The article in The Australian was written about the guys now operating US Property Sales Australia so beware !!Hi Rodger,
US Property Sales Australia is the newly created remnants of MyUSAProperty. My suggestion is to stay right away from these guys…..<moderator: delete personal comment> PM me if you want more information <edit>.
As for the other companies you listed….just a couple of more so called "experts" on US property. A dozen must spring up each week. No doubt they have all this secret information and access to these special properties that you can access once you pay a membership fee…that should be your first warning sign
Send me a PM and I can recommend who you should be dealing with.ErinS wrote:I am so sorry that you feel this way. I work for ParkTrent in the Customer Service Dept. and would love to help you resolve any problem you have. As you have posted anonymously, I have no way of contacting you, so please feel free to contact me on my email address [email protected].Erin,
I am sure that you are genuine in your efforts and no doubt your boss's have you working away looking for complaints on forums but the fact is that your role as a Customer Service Assistant will do little to help the fact your properties are well and truly overpriced and surrounded by properties purchased other clients of Parktrent who did little due diligence creating a nice little rental slum area down the track.
Hi Team America,
Many of us Aussies are snapping up US properties…me personally in DFW. From what I understand…yes you can bring the foreign losses into account in your Aussie tax return. Suggest you speak with James Simango from USTaxCentral.com based in Brisbane. James is a US CPA & an Australian CPA so can advise you from both sides of the pond.
novusprimo wrote:Congrats Rick.
This has been a great read so far. I hope I can buy an investment property in the US too.
I have not read in this post if someone has successfully got finance to buy investment property in USA with HomebuyersUSA or other agents.
Anyone?novusprimo,
I have posted a few times…maybe not in this exact forum topic…but I was able to get finance for 2 of my recent purchases in Dallas TX in the name of my LLC. Normal 30 year amortized loan with a minimum LTV of 50% to a maximum 65% LTV. I didn't use any of the buyers agents so can't comment on whether or not they are successful or not. They tend to use hard money lenders which gives you high rates and short loan terms…effects the cashflow too much.
PM me and I can give you the details of the company I used in Dallas
bilobunch,
First of all I am saddened to hear your story and how this effects you personally but I get angry when you state that MyUSAProperty's attitude is "well it was misrepresented to us so you can't blame us"….that's a load of crap. Here is a company who sprouts being "experts in helping Australians invest in US property" and they couldn't bother doing some due diligence. Indicative of all sales they have made I suggest
My fear is that there is many more of these stories to come out of the woodwork and many more lives ruined. Guess it justifies staying away from the Aussie buyers agents who really have no idea of the US market to begin with and rely on "people on the ground"…man those guys saw Andrew Allen coming a mile away and are taking unsuspecting Aussies for a ride.jayhinrichs wrote:speedy gonzales wrote:jayhinrichs wrote:Texas has really high property tax's and very lax zoning laws its a huge area like the outback only all of it is basically developable. so when things get going builders will be building new construction that will compete price wise with existing inventory there will never be much of a run up in values there because of these factors. Never has historically never will be as long as the zoning laws stay the same which is to say lack thereof. Supply Demand….
Hi Jay,
With the utmost respect….to state that Texas won't have a run up of values..never has… never will… is a little of track. I have research published by the FHFA that shows…
US House Prices overall increased in value by 88.4% in the last 10 years (and have dropped 11.5% over the last 5 years)
Texas Home Prices increased by 88.0% over the same time (and have increased by 9.2% in the last 5 years)
California Home Prices increased by 60.0% over the same time (and have dropped by 42.3% in the last 5 years)
Nevada Home Prices increased by 27.4% over the same time (and have dropped by 52.8% in the last 5 years)
Florida Home Prices increased by 78.50% over the same time (and have dropped by 39.7% in the last 5 years)
Arizona Home Prices increased by 72.50% over the same time (and dropped by 42.5% in the last 5 years)
Georgia Home Prices increased by 53.60% over the same time (and have dropped by 19.4% in the last 5 years)
N Carolina Home Prices increased by 86.50% over the same time (and have increased by 2.3% in the last 5 years)
With taxes in Texas…yes these are higher then other states but the return on rental income and likely appreciation will compensate for this and with it being a non disclosure state….if you do your research you can find places with lower tax rates. I have 2 in Dallas paying around 2.5% in property taxes and another north of Dallas paying under that.
As far as your comments regarding investing in the $30K Rust Belt & Mid West cities…couldn't agree more with you. There is a solid reason why these places are worth $30K….they never will be worth any more and you will end up walking away from the investment with never ending problems with your Section 8 maintenance issues. These places may have sold at higher prices prior to 2007/08 but they were never in good area's to begin with and a drop in price to $30K doesn't make it any better. Remember…just cause it's cheap doesn't make it a good investment.
Your saying that Prices have dropped 11.5% in the last 5 years. I just have to call you on that one.
Other than select markets. San Francisco and the pennisula down to San Jose , Home to Facebook Google etc. those values have held. Certain parts of Manhatten, LA, Boston and again only the upper crust.
Everywhere else in the nation prices have plummeted. Vegas down 60% Arizona the same. Central CA and the inland Empire 50%. Mid west devistated. Florida 60 to 70% value drops.
So to say 11.5 is just ludicrus. And that is why certain markets are really hot right now but buying 100k homes in texas that rent for 800 is not the best cash flow given the large tax burden and the fact that builders will compete in the coming years with existing inventory.
I personally bought a few foreclosures 18 months ago in Ft. Myers nice homes 04 build original mortgages of 250k for 35k each at the court house step. Now those have gone up in value you have to pay 45k for them now. As a flood of Aussies and brits have moved in and drove up the prices. herd mentality again. If foriegners were not buying all these properties the market would remain flat.
Again not trying to be argumentitive, just want to be real. These out of area investors by and large are totally nieve and are really rate of return whores. they follow what they think is the best rate of return with no clue as to Captial preservation. And they have no clue as to the social demographic issues with buying in areas of the US that are sub 100k, and especially sub 50k. Sub 50k doing it on your own you mines as well throw your money down the toilet .
Jay….may I start by saying hallelujua & praise the lord !!
Your comments about the herd mentality with Aussie buyers and buying sub $100K….couldn’t agree with you more and backs up my own time spent in many US cities and individual research. I have purchased 3 properties so far…one for $140K getting $1500 a month rent, another for $126K getting $1300 a month rent and the last at $85K getting $1100 a month rent….all in owner occupied neighborhoods. Appreciate I could spend less and get higher returns but that didn’t fit my personal risk profile….already accepting a higher risk by investing oversea’s and wasn’t prepared to do my money investing in sub prime areas with sub prime tenants.
With the 11.5% drop in US values….don’t have to call ME on that….I didn’t come up with the figures….just quoting the FHFA figures given to me by an Economics Professor at Texas A&M and published by them. Do appreciate your point thoughjayhinrichs wrote:Texas has really high property tax's and very lax zoning laws its a huge area like the outback only all of it is basically developable. so when things get going builders will be building new construction that will compete price wise with existing inventory there will never be much of a run up in values there because of these factors. Never has historically never will be as long as the zoning laws stay the same which is to say lack thereof. Supply Demand….
Hi Jay,
With the utmost respect….to state that Texas won't have a run up of values..never has… never will… is a little of track. I have research published by the FHFA that shows…
US House Prices overall increased in value by 88.4% in the last 10 years (and have dropped 11.5% over the last 5 years)
Texas Home Prices increased by 88.0% over the same time (and have increased by 9.2% in the last 5 years)
California Home Prices increased by 60.0% over the same time (and have dropped by 42.3% in the last 5 years)
Nevada Home Prices increased by 27.4% over the same time (and have dropped by 52.8% in the last 5 years)
Florida Home Prices increased by 78.50% over the same time (and have dropped by 39.7% in the last 5 years)
Arizona Home Prices increased by 72.50% over the same time (and dropped by 42.5% in the last 5 years)
Georgia Home Prices increased by 53.60% over the same time (and have dropped by 19.4% in the last 5 years)
N Carolina Home Prices increased by 86.50% over the same time (and have increased by 2.3% in the last 5 years)
With taxes in Texas…yes these are higher then other states but the return on rental income and likely appreciation will compensate for this and with it being a non disclosure state….if you do your research you can find places with lower tax rates. I have 2 in Dallas paying around 2.5% in property taxes and another north of Dallas paying under that.
As far as your comments regarding investing in the $30K Rust Belt & Mid West cities…couldn't agree more with you. There is a solid reason why these places are worth $30K….they never will be worth any more and you will end up walking away from the investment with never ending problems with your Section 8 maintenance issues. These places may have sold at higher prices prior to 2007/08 but they were never in good area's to begin with and a drop in price to $30K doesn't make it any better. Remember…just cause it's cheap doesn't make it a good investment.
I have just returned from Dallas and I can tell you….all my months of research was justified. I am now the owner of two more US properties (in 30 days time anyway). The company I dealt with was fantastic and provide the refurbished properties and property management and the big one…finance for foreign nationals. I checked all the deals with someone else I knew who had access to the MLS so I could check on comparable sales in the area's and all come back good. Plus I have the benefit of knowing the banks will do their own appraisals. When doing the calculations using worst case numbers…I make over $800 a month after all taxes,insurances and loan repayments.
PM me if you want the details of the company (not one of the Aussie Buyers Agents) as I don't think I can name them without the moderator removing the name for advertising reasonsHi,
I have just returned from Dallas buying some property. I am paying cash for the properties but after closing a local bank is giving me a 30 year P&I loan. The LTV will be at least 50% but up to 65%. The better information and paperwork I provide them the better the rates and LTV. They have done plenty of applications for Aussies with all so far having been settled….they just want you to own them in the name of the LLC to begin with and them finance them out. For example I just spent $220,000 on two places so if I get at least 50% I will have funds of $110,000 which I plan to lodge on a CD as they will leverage me again using the CD as security so I can buy another place. Gotta love leverage and it is possible to get it in the US if you look hard.
