Considering US property investment – where to start?!?!

Hi Sunny Girl:  I don't know i it's too late but I was in the US buying properties for clients when this post was established.

My company Tandem Uehling provides turnkey services making it easy for you to purchase investment properties in the US.  These services consists of:
1. financing in Australia for funds to go to the US
2. opening a forex account to transfer funds
3. opening up your US bank account and everything required for that
4. set up the Limited Liability Company (LLC) in a non tax state
5. do all the due dilligence of where, when what and how to buy
6. personally view each investment property on your behalf before you commit
7. manage the local property managers when back in Oz
8. ongoing consultation

Feel free to visit http://www.TandemUehling.com.au for more info or just give me a call on 1300 854 431.

cheers,

Greg

Hi Lucigoosey:

It is interesting that you have identified those markets.  We tend to invest in the ones you identified and avoid the markets you found to be poor.  However, we do more due diligence as we factor in local infastructue build and investment, property costs, taxes, school systems etc.  To this end we are in Cleveland OH, Kansas City MO, Memphis TN, Birmingham AL & Dallas TX.  We are opening up Pittsburgh PA and Atlanta come February.  You will see my post earlier showing the level of service we provide as we do more than just buy property for Aussie investors.  We structure and set up each customer so they are capable of executing their purchases.  We also personally visit each property before you pull the trigger.

We are not in San Francisco because affordability makes it difficult.  This isn't to say that we don't like SF, just that it's an expensive proposition.  I don't see why you didn't get positive data for Atlanta as our numbers are proving that this is a good market to penetrate.

Let me know if we can be of further assistance.  Greg

[email protected] or 1300 854 431

Nigel, who posts on here operates out of San Antonio Texas, which is on your list. I have a few clients in common with Nigel who have bought pre-forclosures through him, some of whom have only just returned from a trip to view there investments. All were very happy.  It would be worth your while to get ijn contact with him.

Regards
Alistair

Hi
The difference between the cities talked about on the posts and the ones that are being heavily advertised is mainly the markets. Places such as Detroit and Phoenix have had a massive fall in values in comparison to Texas. You will find that Texas property values were not as over inflated prior to the GEC, thus they did not fall in price as much. Areas such as Detroit have a population that is reducing where Texas is gaining people from the northern states.
I drove across the country a number of times trying to get a feel for the different areas. it is obvious from that that Texas is doing better than some of the Northern states. San Antonio has a large military presence a large amount of both private and public hospitals plus a large new Toyota plant. Austin is home to Dell computers.
Very basic but some of the facts i took into consideration before i bought in Texas

Good luck

I would 2nd Alistair's recommendation of Nigel he is a good honest operator who has been around for years.

You can PM here on the forum or email [email protected].

Either way you are dealing with someone who knows his stuff.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

Our concentration has been in Dallas and the one new opportunity I mentioned earlier in San Antonio.  Two different opportunities acheving two different outcomes.  However, most single family homes in Dallas (townhouse or stand alone) will produce both income of about 13% and growth of about 6% (so we believe).  To purchase this type of single family home as a rental you will be spending between US$100k to US$150k depending on square footage.  The greater the Sqf the greater growth potential and you'll pay up for it.  If you wanted 1/18 of a bigger leveraged deal like the 132 unit complex, you are looking at US$100k.

We can get financing at 50% LVR for foreign aliens who want to purchase in Dallas, which can make a difference.

lucigoosey
To your question about cheaper properties in San Antonio. Yes the city does have some very good properties which are well priced. I managed to pick up 2 x 4 plex properties next to each other. One was 45,000 and the other was first listed at 70,000 but we missed out on it. I tracked down the new owner and ended up paying 110,000 this was done to add value by having an 8plex. Each unit is now rented at $652 per month
$155,000 total purchase price
$ 55,000 renovation
$62,592 gross rental
100% occupied
29% Gross
Tax $6000
Management $626 P/M
Gardens$1200 year
Approx Nett 19.8%
This is one example which may give you an indication of what is available. Single family properties can be purchased from $30,000. Any thing cheaper usually need to much work or are in bad areas.
Our typical renovations are between 20 and 30,000 but that depends on how good a quality you want to go. From our experience if you do a good quality renovation you will let the property a lot quicker and prevent future problems and vacancies.
Good luck with your research

Hi Dale, thank you that is great information.
Do you expect capital gain as well? what would you expect to see once the economy stabilizes which could take….well who knows….3 or 4 years maybe

San Antonio tends to be a market that moves up constantly as such you do not get the boom busty cycles that you can get in even other Texas cities such as Dallas. The great thing about San Antonio is that while many other cities in America have experienced falls of up to 50% since 2006 the fall in San Antonio have been close to zero. The economy is strong and as such should recover a lot quicker than other cities. Once you start to build a positive portfolio there are opportunites to buy quality growth properties in the city as well.