All Topics / Overseas Deals / Anyone Used USInvest ? Looking at buying US propety through them

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  • Profile photo of USInvestUSInvest
    Member
    @usinvest
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 2

    Zmagen, thanks for your response. Let me quickly point out, you have your business which it appears to be distinctly different from USInvest. You charge your fee’s however you like, and it gives me no place to criticise your legitimacy. Conversely, our investors have the choice to pay for our services of which provide great value to our members.

    We are are not Spruikers by any stretch of the imagination, We are a company of more than 70 staff and contractors in business for 5 years. We have a good reputation and do right by our customers so I would appreciate terms such as the above to be left out of these discussions.

    You asked for a description of what it is we provide for our members. If you don’t see value in that, or if it differs from the product you offer in Japan, that is your opinion and I respect that.

    USInvest membership includes the following:

    • A free consultation with our in-house CPA. Our CPA has been an expert in this field for many years. If your familiar with what an expert accountant bills for their time, you will know that this offers a tremendous amount of value to our members at no extra cost.

    • A free consultation with our in-house Attorney. The right legal advice is essential. Australian’s can of course invest in America without this advice, however we see that as irresponsible practise. Although it may save a few dollars, investing without the right legal advice is something we leave for the ‘spruikers’ you spoke about earlier. Again this value speaks for itself. Our in-house attorney was the Principle at her own law firm in New York City, before we secured her services to work for USInvest full-time. We also offer ongoing advice to our members, but always insist they seek independent advice.

    • A 4 week educational course teaching members about our operation, where we invest as well as our due diligence process for every property we bring on board.

    • Assistance in setting up our members LLC to create the right corporate veil and safe-guard our members for the long term.

    • In-house US certified agents and brokerage assistance as well as liaising with our partner entities to arrange for bank finance. Anyone familiar with the US market knows that having real finance available for our clients is worth its weight in gold and is something we couldn’t have done without the experience of our very qualified team of ground staff here in America. USInvest, however does not offer in-house finance or financial advice.

    • US Bank Account set-up to collect rents, make payments etc

    • Property management assistance: We operate as a one stop shop for our members when it comes to any issues that may appear. If our clients have an issue with their property, we provide the ongoing assistance between client and property manager to ensure the issue is resolved. Why don’t we offer management? Because this is not our area of expertise and our experience allows us to recommend only the best property managers and systems to our members. Again, being in the international real estate investment industry, I’m sure you know the value of quality management and round-the-clock assistance.

    · In-house Economic Analysts: The economic research we do is paramount to the future of an investment. We research all areas of our investments form property to income ratios, demographics, rental demand, housing elasticity and inelasticity, the permitting of each town etc. In America every state carries its own set of regulations, and within that state every city has its own regulations and within the city each municipality has its own regulations. Providing quality analysis is a vital part of our business and something that really does set us apart from our smaller, less resourced competition. We employ some of the brightest minds in America for this department, helped largely by our head office location in Princeton, NJ. The majority of our research team are graduates of the prestigious Princeton University. Princeton is the top academic school in America. It’s part of the “Big 3” being Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Princeton has been the number 1 school 9 of the last 10 years. Our head of the economics department graduated with a BA in Economics from Princeton and declined offers from Goldman Sachs and Meryl Lynch to join our company. Our team knows this market better than anyone in Australia and most likely America. Our quality research and due diligence process is something we pride ourselves greatly on and puts us light years ahead of our competition.

    • Lastly all the properties that we acquire are exclusively for our members. The majority of our team is in research and analysis and our members are thankful that they have exclusive access to the hard work that is invested into acquiring only the best properties in the areas we operate.

    Zmagen, I’m sure you can see the value offered here, as well as the relevant costs associated, of which I can assure you equate to more than $995. Of course you are welcome to your opinion and if you don’t see value in our business, that opinion is yours to hold.

    I do hope this gives you, and other readers a broader view of the company behind USInvest. We are a very proud company and value the success of our members as the future of our business.
    Again, should you wish to contact our team correctly, please feel free to contact me directly or feel free to visit our website.

    Zmagen, I wish you and all the readers of this thread all the best in your future investment endeavours.

    Profile photo of speedy gonzalesspeedy gonzales
    Member
    @speedy-gonzales
    Join Date: 2010
    Post Count: 149

    Ryan of US Invest,

    Thanks for your input. As I said in my posting …..I wasn't suggesting that the person Andrew Mallone had anything at all to do with your company….just seemed a point of interest when I looked up the address your website quoted as it's US address since a few earlier posters suggested how important it was you guys had a US office.
    Great your updating your website…..any chance your example properties could disclose the full street and suburb address while your doing some updates ?
    Plus I don't see it as a conflict of interest with you coming onto the forum. If you can contribute legitimate information without directly selling it would be acceptable.

    Profile photo of florraflorra
    Participant
    @florra
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 5

    Ryan,

    Thank you for taking the time to respond on this forum. It was my intention to be a little provocative to smoke the bear from the woods and generate some discussion about your business. There is very little written publicly about the bona fides of your organisation. You may find that by being more visible your business may benefit greatly. It would be tremendous to hear some unsolicited praise from some of your members but to date it has been nearly non existent.

    Hats off to you for at least engaging in the discussion on this forum.

    Profile photo of Luke BLuke B
    Member
    @luke-b
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 10

    Ryan,

    I’ve looked into US Invest as an option previously. Despite being an initially extremely attractive option, the fact that I am utterly unable to independently verify the house you are selling means it is simply a no go. I’m putting a lot of cash at risk here, in a foreign country to boot.

    All that value you describe as being part of the $995 initial fee sounds great, really. I’d love all that stuff to be sorted.
    However, given that there is no way of knowing what I’m getting myself into without ponying up a thousand backs, I just can’t go ahead. For all that I know you’re relying on people who know little and adding significantly to the house price before selling it on to them.

    All this secret squirrel exclusivity business is honestly off putting, everyone else I’ve looked into has been pretty easy to do cursory evaluations on. Sold house are on their web site and their sale prices verifiable on Zillow.

    I’d love for you guys to be on the level, especially considering the financing options you recently advertised.
    But you need to prove it.

    Profile photo of Joel.MacdonaldJoel.Macdonald
    Member
    @joel.macdonald
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 52

    Not too sure if I agree with companies charging membership fees I’m sorry.

    Charging an upfront fee for information and services that are easily obtainable on other websites are probably not a good idea to pay for if you are the consumer looking for true value.

    Profile photo of Alex SCAlex SC
    Participant
    @alex-sc
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 585
    AREIJoel wrote:
    Not too sure if I agree with companies charging membership fees I'm sorry. Charging an upfront fee for information and services that are easily obtainable on other websites are probably not a good idea to pay for if you are the consumer looking for true value.

    Here in the USA only know of one guy who charges up front fees and most people run from him.
    '
    Charging up front fees is not some thing I ever saw in the USA. Not until our company started working with international clients did we see people charging for information that is online. Then again we pay 6 % commission for a realtor to sell our homes. This is the norm, with out most people complaining. I can see both sides marketing and expense cost.

    Starting to understand things more from the international reseller as I speak to more and more of the Australian resellers.

    Profile photo of jayhinrichsjayhinrichs
    Participant
    @jayhinrichs
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 1,177

    Alex,

    IHG,, Nick Vertucci who is hooked up with Armando Montolongo charges up front fees.

    And of course there is all the Seminar Gurus that sell boot camps and a total elevator pitch of products.

    I have funded deals for these so called students that have literally paid for the price of a home with these Guru's before they even bought a home.. .In many cases 20 to 40k in one on one mentor fee's etc. plus books tapes etc.

    I know we all got started with Carlton Sheets or David Del Dotto.. And those 200 to 500 dollar course got a lot of guys started in the right direction.

    Now this taking it to an extreme with charging thousands upon thousands its become a huge billion dollar industry run by marketing firms out of Utah…

    I have been to a few of them and visited their campus's   literally 100 Mentors in a boiler room situation trying to help their students buy houses… Success rate for student is very low… Money to the Guru and mentors is astronomical…

    I am sure you know all this as well.

    Profile photo of Alex SCAlex SC
    Participant
    @alex-sc
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 585
    jayhinrichs wrote:
    Alex,

    IHG,, Nick Vertucci who is hooked up with Armando Montolongo charges up front fees.

    And of course there is all the Seminar Gurus that sell boot camps and a total elevator pitch of products.

    I have funded deals for these so called students that have literally paid for the price of a home with these Guru's before they even bought a home.. .In many cases 20 to 40k in one on one mentor fee's etc. plus books tapes etc.

    I know we all got started with Carlton Sheets or David Del Dotto.. And those 200 to 500 dollar course got a lot of guys started in the right direction.

    Now this taking it to an extreme with charging thousands upon thousands its become a huge billion dollar industry run by marketing firms out of Utah…

    I have been to a few of them and visited their campus's   literally 100 Mentors in a boiler room situation trying to help their students buy houses… Success rate for student is very low… Money to the Guru and mentors is astronomical…

    I am sure you know all this as well.

    LOL that's the guy heard his name on one of my tours of Cali .This is only American that charges up front fees that I know of. Pretty much unheard of this in the states. Most people tell you where to go and how to get their. Again learning from the international buyer- and reseller about the different ways we do things.

    Talk soon

    Profile photo of jayhinrichsjayhinrichs
    Participant
    @jayhinrichs
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 1,177
    Alex SC wrote:
    First time I have ever heard of them on this forum. Curious do they charge you a fee to see the properties upfront.

    Alex

    I know Ried,,, by and large they deal in 80 to 120k properties around Miami..

    Not sure why any Princton grad's would be working in SFR type turn key bizz,,,, seems a little out of place.

    Just curious is all I guess.

    Profile photo of USInvestUSInvest
    Member
    @usinvest
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 2

    Hi formites, I was alerted to this post by one of our potential clients and whilst US Invest does not like to get involved in forum discussions (due to an obvious conflict of interest), I wanted to answer a few of the questions floating around on this post. I am one of the Managing Members of USInvest and I currently occupy the property at 2650 SE 7th dr. Pompano Beach, FL 33062. The owner of this property is a gentleman by the name of Craig Chown. Being in the Real Estate business, we are always looking for ways that we can buy distressed Real Estate for less than market value. This deal was brought to me about a year ago and we occupied the property based on the premise that US Invest may in fact one day acquire the foreclosure either for ourselves or one of our clients. Prior to me taking over the property, there was a tenant by the name of Anthony Mellone living in the property who hadn’t paid rent for over a year. Having been in the industry for several years, and a well known property investment coach in America, the owner of the property approached me to see if I could help him remove the tenant and negotiate a deal with the bank to purchase the property. Whilst we did not have to go through with the formal eviction, the aforementioned tenant was removed and US Invest began to negotiate a short sale whereby we would negotiate on the borrowers behalf to purchase the property for less than what was owed on the mortgage. Public records are widely available in the US and I must congratulate you Speedy Gonzalez on your detective work on this subject! It must be made clear, however, that I personally have never had personal contact with the previous tenant and neither has USInvest. The house was in Foreclosure when I was approached to enter discussions with the bank and, like many properties in foreclosure, this property did have an unsavory tenant. I hope this clears things up a bit as to the address discrepancy that has been brought up. The American head office of US Invest is not in Florida. Its actually located at 600 Alexander Rd, Princeton, NJ. We have a 7,000 Sqft. Office in Princeton that houses our Sales, Marketing, Administration and Economic Research Team. We have an office in Florida for our Acquisitions Team as its very accessible to our current markets. This is a nice home on the water, but is internally fitted out as a working office. We have 6 Acquisition officer’s working and living from that location. This offers us a huge advantage to make sure proper research is done. Nearly every night you will find multiple Acquisition staff burning the mid-night oil on our due-diligence procedures. To act in the most professional manner possible I do not intend to self-promote US Invest in any way in this forum, but I will answer all comments thus far. I am not aware of any posts ever made by our staff or clients and should you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to contact me directly. And to lastly answer the recent posts. Florra, We are sorry we could not do enough on our end to win your business. That is regrettable on our part. Please also be aware we do not guarantee any returns whatsoever. Yes we do sell property with active tenants paying a monthly amount so it is a very low risk investment, however all investments carry risk. 12-16% is definitely achievable and we have members experience these returns year on year. But we also have property in the 9-11% region too. We are realistic with what is achievable and we have a very good reputation in the market. Were not out there promoting 20-30% returns from areas such as Detroit or Vegas, because we have been in this business since 2007 and have kept a good reputation because we do things the right way. We offer quality investments in areas that will actually come back to pre GFC levels and surpass them. The fact that we have been around for 5 years and you have not found anything bad regarding our company is hopefully taken as a good sign. Zmagen, Your post had some good humor to it. I would like to point out, though, that our membership encompasses a lot more then access to our website to see what properties we have to sell. We give away quite a bit more then that, and our membership is also fully refundable. We do not make money from people becoming members; we make money from selling quality investment properties. I will try to explain our membership strategy because I see you are also in a similar business Selling Japanese property to Australian’s. I commend your approach to selling property, but this is not our current model. To begin to explain our model, let me point out that we spend quite a bit of time and money researching the right markets. We have two full-time research teams. One team researches the State, City and Town we look for property in and the other team researches the viability of the homes in the chosen “hot spots”. Our team is headed up by Reid Stewart in our Florida location. Reid is one of the foremost experts in US Property Acquisition. Reid’s team look through thousands of foreclosures a week in our chosen "hot spots" to bring to market what we believe to be the absolute best property investments around. All our homes are fully renovated and tenanted, so a full turn key service. During the renovation process we always replace the basics like carpet, paint, tiles etc. We also give new bathrooms, kitchens and appliances in most cases. We then replace everything that’s older then 5 years. So for instance a boiler with a 20 year shelf life we will replace if it’s over 5 years old, same goes for the A/C etc. We do this to ensure our members see real returns and not pipe dreams. Last thing we want is a member buying a property rented out with 12% net return, but after 9 months the HVAC goes bust and they need to shell out money to replace. This therefore is not a 12% return, and could end up becoming a negatively geared property like the majority of what’s on offer in Aus. We take massive pride in the service we offer, and repeat business is the foundation to our success. So to quickly explain why we charge a membership. As some of you may know there is a lot of work involved with getting an overseas client ready to purchase in America. They must fully understand the tax implications with not only the IRS, but also the ATO, they must be properly structured with the right corporate veil to protect themselves from what we all know to be a highly litigious nation. On top of all that our members want finance, which is not a clear-cut scenario when America runs on the FICO score system and Australians don’t have credit here. So we have a lot of work to do to make our members acceptable to the US banks that we have partnered up with. There is a lot more we do long before a person can buy a property in America with us. Anyway to cut a long story short and to try and keep this post from going on forever, a few years back we never charged a membership fee, much like your model now zmagen. Because of this we experienced a lot of window shoppers that were not serious investors and wasted a lot of our time. We move a lot of property on a weekly basis and can only give our full-undivided attention to people who are ready to buy property in America. $995 is a drop in the ocean when you are about to spend $40,000- $150,000 on a property. For what our members get, this amount is insignificant to them, and if some of you reading this are thinking that its not an insignificant amount to you, please rest assured that it is fully refundable. We also ALWAYS refunded back the $995 on the first purchase of a home with us. Were not in the business of trying to make a living off a refundable $995 membership fee. Its purely a deposit on future business. The membership strategy has been very successful for our company and our members and we make no apologies about it. Things stay exclusive for our members and when our weekly properties come to market, our members have a very real opportunity of getting exactly what they want without those properties being available to any guy with an internet connection (no disrespect to your current model zmagen). And on the flip side it benefits us, because we only deal with the right people who are ready to build their property portfolios. It’s a win-win. Thank you all for reading this lengthy post. We do not wish to enter into a debate with anyone and respect all your views and comments. Our company does not want to market itself on public forums, but we had to answer the current questions, I hope you can all appreciate our standing. I would like to apologies for the current standing of our website. It is currently going through some much needed changes, as we have grown from 30 staff to over 70 staff in the last 9 months, so “our team” and “the contact us” will be getting updated this week as will some other aesthetics, so please bear with us. The website should be updated before the end of this week were told. Should you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected] and I would be happy to discuss this with you in person. Humble Regards, Ryan

    Profile photo of Explorer74Explorer74
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    @explorer74
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 1

    I must admit that I also did the research on US Invest address in Florida and that also found the link regarding Anthony Mellone, which worried me a LOT at the time.  I was surprised (and glad) to read today that someone else had raised the address issue and I also read the answer from US Invest regarding this matter, which is satisfactory I guess. However, Following my finding, few weeks later,  one of US Invest employee attempted to become my friend both through Facebook and Google +. I found this practice even more worrying and unethical. I am just about worried about all the smooth talk and that social media back door approach but that's probably their vision of a successful bullish marketing policy. That's my feedback for my very short experience with them.

    Profile photo of speedy gonzalesspeedy gonzales
    Member
    @speedy-gonzales
    Join Date: 2010
    Post Count: 149

    Explorer74

    There is another thread titled "US Invest" on this forum. I questioned them about the Princeton address they also list. I find it extraordinary that they got creative and did some cutting & pasting and showed the office building they supposedly operate out of with US Invest signage. When I questioned this the reply was that "well the signage doesn't actually exist but we are getting one made up" How convenient !!

    Profile photo of trublutrublu
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    @trublu
    Join Date: 2013
    Post Count: 2

    Yes, I have spent time in two of the locations they sell in. At one time the areas used to be middle class african american neighborhoods. That's why the houses look alright in photos. Do a drive by in google. The manufacturing and industry jobs have left and there is a huge sucking hole in these suburbs which will not heal.

    Unreliable renters are all that is left, in addition, they are quite segmented in these cities, so other ethnic groups will not rent in entirely african american suburbs.

    1 surefire scam alert is how they are marketing the opportunity to obtain a visa for your entire family "to live the American Dream" if you buy a home through them, invest $500,000 in a company "they manage" and then live in the "hood".

    The sad thing is that this is an AUSSIE company that is selling houses to unsuspecting AUSSIE investors. They do everything so you cannot sue them. Eventually, to sell in these suburbs, it will take ages. DO NOT RECOMMEND.

    http://www.usinvest.com/US-Immigration-Investments.html

    Profile photo of trublutrublu
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    @trublu
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    I thought the signage looked photoshopped!

    Profile photo of FacilitatorFacilitator
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    @facilitator
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 14

    I have to laugh really as US Invest pass themselves off as selling at market property. I now work with two ex-employees  of US invest and they left as the property they were selling are 2nd or even third hand bought. In other words US Invest buy from other firms that buy at auction or as your should direct from sellers either private or banks.

    The areas too are questionable: Tennessee, Kansas City….horrible high crime and negative property growth and near zero job/population growth.

    Potential buyers look at these two links before you buy anything and check previous sale history through

    zillow.com or trulia.com

    http://www.deptofnumbers.com/employment/metros/

    http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/reports/6259772/

    2012 job growth

    Texas

    California

    NY

    This will support rental rate growth and property price growth, Georgia still offers some growth potential but every man and his dog are buying there incl Bank of China and Blackstone hedge funds. Florida, Nevada and arizona have bounced off the bottom just like the share market post GFC. They all have poor job growth and high unemployment.

    recent US economic and employment data has been mixed, these areas will be the first to drop as there is no job growth to support prices.

    Do your home work folks and dont buy from turnkey operators. If your not buying from a bank or private seller rule of thumb….dont buy

    Mark

    Profile photo of Nigel KibelNigel Kibel
    Participant
    @nigel-kibel
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 1,425

    I have to agree with Marks comments. Only deal with companies that deal direct with the owners. At least that way you know exactly what you are getting.

    It has been my experience that so called wholesalers rarely provide good deals.

    Nigel Kibel | Property Know How
    http://propertyknowhow.com.au
    Email Me | Phone Me

    We have just launched a new website join our membership today

    Profile photo of speedy gonzalesspeedy gonzales
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    @speedy-gonzales
    Join Date: 2010
    Post Count: 149

    I'd love to participate in this discussion guys but past experience tells me that Ryan from US Invest will jump onto the forum and he & I will get into a heated debate about how they rip off ALL there clients. Then the forum moderators end up deleting the posts which is to the detriment of all those on the forum.

    Get it through your heads…..all that US Invest is…is a huge marketing machine. They don't have your interests at heart despite all their marketing materials.

    Mark from uspropertyfacilitators……don't 100% agree with your statement to stay away from all turnkey operators. Sure there are some out there that are rip off's but it's a but unfair to paint them all with the same brush…..some honest operators do exist.

    Profile photo of FacilitatorFacilitator
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    @facilitator
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 14

    Yes agreed, there are a few. Not many though. The trouble is transparency of cost price they paid and rehab actual costs. 

    How can you really assess both these.

    even price records on zillow are wrong or slow to update.

    so how can people really know cost base. 

    If it is over valued then lending becomes impossible from us banks

    Profile photo of Joel.MacdonaldJoel.Macdonald
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    @joel.macdonald
    Join Date: 2012
    Post Count: 52

    I have to agree and disagree with some of the comments on here. turnkey vs foreclosure, as long as the turnkey operator is the entity that owns the poperty. Too many middle men wont make any type of deal stack up.

    The investor needs to ask themselves what they are chasing.

    If you are chasing rock bottom foreclosure prices and are happy to wait for the rehab turnaround and tenancy placement with the possibility that rent or rehab come in under or higher than expected then, then this way of investing might be a bit daunting to some investors. You will get better deals doing it this way, so there are some pro's and cons for this strategy.

    On the other hand I have dealt with many investors who want the turnkey solution, (time poor people who want a an easy investing solution from day 1). You will pay slightly higher premium for this solution but it can be effective providing the turnkey operator owns the home and isn't just a marketing machine selling some else's product.  

    We have had investors who get appraisals done on these turnkey homes and still get into them lower than the appraisal value. Some have also taken out loans and the lender has valued the home higher than the purchase price.

    As long as you cover all bases before 100% committing to the deal, you should do ok whether it is turnkey or foreclosure

    Profile photo of Professionals Invest USAProfessionals Invest USA
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    @professionals-invest-usa
    Join Date: 2013
    Post Count: 7

    I agree with Joel. There is no right or wrong. Buying wholesale through MLS listings means the investor has to find the contractors to do the estimates and then running risks that there could be cost overruns. Then finding tenants and property managers etc…if there are delays it eats into the return. Don't get me wrong…it can be done if you have the right contacts….I have a realtor that I deal with myself and when her contractors do an estimate…if there are cost overruns then they wear it at their cost. But the odds of everyone having that same sort of deal is pretty rare. Like Joel I have had plenty of clients who had a choice and chose the turnkey path where they wanted it all done. Couldn't agree with Joel more about the turnkey company actually being the owner and as long as it's a transparent transaction you will do quite well. There's also the argument that the best deals don't make it to the MLS anyway.

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