Buying property in USA non-US resident

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Hi all,
We recently purchased two properties in Florida one for 20K and the other for 30K have had to spend 3 K to get them up to scratch but they are both in great nick .In Florida the stove and washing machine and dryer come with the rental so have had to purchase them. I bought the properties through a LLC which we set up there for ($800 A)and have made contact with a lawyer and accountant for contract and tax return advice. You really need good people on the ground over there who can give you an understanding of how things work. We also set up a bank account in USA but their banking is very different from here!!! Have an offer in on a short sale for a 3 bdrm house in top condition ( needs A/C ) for $30K waiting for the reply at present. You cant buy anything here for that price . We are doing this on a trial basis at the moment to see how it all goes . Whilst over there i did meet people who were paying off morgages of 500K on property worth 300K , they have done it hard and continue to do so .Hope this helps
cheers Jude

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Judepaul said:

Hi all,
We recently purchased two properties in Florida one for 20K and the other for 30K have had to spend 3 K to get them up to scratch but they are both in great nick .In Florida the stove and washing machine and dryer come with the rental so have had to purchase them. I bought the properties through a LLC which we set up there for ($800 A)and have made contact with a lawyer and accountant for contract and tax return advice. You really need good people on the ground over there who can give you an understanding of how things work. We also set up a bank account in USA but their banking is very different from here!!! Have an offer in on a short sale for a 3 bdrm house in top condition ( needs A/C ) for $30K waiting for the reply at present. You cant buy anything here for that price . We are doing this on a trial basis at the moment to see how it all goes . Whilst over there i did meet people who were paying off morgages of 500K on property worth 300K , they have done it hard and continue to do so .Hope this helps
cheers Jude

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I am interested to see what kind of properties $30K can buy you in Florida. Do you have a link to some photos (of what you bought or similar)?

BTW, are you leaving your property vacant or rented out? If you can't find tenants, would you consider letting someone live in it for free or some nominal amount? Obviously to some decent folks who's fallen on hard times, but hopefully the act will help them get back on their feet as well as help with the upkeep of your property?

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Dollar Property Investments - DPI

Just a warning for investors looking into the US market.

I have recently deat with a UK company called Dollar Property Investments. There are sourcing and selling cheap properties in ROchester, Buffalo and Detroit. With the prices you pay do not expect perfection. The house I recently purchaed was advertised as above standard, nothing needed to be done. Counds like a good buy. Untill the city wanted to inspect it due to the sale. I received 35 violations and it cost around $5k to fix it all. This house was inspected and clasified as excelant. I would be very cautious dealing with Martin from DPI. All talk and will not back up his statements.
.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

I am not an expert in this field, as some here seem to be, and so I address them with my query.
I noted that a Bill was passed shortly after the GFC which from my reading would made it very difficult to take money out of the US...without paying exorbitant taxes....
Has anyone actually made a profit, sold the property and moved funds back to AU? ...
Making money on selling property to Aussies could be lucrative but how easy is it to realise the gains?
I could be off track ..but would also want to know the tax implications and any hurdles to bringing home anticipated gains before buying up the bargains.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Aussiejohn, did you use Buyers Agents or went alone?
I am also thinking of giving it a go at US, heard about myUSAproperty agents, also cashflowgold from Detroit (Detroit sounds scary tho). Michael and Bronwyn from Atlanta seem great but their properties recently around $70K. I would very much appreciate advice, thank you
shanti

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Judepaul said:

Hi all,
We recently purchased two properties in Florida one for 20K and the other for 30K have had to spend 3 K to get them up to scratch but they are both in great nick .In Florida the stove and washing machine and dryer come with the rental so have had to purchase them. I bought the properties through a LLC which we set up there for ($800 A)and have made contact with a lawyer and accountant for contract and tax return advice. You really need good people on the ground over there who can give you an understanding of how things work. We also set up a bank account in USA but their banking is very different from here!!! Have an offer in on a short sale for a 3 bdrm house in top condition ( needs A/C ) for $30K waiting for the reply at present. You cant buy anything here for that price . We are doing this on a trial basis at the moment to see how it all goes . Whilst over there i did meet people who were paying off morgages of 500K on property worth 300K , they have done it hard and continue to do so .Hope this helps
cheers Jude

Click to expand...

Hi Jude,

Thank you for your post.

My partner and I are heasing over to Miami in March 2011, and we need to get incontatc we a good lawyer and accountant as soon as possible. As we need to do the necessary such as open an LLC, open a bank account etc etc.

With your experience and contacts, can you please advice us of some details for the appropiate professionals such as accountants and lawyers you can recommend?

Thank you in advance!

Zita

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

If anyone is looking at buying property o/s feel free to contact me and i can help with the FX side of things at much better rates than the bank.

Thanks

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

skc said:

I am interested to see what kind of properties $30K can buy you in Florida. Do you have a link to some photos (of what you bought or similar)?

BTW, are you leaving your property vacant or rented out? If you can't find tenants, would you consider letting someone live in it for free or some nominal amount? Obviously to some decent folks who's fallen on hard times, but hopefully the act will help them get back on their feet as well as help with the upkeep of your property?

Click to expand...

I would be also interested to see what you bought for these prices! That seems to be really cheap. I have been looking into properties in Florida last year, and they have been usually over $50K but also what made it really hard to cashflow was the expensive property insurance (due to the hurricanes etc.).
In the end I found pretty cool blog of a guy who bought a property in USA:
www.buyingpropertyinusa.net and even though he doesn't provide any services, I actually liked his ideas and bought a condo in Las Vegas, NV for little less than $40K. I got a property manager and rented it and so far it's going well! I am thinking now about buying another property this year..

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Judepaul said:

Hi all,
We recently purchased two properties in Florida one for 20K and the other for 30K have had to spend 3 K to get them up to scratch but they are both in great nick .In Florida the stove and washing machine and dryer come with the rental so have had to purchase them. I bought the properties through a LLC which we set up there for ($800 A)and have made contact with a lawyer and accountant for contract and tax return advice. You really need good people on the ground over there who can give you an understanding of how things work. We also set up a bank account in USA but their banking is very different from here!!! Have an offer in on a short sale for a 3 bdrm house in top condition ( needs A/C ) for $30K waiting for the reply at present. You cant buy anything here for that price . We are doing this on a trial basis at the moment to see how it all goes . Whilst over there i did meet people who were paying off morgages of 500K on property worth 300K , they have done it hard and continue to do so .Hope this helps
cheers Jude

Click to expand...

We looked at this two years ago, alls well until you try to take the money out of the USA, the tax was going to to be massive on the profit, don't bring it back here as you will be taxed here as well. When its to good to be true, you know the rest of the story.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

I'm tossing-up the idea of buying property as well..

I recently got a package at work and have about $25K left on my mortgage..

I rang the bank recently about how much they'd lend mebased on my income and say renting out a property at around $1200 per month and I'd get close to $500,000

Anyway, I'm looking at purchasing in Texas, properties are quite well priced and based on their commodities seem like a reasonable part of America to receive growth, not unlike Australia..

Just a few questions:

1. What are their taxes like, $10grand a year is quite alot, are these tax deductible?
2. How does resale work on the investment, I guess they tax you to the eyeball on their capital gains taxese and whatnot?

I mean people say I should just buy an investment property here in Melbourne, but I'm only looking to spend about $400K and all you can buy with that is some shoebox in Croydon, where in somewhere like Dallas you can get a 3-4 bedroom HOME close to city centre in a more blue chip type area.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Anyone who is buying property in the US, or overseas, should PM me for details with regards to remitting the funds overseas as i can help get a much better exchange rate than what the bank will offer

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

I have just done a considerable amount of research on US markets and I would be careful in buying in areas like Arizona, Le Vagas, Texas ect. These areas are still depreciating. Miami has a forecast of 25% further depreciation.

I found a good web site from a company in Sydney that shows that Memphis TN and Cleveland OH are appreciating now. Memphis has a forecast of 24% by 2014.

You can find the stats on www.usprime.com.au

They dont charge you thousands in fees the way the other outfits do either

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

No one seems to talk about NY...I saw an apartment online near Columbia uni and looked quite close to manhattan on the map for around 500k for 3 br...I thought that's quite reasonable compare to Sydney where you only get 1 br for that price...

How much can you rent out a property like that for in US? How much would the fees and charges be annually?

I'm also interested in going over in April 2011 to inspect.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

What's with the influx of one time posters?

Anyway - people need to look at the company names - don't they make you raise an eyebrow?

Ahh well - maybe it's just me...

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

prawn_86 said:

If anyone is looking at buying property o/s feel free to contact me and i can help with the FX side of things at much better rates than the bank.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi there;

Can you please contact me Re: FX rates - zitaflorence@gmail.com

Thanks!

Just make sure you take out title insurance and this will cover this concern.

roland said:

I watched a program "the other day" that advised of looming problems with titleship validity due to possible not quite so legal repossessions due to non payment of loans.

Might be worth checking into this issue as well.

Click to expand...

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Just make sure you take out title insurance and this will overcome this concern.
US property market is HOT right now and there are some excellent opportunities in the Atlanta area.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Any reason why USA there are a lot of other countries which can sell you a cheap house and land.. Here you can buy a 3 bd house and land for 50K AUD.
If you are looking for a cheap USA house wait until the market bottoms,
If you want a house as security so you can leave OZ and still Western life style do some looking around in S. America.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

Hi All,

I recently purchased a property in the US (Orlando, Florida) after 3 visits to the states. Don't consider buying online, it's nothing like the photos. Neighbourhood is all important too. We found someone on the ground that we could trust. She does it all as she lives nearby. The neighbourhood is SouthChase and go through Venture Realty. I don't have any commercial relationship with them, just sharing my experience.

Was rented immediately. Don't pay for anything. The seller pays. The agents and realtors happy to drive you around. You can bargain on short sales even though everything looks rock bottom. You need inspection reports but be wary as the majority just tick boxes on a form without really investigating.There are some traps around but the above neighbourhood is great value (mainly upper level hispanic families). Stay away from Meadow Woods.

Good luck people, this is a great investment if you have SMSF. And nearby Disney, Universal and Sea World are just some of the things that will keep the local community going strong.

all the best,
GH.

Re: Buying property in USA non US resident

I would respond by saying that it is relatively easy to buy property in the US. You don’t need to be American, nor do you really need to travel there. But what you do need is a good Broker/Realtor located in the US that represents you.

I am an Australian, living and working in the US and am a licensed Broker and Realtor. I am also a member of the Realtor Association, and as such, am held to a very high ethical standard. I cannot buy property for myself and immediately flip it to an unsuspecting Aussie buyer at a higher price. What I can do is find the best possible properties (in good areas) where there is strong rental demand (usually driven by good school districts). I review the properties, take HD quality video of the properties and post to YouTube. Then I work with the buyer to craft an offer and take the whole process through the due diligence phase through to contract closing. After the property closes we then hand the property over to a reputable management company to run no the buyer’s behalf with proper financial accounting. All of this is done for the buyer via email/phone and video conferencing via Skype. My commission comes out of the seller’s proceeds from the sale, so there is no cost to the buyer, for me to fully represent them in the transaction.

There are many positives to investing in the US property market. The first and foremost is the exchange rate between Australia and the US. The buying power of this alone is phenomenal and continues to remain strong. We are also seeing increasing rental demand (and therefore rising rental rates), which is hardly surprising with the number of properties going through short sales and foreclosures.

US markets are very localized in nature and cannot be considered as a whole. For example, properties in the outlying suburbs of Washington DC never dropped in price and continue to see strong demand and high prices. Some markets in Florida, Nevada and Texas remain decimated and will do so for a very long time, as there are few external forces helping those markets. These markets would be well to steer clear of. Then there are some markets that did not have the crazy run up in prices around 2006 and remained relatively stable. These markets have good local employment (from a variety of industries), reasonable property prices and great work/life balances - as a result, we are seeing strong increases in population growth (American’s move frequently!) and increasing rental demand.