Forum Replies Created
Hi Ivanc
We used:
Daniel Mitchikoff, CPA, FTIA
Director, Expatriate Taxation Services Pty Ltd
Mobile 0421 058 767 (Australia)
Email [email protected]
We have 2 properties.
All done via email.
From memory it cost around $500. Cheaper in subsequent years.
All the best.
Just received information this morning that Wells Fargo are closing all of its bank accounts to those people living outside of the USA.
Something about a loss prevention strategy. In fact many accounts have already been closed.
Personally I think the information is bogus.
Googling has revealed nothing.
Has anyone else heard about this?????
Cheers
Gary
Hi YM
The Family Trust owning the LLC must submit an IRS tax return. Therefore you must have an ITIN first and foremost. A rather complex process involving the Form 2848.
Since an LLC is involved, you will then need to get an EIN (Employer Identification Number). You need this so the US Federal Govt can identify your business (LLC).
Good luck
Always consider your exit strategy.
Will it take a bigger fool than me to buy the house when I go to sell it……….
jayhinrichs wrote:OH come on. what horse crap…..
just call a spade a spade <moderator: delete personal comment>. who falls for this bunk anyways
Hi Jay
I think your summary is too harsh. Fraudsters and out and out crooks??? Nah.
At the end of the day, they claim to be a buyers agent for Australians wanting to buy properties in the USA. Which is exactly what they do. Sure their business model is flawed. I believe they know little about the properties they are offering or where they are located. I also believe they are at the mercy of the wholesalers.
A lot of their sales must come from repeat buyers. You only get repeat buyers if the first experience was acceptable.
To the original poster of this topic. I'm surprised Andrew Allan allowed you to buy property in Detroit. A cornerstone of My USA Property spiel was never to buy properties in Detroit because it was going to be a chronicly deflated market.
Again, I hope you sort that mess out and get a positive outcome.
Frank
How did you go?????
Gary
To the original poster.
Sorry about the bad deal. Hope it all works out for you.
I bought 2 properties from My USA Property.
For me, I got the feeling they simply linked me up with a wholesaler in the USA and randomly selected properties from their webiste. All questions I had were re-directed to the wholesaler. The wholesaler did all the work. The houses came with a tenant and local property managers already setup by the wholesaler. I guess that was good.
The property managers have been…………ok. Just very slow to respond to my emails. Like 3-7 days to get a response.
To be fair, My USA Property were very supportive with the first investment property and they setup my USA bank account easily.
The second one they did nothing and I got a buyers agent bill for about $3500. All communication was forwarded to the wholesaler and they responded to me directly. Money for jam.
Now I'm on the whosalers email list and regularly get properties for sale through them………….minus the buyers agent fee.Of the properties offered by My USA Property: 4 out of 5 were in really bad areas. Areas other USA forums said to avoid at all costs. Which I found very unsettling. This is where I at least found research invaluable. I'm confident the 2 I selected were in decent areas.
I refused to use the accountants linked with My USA Property. Insane prices. I think I got quoted $2,600+++ to setup LLC, get an ITIN and do my USA tax and Australian tax per year. More if I had a 2nd USA property or wanted another LLC setup.
Again, all the best and I hope you get it all sorted out.
Hi Money for Jam
"My USA Property" changed their name to "US Property Sales Australia" about 6 months ago. All the staff and processes slid across under the new banner. I think you will find the name of "My USA Property" is dissappearing, not the company.
Ironically, I bought my first US property through "My USA Property" and it was actually a positive experience.
The 2nd property was through their new name "US Property Sales Australia" which was a horrible experience.
cheers
Disappointed.
My experience.
USA Investment Properties. Formerly MY USA Property.
They are a buyers agent. They select properties in the USA that they feel are in decent areas and safe for Australians to invest in. You presume they scoure the area and select a variety of properties from different wholesalers and you do further research if you so desire. But you should be buying with confidence and have excellent phone support. They also espouse a national property manager who will oversee your local property manager and investment.
I requested that the next investment property I buy be in Kansas City.
Reality. They went to Paragon Investors (http://www.paragoninvestors.com) and pulled off the five properties they had available in Kansas City. They then adjusted the pdf brochure on the property by removing Paragon Investors emblem and replaced it with USA Investment Properties emblem. There are no other changes to the three page pdf brochure on the five properties.
All my enquires to the buyers agent were simply forwarded onto the Paragon Investors. It became a lot easier and faster to get responses directly with Paragon Investors. Paragon Investors did all the work.
At the end of it, I get a bill from USA Property Investment (Remember: formerly My USA Property) for $3,750 for their troubles.
It turns out Paragon Investors would have been more than happy to deal with me directly and bypass the buyers agent completely.
Thanks Property_scout.
I think I work too many night shifts………..
Thanks for your input into these forums.
As an aside for everyone. The A$ is moving!!!!!
I imagine this will slow down Aussies investing into the US market. It's certainly going to put a smile on my face when I start dragging the rent money back into the A$…………
I read somewhere that if pessism remains with Greece nearing default then investors will continue to buy the US$ thus driving its value up. Also likely to sell off the A$ and turn it into US$. This will speed the differential between the 2.
Of course if the Greece debt is managed well by the European Bank then investors will be less cautious. Meaning the A$ should again breech parity.
Just my thoughts.
Anyone intending on investing in properties in the USA I strongely encourage you to make the above website a part of your research. It appears excellent on the surface and if I go again, I will research this website first and bypass the buyers agent.
"apologise for ruining the secret but http://www.americanrealestateinvestments.com supply to all of the agents out here in Australia, see for yourself…"
Thanks property_scout for bringing it to our attention.
Property_scout
I agree with you and disagree with you. To put people who are time poor and lazy in the same basket is just unfair.
"I am the kind of investor who likes to do it on my own and research research research and find the best bang for your buck. I feel that going through an Aussie buyers agent has its pros if you are lazy and time poor but you pay an insane premium!"If I work 60 hours a week and look after young children at home with a wife who also works full time then I am time poor. But to be then labelled as lazy to do the proper USA investing research is just plain unfair. If you had of said "…lazy or time poor.." then I agree with your statement.
I entered the USA property market completely ignorant of the USA property situation and buying process.
I have never flipped a house.
I dont' have any friends who flip houses.
I don't have any friends who are interested in the USA market.The first USA investment property I bought through a Buyers agent, they were very suportive.
The second house I bought through them they have been next to none existant. I have since worked out that they simply go to a wholesalers webiste, select a bunch of properties and ask you to buy one. All my enquieries to the buyers agent were simply forwarded onto the wholesaler for answers. I had to be proactive or I got no information.Would I use a buyers agent for the 3rd house? Absolutely not. It simply becomes a matter of locating a wholesalers website and buying directly and thus cutting out the middle man.
The 2 houses I bought were for sale on a wholesalers website for the same price as the buyers agent offered it to me. No mark up. Both wholesalers websites refused to negotiate their prices. So I'm comfortable that I haven't overpaid for a house.
But the wholesalers fee for the 2nd house was a complete waste of money.
Hey Rick
Despite the thread "Beware My USA Property"…………………I'm using My USA Property or whatever their new name is. I guess when you create a thread asking people to air their grievences, you'll invariably get a few.
I've not had any major issues with them.
-They've made the buying process straightforward.
-They did pretty much exactly what I expected them to do.
-They always respond to my emails.
– Setting up a USA bank account was a breeze.Negative:
– Their original spiel is that they only "locate houses in good areas". So they flick me a bunch of houses to view. I then find out where they are. I then trawl through a couple of USA forums on where to buy and avoid investment properties. As expected some will strongly state to avoid certain postcodes in Kansas City. Of course most of the houses I get shown are in these postcodes or at least right next door.
– The accountants they advice you to use is insanely expensive. The quotes I got I thought to myself "I may as well just send you guys all the rent money for your fees. I wont see any of it".
– Since I refused to use their accountants I didn't fully understand the ITIN process. So I still don't have one. 7 weeks now and waiting.
– Not enough photo's of the houses for sale. As luck would have it, the first house I got was also on Zillow for sale with about 20 photos.In the end I found a house in Independence, Kansas City. There's actually a few positive comments about this neighborhood in the USA forums. And its nowhere near the areas to avoid.
I would love to go over there and do it all myself but I simply don't have the time or skill to get it right. I reckon you could save some serious bucks to go solo. Good luck to those that do.
Did you use a buyers agent for KC???
cheers
Gary
Hi RickH
An answer to your original question.
Just the one property. Almost have a second in Kansas City.
But I will stop there I think. There have been some recent tenancy issues with the first property. Promising to pay the rent then not. Then they become uncontactable. Then they claim to not have any money……………….
Stress. Not much you can do from your lounge in Australia.
Thankfully the house came with an excellent property manager who eventually managed to get the rent (13 days late). Sounds like she hounded them with phone calls, emails and house visits. Served them with a 3 day payment order or face eviction.
However I'm dreading next month when its due again.The issue will be going through the eviction process if it happens. What if the tenant decides not to pay the rent and refuses to move out? I've just been reading the literature and it can take months to get the unpaying tenant out via court order. All the time theyr'e not paying the rent and not looking after the house.
Stress.
An issue all Australian investors have to be prepared to deal with if they proceed with a USA house investment.
In another issue. I too am finding this forum frustrating and over run by spruikers. Some of their comments and input have been excellent but others are just confusing and contradictory.
Leaving me with more questions than answers.Still havn't got an ITIN number. So my property manager has withheld my rent payments (at my request) to avoid the 30% withholding tax. I was told it will take at least 6 to 8 weeks and it looks like that will be the minimum.
RickH = How many properties have you bought in the US???
cheers
Hi Jayhinrichs
Are you from The True Wholesalers Houses website at:
http://www.truewholesalehouses.com/jayhinrichs.htmlYou had me worried when above you said "..wiped out if your buying 40k an under properies in theUS.."
Maybe its the wrong Jay Hinrichs but at that website above at True Wholesalers there is a house for sale at Jackson:
Jackson, MS
– $17,500 Equity DAY 1 – Cashflow $262/Mo
Note Price $35,000Are you saying not all houses $40,000 and under are bad????
cheers
Gary
Jayhinrichs has spoken.
Interesting post.Try Andrew Kitchen at Raine & Horne McLaren Vale
[email protected]My wife did all the research and selected him to look after both our properties. He's been excellent for us.
Very switched on.Good luck.
TassieJH wrote:rlillycrop wrote:Hi TassieJHI think you will need to check with your Australian tax office what needs to be reported to the IRS because of the tax treaty situation. Generally with LLC income it is passed through to the individual(s). So with single member LLC's you are taxed like an individual and with multi-member LLC's the members are taxed like a partnership.
Appreciate the reporting needs in Australia but my original post was delving into your experiences with the Turbo tax Intuit Software and its capability to "spit out" the various secnarios – Single member LLC, Multi member LLC and IF REQUIRED any personal lodgements of the members.
At this point I believe we will only report at the EIN level for each LLC and then pass this information back to our home country taxation – and say
…Please sir I have already paid my tax to Uncle Sam….how much more do YOU want?
My wife and I do not have a U.S. ITIN and not sure if we will need it but have read elsewhere that we can apply on the basis of the LLC reporting requirements. We may as well apply now for the ITIN if we will need it later anyway….closest number we will get to the Social Security Number SSN of the US Citizens.
Link to the IRS confusion here for ITIN
Hi TassieJH
Did you end up getting an ITIN???
Your USA tax return. Did you find an appropriate accountant to assist or did you use that Turbo Tax Software??
Thanks in advance
GaryHi Stuart
Did you get your answers to your questions??
Did you go with an "expert" and if so, which one?
cheers
Gary
I was vaguely aware of the Playford Alive rejuvination project.
The Land Management Corporation has made some pretty audacious claims in the past and it seems like they are making some huge claims in this project.
Yes, lots of promises but I'm not convinced.
My cousin lives in Davoren Park. Chronically unemployed. 7 kids. Can't move out because he can't get a house anywhere else. And I've heard some horror stories from them.
I just feel with a flat market. A very tight State Budget because there's no money……apparently. Big spending cuts. Flood levy. An unknown Carbon Tax. De-salination plant that will hit the state economy hard. Expect water bills to go up by about 50%. Huge increase in electricity bills starting July 1. Mortgage belt under extreme pressure.On a positive note, state unemployment is low. Potential mining boom (Roxby Downs) gives a sense of optimism (if it goes ahead. Japan presents negative press re: uranium and power plants). Population slowing increasing. Very tight rental market. Agriculture will always be strong for the state.
Personally I'm starting to look at Brisbane. Logan Central area. Looks like some decent houses for around $250,000 and renting out for $300/week or thereabouts. That way everytime you visit the Gold Coast you can claim your trip on your tax!!! Early days in my research though. Also a fairly low socio-economic area I'm reading.
Final comment. If the Davoren Park area triples in value over the next 10 years due to the Playford Rejunination Project then its egg in my face. All the best with your decision making.
