Forex is a risk I wasn’t planning to take, hence I borrowed in usd via seller financing. Best bet is to try to source financing over there rather than rely on an aud line of credit imo. To answer your original question though I don’t know of any avenues for hedging sorry.

Three words.  United States of America (sorry thats actually 4 but you get the point!).

sonyasal wrote:
Are you even in Australia? I thought this was an Australian based forum.Do these changes have anything to do with Australian properties?

 No, but I guess thats why the OP posted in the "Overseas Deals" section…

JacM wrote:
Hi amboshAre you an Australian who invested in the US?  If so, how did you go about it?

Hi JacM.  Check through my recent posts in the overseas deals section.  I did it through alot of time on the web and a quick visit to the US midwest in Jan10.  Others offer a service to assist in the process.  CheersJosh

Info on Vacancy rates can be found here.  http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/rates/files/tab4_msa_05_09_rvr.xlsWhile it be nice to build an income stream that equals or exceeds what you can make from employment in Aust, I am yet to see others that have achieved this via investing in US property.  The only ones that seem to be making a l…[Read more]

doublekfarm wrote:
Unlike Josh, I do have a problem with some companies charging my fellow countrymen ridiculous fees to just "join" their particular site, then make statements that you can make a guaranteed return of 40% or more?

Perhaps I was being too generous with my comment.  I actually do have an issue with those operators that charge a…[Read more]

Other good sites are city-data.com (great source of info from locals), trulia for market stats/trends/last sale prices and yahoo real estate for vacancy rates in a city.  Be careful of cities with vacancy rates >around 10%.  There may be an underlying problem here. I dont use zillow as the values are severely inflated. 

Nathan_b wrote:
You can buy properties in sydney 2 bed units for $160k renting for $270pw+Houses $240k rent for $350pw.Studios aint bread and butter so would only buy a 1 bedder if i was nicking it for very very cheap.

Nathan, ill believe this when i see a link.

No.  Over the long term, the additional cost of fixed rate has proven to be not worth it.

Not sure what you mean? The stats quote local currency incomes to local prices.  Forex issues dont even factor into these comparisons.

Hi,Great question, and I think is one that needs to be asked!Browse the posts here and on some US sites.  I have learnt more from the time on http://www.biggerpockets.com (a US property investing site) than any other source.  Although I must say Real Estate Investing for Dummies (US version) was a good primer.  Ive been investing in real estate loc…[Read more]

Qlds007 wrote:
RichardClosed a deal last week for a UK Citizen / Resident in Lancs at 5.82% fixed for 30 years.  

 Richard – was this on a US property?  What state?  If you can arrange USD finance for Australian's I would be interested to hear from you.

This is a great article. I thought property was not able to increase more in oz until I saw this.  Who knows where the top is.Interesting about the US though. 

Mortgages are 320% of the avg salary in Budvar per below.  Is this sustainable (even by foreign tourism)?http://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings.jsp

I think we are due for a flatline but I doubt we will see a significant drop in Sydney as demand is too strong. Also, what do you mean about property only goes up 30% of the time?  This doesnt make sense to me thats all!

I own a block near Buffulo, NY.  Not so much dodgy, just low socio economic.  I was also looking at Cleveland, OH and noticed that the better cash flow returns were generally found in the cheaper areas.   Before I turned to the US, I was quiet keen to purchase in the Lakemba area as yields are great there.  Decided against it though as for the…[Read more]

I decided for the 3 us properties I have that for now owning them through an oz discretionary trust is more trouble than it’s worth. I’ll probly net about 5-10k per year max after repairs, deductible travel expenses, interest etc. It’s not worth setting up a trust to income split for that sort of money. If I grow my portfolio over there as is the…[Read more]

A friend of mine had the foresight to purchase a condo in Niseko (ski resort on Hokkaido) about 5 years ago.  It has increased in Yen terms (ignoring currency fluctuations) about 100% in time he has owned it.  Obviously ski resorts in an area that is increasingly more popular to foreigners is a sub market that might be seperate from the re…[Read more]

Playa Chicken wrote:
Do you think the fact that all the US states are bankrupt makes any difference to which one you invest in?

I dont have updated stats but im pretty sure that all the states arent bankrupt.  Most are facing massive shortfalls…[Read more]

RichardIt might have just been the way you posted (alot of responses in a short period of time) that caused offence.  In any event I personally like the quality of your website, fee structure, areas to invest in and overall strategy.  I also like the way you hand out free advice to people on your site without even requiring them to sign up with y…[Read more]