Hi Steve,

There is an international airport 15 mins drive in Melbourne, however the "international" flights are limited, however Orlando Airport is just 45 mins drive from my house.

My EB5 was  as a partner with american life in seattle, who invest in commercial property in areas which have beeny ring fenced for investment, unfortunately you cant do this yourself, you have to join the scheme as a limited partner. I believe there are ways to get an EB5 as an individual but instead of $500k you would have to prove an investment of 1 million. I think the schemes are great for individuals who have income elsewhere and just want there green card without having to buy a Business etc… the investments themselves are poor with very little cash flow. In a way you are paying a premium for property to get your green card.

Gary

Hi Steve,

Each time I travel over to Florida for any length of time I renew my FLdriving licence, but they only renew it for three months at a time as I travel on the visa waiver program. I have a car and a pick up here which are both insured with Geico. I always go to Driving Licence offices in person and have never had a problem getting a licence.
 
I also believe each state has their own driving licence, so if FL wont let you take a test, maybe travel to Georgia?

I am currently in Atlanta closing on two REO, I understand your frustrations, the two I am closing on I first looked at 6 weeks ago. 

Don't lose too much sleep if you don't purchase a Property for yourself to live in, I purchased a "holiday home" north of Miami in a place called Melbourne Beach. I purchased it in 2004, and if you total the amount of time myself and my family have stayed there it only amounts to a few months. So financially speaking its just been a liability. On the other hand the properties that I purchased as investments in FL have been paying a monthly for years with only a couple of months vacant.

My advise would be to use your cash on SFH, away from the coast (my place got hit by three hurricans in 2005) these purchases will be great experience, pay the rents in to the bank in Miami which you think you would have a chance of getting a mortgage for your beachfront condo.

In six months you could buy four or five SFH with your 250K earning you $5,000 a month gross

There is a British expat  forum that has been a great help to me over the years,  members are very friendly and would be happy to help you with any day to day issues in Florida, e.g driving licences! Most members are fellow brits who have moved to the sunshine state, can't for the life of me think why they would do such a thing

http://www.thefloridaforums.com/forum/index.php

I love your posts, I log on most days to see what you are up to.

Gary

Steve,

Working with the banks to get financing as a non resident is very frustrating at the moment!!
 
In 2004 I purchased two Properties and obtained mortgages with Wachovia (now wells fargo) the process then could not be easier.

I met with my Bank Manager several months ago and he said he could see no reason why I could not obtain more finance as I had good history with them, never missed a payment etc… to this day I still have not had the go ahead.

Since that meeting with my US bank manager I have purchased another three Properties cash by taking equity out of my UK Properties, I will continue to do this until I run out of opportunities to raise funds here.

When my Bank gets their act together I will have to do the following: Purchase a Property in my own name (Wachovia will not lend to an LLC) as soon as I have the loan I was told by my Manager I can then transfer title to an LLC ???  They will not lend me less than 50K per Property so I would have to purchase properties above 70K.  In respect of any Property I have purchased cash, these would have to have been owned by me as an individual for 6 months before they would lend to me (e.g. an equity release loan)

I believe you can get a better deal as a cash buyer, however we will not be able to get the same interest rate on an equity release. The deals at the moment are incredible. My manager said once approved I could get 5.5% fixed for 30 years, which compared to UK buy to let rates is fantastic. 

I am flying over again early November to close on a Property, when I am  there I am going to speak with a couple of Mortgage Brokers  and see what they can do for me, I would like to find a bank who will lend to an LLC for a start.

Kind regards

Gary

Hi Guys,

I am a Property investor from the UK. I have never met Mike and Bronwyn, however after reading their Blog some Months ago I joined there mailing list, some weeks later I purchased a Property using Top Rental Returns. I purchased the Property for $45,000 and spent $10,000 on refurbishments, the Property was then let within weeks for $1050 a month netting me an impressive 17% return. If you would like to research the Property I purchased the address is 4892 Windsor Downs Drive Atlanta.

 I believe they may be a victim of their own success, and may be too busy to communicate as well as they did.  It is incredible what they have achieved in such a short space of time, within a year they have gone from starting a blog "thinking of buying in the states anyone want to join me" to buying, renovating and selling dozens of Properties.

My only critiscm is that they now sell their Properties to quickly, I sent a contract back today within an hour but was to late, three people had beaten me to it, I have decided to spend a couple of weeks there at the end of this Month to buy a couple more Properties.

I have also purchased three Properties in Florida, but the returns are less than I am receiving from the above.

I am sorry to here some people have not been as lucky as me to rent so quickly, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

Gary