Steve,
I´m in Santiago airport right now, making a connection, after a 10 hour drive from San Martin de los Andes to Mendoza.
I´ll be arriving tomorrow to Miami and I´ll be staying in the Circa 39 hotel, maybe we can share a coffe at Starbucks and discuss strategies.
I have a question: why Bank of America and not HSBC that has brances all over the world? where did you buy your phone and airtime? I was thinking METROPCS because they include unlimited international long distance for 10 bucks additional and it´s good to be in touch with the loved ones….
well, got a plane to catch, write me some lines…

Don´t know if this is the bottom line, my feeling and the recent foreclosure fiasco tell me this is going to keep going down for at least a year.
That is good, for us, we have some time to build credit and get some good deals before the magic moment (hopefully this century)

As I understand, correct me if I´m wrong, as an individual, you can request an ITIN, which is a personal tax number and make the choice to treat your rental income as a business, that way you have to make your tax declaration but you can deduct expenses, maintenance fees and so, thus resulting in much less that the tipical 30%.
As for the sale, I understand the withholding figure is 10% as long as the property sale value is equal or above 300,000… but I could be wrong.
Putting your properties in an LLC has its benefits but it´s difficult to get financing that way….

British Buyer, I´ve been reading your posts as well as other´s in this thread for an hour… very very interesting!!!
I´m on the other side of the world, Argentina, and I´ll be traveling to Florida this October 30st and I´ll be just a week there.
My main goal on this trip it to open a bank account, see some real estate agents, visit some properties and find out about loans, mainly to start building credit. I think my wife will hit the beach meanwhile….

I think market in Florida hasn´t bottomed yet, we have at least a full year ahead of us with prices still going down, maybe is time to buy cheap condo properties in the 50k range, trying to get a loan just for 10 or 20% of the property value, with the only purpose of setting a foot there and start building credit for the right moment. I thing rental return is not important in this phase, and tax and hoa fees for the next year should be considered as part of the investment amount.

I´m focused in the Broward County area now, mainly because I´ve got a personal friend that lives in Fort Lauderdale and she can assist me in management tasks and be my eyes on the field. She has lived there for 30 years.

Maybe we can meet to discuss strategies and start this investment journey as a cooperative force. We have the same goals and as far as I can see all of us in this forum can profit from the failures and success of each other. Through my research online all this months I´ve found that buying a property in the US can be tricky and challenging, there are many legal and tax issues to be considered, but even the most conservative approaches suggest it´s still a very good investment. We just have to be careful and choose the right people to work with to maximize the ROI of our hard earned money and avoid potential mistakes that can ruin our plans.

Don´t forget I live in a country with an exchange rate of 4 pesos to 1 dollar, that makes each dollar valuable to me.

I dont have 250k as you, I´m below 100k but I think the US real estate market can give me the tools to double or triple that money in a few years, and that´s just the beginning.

Sorry about my english as it´s not my native language.

you can contact me at [email protected]