Ummm Property Investing forums such as this one are a good start.  I find that I'll say something which is wrong or slightly wrong and then there'll be someone that'll correct me.  So this space is really good for making mistakes and learning off the experts.  Personally I do not call myself and expert even though I write about property in a blog/online website

Ah okay… Awesome!

The thing with US properties you have to be vigilant on is a few things (as I recently thought similar thoughts).

You are better off buying the property outright than getting a loan attached to it because a) banks in Aus won't (will very rarely) lend you a loan b) if you manage to get a loan you are playing with international exchange rates.

Between the US and Aus there is a double tax system.  Therefore you get taxed two times.

You cannot negative gear your property.

Whilst yields are quite high (up to 12%) vacancy rates are also high thus cancelling out the returns.

If you'd like to eventually live in said house in the states, you would have to become a US citizen which means you'll have to jump through many many loop holes

Anyway that was more than enough information for me to choose against said option

Look I'm gonig to have to agree with a couple of the people here.  If you manage your investment property yourself you will run into various problems.  However, I'd like to point out one majour problem and that is…

If you are looking to rent it out immediately then it may take you some time trying to find the suitable tenants.  Time = money.  Therefore lets just say you save on the 8% or whatever the company charges.  For illustrative purpases lets just say it's 10%.

Lets say the rental agency takes 21 days to find a suitable tenant.  Let's say it'll take you one or two or three weeks longer to get the suitable tennant.  That'll mean that to recoup your losses you will have to rent out the place for 10, 20 or 30 weeks.  These tenants may not last that long.

Also, what happens when the tennants dont pay on time.  Who follows it up?  What happens when there is a dispute.  Are you ready to go to the tribunal and waste even more time.  Use the simple economic theory you stand to earn more money doing your own job then spending time trying to fix up your property management

to be honest… just wait 7-10 years for the property to double in value and keep renting it out until then   Well those are my thoughts anyway.  Buy and hold (then leverage)

Cheers

Jason

Hi Je,

Looks like you being sent on a wild goose chase… Let me put it in perspective for you.  You are selling investment property.  Which means lets say you get a sale.  They put a 10% deposit down and then they pay the rest on the date of settlement which could be a year or 2 away.  Do you get money when it settles or when the deposit is paid down or a bit of both.

The other thing is.  Only 5% of Australian's actually buy an investment property in their lifetime of those 5% something like 10% actually have more than 5 investment properties.  Now if your one of those 5% of Australians that want to buy an investment property.  Which means you are willing to invest most (if not all) of your savings into an investment property.  Are you going to go with someone who is young and doens't have experience vs someone that is old and wise and has a few investment properties of their own?

In case you are wondering I also thought about selling investment property or property in general and let me tell ya after doing some other souly comission work it wasn't worth it for me. 

Now if you need help getting a job casual/part time or otherwise let me know. I write killer resumes and I can tell you when to apply for certain jobs

Alrighty Ravi,

Nice thinking of going in the property development area.  For starters you're gonna run into a lotta problems if you think about buying a property or what not before your 18 (yes tax is a bitch) so in the mean time I suggest you learn more about the property industry.  If you're still in school stay in school, if not I suggest getting into sales and if you can getting into sales within the property industry.  You'll need the skills and business sense that sales provides and you'll gain some knowledge as everyone has been saying by getting a job in the property industry.

When you do turn 18 and are still commited to becoming a property developer I would be making some key contacts with people in the industry.  That means getting off your ass and going to conferences, ringing around, walking into businessess and getting thrown out.  It bassically shows that you're commited to what you say and that you're not like anyone else.  Personally I wouldn't get into property developing but I'd get into buying investment property, especially buying off the plan.  You need to know what renevations/refurbishments (if any) are going to be important to get maximum capital return on both your rental yield and capital gains.

The reason why I right get into property investment insead of property development is because getting the right property in the right area doubles in value every 7-10 years.  As opposed to buying a piece of land/property forking out all your own money, spending a lot of time and effort to get it built and then spend a bit of extra time trying to sell it for a price that will make it be worth your while.

If you're interested in knowing more send me a message and let me know as I have a couple of contacts in the industry

wow there's heaps of comments on here… but from what I understand… I reckon they're high risk and you'd probably wanna sell before the bubble bursts right… But how would you determine that… Lots of research… Property is meant to be easy I reckon you're better off investing into capital cities esp Melbourne and Sydney and that way you have pease of mind… WHo knows their might be a floor or something in the town and before your property can get any value BOOM its gone way down… Hope that makes sense