Hi there,

I don't even need to open the link to tell you that you will never get an apartment in New York for $2,000, unless it's a burnt out property in Harlem or the Bronx that just has it's foundations left (sarcasm).

I should know, I live in Manhatten and we can barely find a one bedroom rental appartment for $2,500/month.

I've been reading a lot of press lately about the capital and income advantages of NYC, however, I'm still not sold.  Personally, the maintainance and co-op fees are ridiculous.  I love this city, but I would rather invest in Florida.

-Kev

I have seen houses listed for as little as $150. These are usually fire damaged or sold as ‘tear downs’. I have looked at a couple, never seriously, but I have found that they are working on a bidding system and starting low on purpose which is probably what you saw with the $1,000 listing.

As an investor in US real estate, I would by lying if my business partners and I had not seriously considered buying property in Detroit. I have a few Australian mates who have invested and are doing ok. However, I live in NYC and have a couple of native Detroit friends who often talk about how dangerous the city is. I know there are nicer areas that are less effected, but these are far and few between.

Before anyone jumps all over the article below, I want to caveat that I know this is a one off case, but it was enough to make me hold off Detroit for a while –

http://m.smh.com.au/world/aussie-trying-to-make-a-difference-gunned-down-20110510-1egnv.html

With all of the vacant factory space from the largely withdrawn auto industry, Detroit has the potential to be a gold mine if you buy now and a large industry, like textiles, has a few large corporations that re-locate there in 10 years.

However, Detroit is just too dangerous for me at the moment, but like I said people have done ok so far. Also, I noticed some posts talking about bank financing, in my experience, you can really only invest in these types of markets with cash deals.

-Kevin

Hi Leo,

We generally buy a max of 2-3 properties under one LLC, but this has more to do with our multiple investment partners. Every situation is different and complicated and for these reasons I agree with the post above and recommend you seek legal council.

Cheers,
-Kev

Hi jclimie,

I agree with a few of the posters here on two vital points. Definitely hedge your bets with Australian real estate and look for U.S. properties with high net yields and low capital outlay.

To answer your question, we are investing U.S. property and our current strategy is to buy and hold properties ranging from $50-$90k with investment partners. We also buy some Australian property, although far more expensive, in order to hedge our bets.

With a strong U.S. rental market, high net yields significantly reduce capital risk. This way you are not tied to a large mortgage and over time, income generated from the property is enough to pay it off. So, even if you sell it for what you bought it for in 5-10 years, your overall investment will still do ok.

At the end of the day, do your research and invest in something your comfortable with. While the Australian economy has a far more stable outlook, the barriers are high for real estate investment in terms of price. If you have less capital I would recommend at least looking into a high income producing property in the U.S.

Good luck!

-Kev

Hi George,

There are many banks here in the U.S. that allow you to open a bank account via mail and do not require that you be physically present. Unless your particular bank has this specific rule, it would definitely be strange for your agent to do this.

I would express your concern again to your agent and request that it is changed into your LLC name for security and accounting reasons.

I live in the US, so let me know if you have any further problems and I will try and help.

-Kevin