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http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/housing_crisis_los_angeles_construction.php
Nice Cali perspective for anyone interested… It is just starting to really kick ass:) Plenty of time still to get in before it gets crazy.
Just give them the contents of your bank account – will save a lot of time and anguish.
I did see that Cirrus! You know the nick name for the Ocean between Hi and Ca is the Indian Ocean because its full of Chieftans, Navajo, Warriors and Seminole?? Can’t remember if I joked about that with you earlier?
Really sad so many locals lost so much but so many in the US lost so much more I guess. Pity is the Aussies losses were generally avoidable. Still amazes me that anyone who has bought one property and sat in 78F&G for 13 hours 3 or 4 times thinks they are a capable of charging thousands for their expertise, but I guess thats the way of the world.
I bought that storage business I mentioned that is very similar to yours. Cost a bomb but in a few years it will be good. If you get to Oz you have to swing by our place. We can rustle up a decent lunch if nothing else!
Emma’s in Vegas still but (among other places) got a stunning place in the Bahamas. Apparently Vegas gets too hot and too cold from time to time:)
BTW you mentioned the $ – I bought a couple of my places early on when the AUD was $0.48, so its only half way there:)
I dont like the fact fully trained crews can stall a (seemingly) perfectly flyable aircraft into the ground from 30,000+’. Very hard to put yourself in the cockpit very tired, stressed about something else and not expecting anything untoward – panic and group think can set in quickly as you would know. However, once is careless, twice is a little more serious. Personally I think everyone should do aerobatics with their PPL but you really think 2-3 pilots with thousands of hours could manage to work out you need airspeed to fly in the 15 or so minutes before they try to make a hole in an ocean….
Jay, problem with selling is Au tax which as a resi I get hit with. I really can’t sell or I get crucified the simple way I set it up, and even structured carefully once you use the cash you get hit eventually. I just got offered US$1m more for a property than I bought in ’09 (only put down $150k which is the kicker:)) but after all is said and done I’d be lucky to get AU$500k out of it. Of course that is still a good profit but at near $100kpa cash+ pa it’s worth the hassles (hmmmm??) to keep it. Bus class airfares are AU$25-30k a pop for all of us so it’s easy to ‘sog up’ a little cashflow, but any big chunk gets grabbed by our feral tax office who believe in crushing the little guy. The US system is structured to encourage you to get big (then they get to rob more) but the Aus system is hit you hard early and stop you getting big.
The airline has been raped by a vile and incompetent CEO who has no idea about airlines and should have been kept away from anything more complex than a mousetrap. Yes we do seem to do a good line in Bermuda Triangles down here! Good effort losing a Tripler!! Mate of mine who works in the sandpit was inspired, he moves large amounts of gold (I won’t say how much but it is significant) every trip he does to Europe. The problem of ‘getting lost’ clearly isn’t as hard as we all thought it was:) Saw a funny picture on the loss. The 777 was photoshopped in the driveway of a London Mews property, the caption ‘I told the neighbour if it isn’t moved on the weekend I’m going to call the Council!’.
Hoping their other one wasn’t anything like AF447, though it all looks like a stall to me so far….
Funny looking on this site after so long. I was finally allowed back (though haven’t checked for a few years) after truthfully stating the hygiene habits I had experienced with local non-indigenous LA Notaries.
I’ve done well, pretty much retired, my sister works 2 days a month (but at least 2-3 hours each of those days) is building herself a nice holiday house in a location she’s always wanted through hard bloody work and people still ask the US property market for the impossible.
My advice…
1) Don’t start in the US unless you have deep pockets (like I did for 10 years) or have deep knowledge and/or building skills (like my sister – emma171? from memory) but she now deals with commercials only for people who keep her (almost?) a secret (her investors returns are out of the park) and really couldn’t be bothered anymore dealing with people who don’t ‘get’ it.
2) Save yourself a bucketload and ‘invest’ instead of work. IE: Today, as it’s mostly been for the last 5 years – chat to Jay.Look at the one guy who has been doing the same ol’ thing here since before subprime, with sage advice always and offers great solid returns. If only I could have my time again:):)
ITIN is fine for borrowing, pre or post GFC. Of course it takes time to get a credit rating – use VF to get financed into a property, much easier dealing with people than banks.
I have never had (nor want) residency and have never lived in the US. I have a good FICO but would probably struggle to get resi loans. The only reason I would consider residency is to get 3% down resi financing – that would let me take my FICO out for a spin to really see what it could do….
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kylermrice wrote:that's why it pays to fight fire with fire, lets just say i don't ask and my property manager doesn't say.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR5jufwSqm8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
quickchick wrote:From our experiences of selling US property while living in Aus,A US notary is easily located by going to the website notarypublic.com.au
You just put in your location, and the closest notaries to you will come up.
Most notaries in Aus are solicitors.You do not need to go to a US Embassy.
But you will need to pay, $50-100 per document is standard.
A good question to ask, when you ring to make an appointment!Ruth
propertyinvestingusa.comRuth, it is a complex area. Aus notaries are a level way above US notaries, but it totally depends on the particular title office you use. At Law you are correct, however practically you are wrong. An Oz notary is a notary for life and must have an unblemished record practicing law for (I think) 25 years. A US notary is marginally less than a JP.
Jay wrote a great comment on this earlier which I promptly forgot, but at least explained the lunacy inherent in the system and why they need thumb prints etc etc.
At ‘law’ (and this is from my barrister who has full DFAT clearance and is legally endorsed to sign on behalf of the Aus govt) an Australian Notary ‘should’ be automatically recognised by all the old ‘Northern’ states in the US. The Southern ‘slave’ states do not. And yes it does go back that far – I read the reference in a great big book of his so it must be true:)
In the case I was referring to I was getting a loan payout on a refi and the bank was extremely picky. It was extremely annoying, but loaning money to a non resi alien less than 18 months after Lehmans collapsed, one can understand them being anal about paperwork. They simply insisted on their procedures being complied with – crazy or not. At least they gave me the money:)
BTW you do not need a social for a bank account (shouldn’t really need a bank account either but that’s another story) you just need an ITIN – which in the old days you got over the phone, once again, different now!
Freckle: That makes Kyler the one in the dress – No wonder he gets picked on by tenants:)
BTW there is a very interesting Bloomberg article today suggesting housing has bottomed in th US – I can’t get the link right now, but it kind of backed up what Jay, Alex, Cheeves, Kyler the dress wearer and Emma have been saying.Debra, it’s not all scary. The nice parts are VERY nice, the scary parts are VERY scary. As I have said before, If you buy on 5th Ave, you will never have a tenant problem. I think being cautiously optimistic is how best to describe it, If anyone other than Kyler offers to sell you anything in a ‘Kyler area’ and they aren’t Kyler – run a mile:)
Mihovi: Just the impartial facts….
Aside from the feelings of loathing towards the US that engenders in me (idiotic airport security pisses me off, more so just because I need someone to watch me sign a form!), this particular loan had to fund prior to Jan 1st when the US consulate had no notary bookings available until mid Jan. An anonomly, but annoying!
Also – some Notaries charge for each page and some loan docs need initialling on every page, THAT can add up!!!
One thing you also must consider (aside from the not inconsiderable expense as Jay very correctly always points out) is the time a ‘little trip’ to check up on things takes out of your life. When I go on a ‘property trip’ I am wrecked when I get home. It is usually 3-4 weeks of bloody hard work. It takes a week to find out what the problems are, followed by 2-3 weeks of getting things (or trying to get them) how you want them. This is time out of your life and really needs to be accounted for in some way. This is not fun after a few years. I have professional management companies that look after all my buildings, and by US standards they do a good job, and it can be set and forget. However when I found my project manager/cleaner/overseer the rents went up 30-40% in the space of 6-12 months. In my arena that also gets me huge CG and therefore loans based on that as well. I don’t have enough money on the table to ignore that much cash and also I take pride in my properties and work hard to have them as nice as possible – both in Aus and the US.. It is incredibly frustrating to me to have hideously presented property (what is it with Ca. and beige with extremely ugly fake semi-country fittings?) reno’d in your absence getting predictably low rent only to have to redo it 3months later to jack the rents to something decent. As a one off, you would understand, but when you have a 16u and want them all the same you would assume that might happen in your absence.
Even in Australia you never get a perfect result leaving things to the manager. They do a great job, but if you don’t care then really why should they? In the US that problem is magnified hugely. Jay is very correct to always point out the cost of travel – the time involved (away from your ‘earning’ time at your normal job) I think is an equal part of that. It needs to be making a decent chunk of your net income to justify that cash and time expenditure.
My sister makes things easy for people. She acts like my property manager and overseer (manager 7ish% – overseer maybe $20-30kpa) in one, but for my stuff in LA I can say that I conservatively visit around 30 times a year and things still go wrong. I nearly choked when someone on a different thread boasted about having visited the US for a few weeks and that made them an expert. There may be others out there that do what Emma171 does, but as yet I haven’t heard of them. If you want pain free, you need someone like her there, on the ground working for you and be limited to her areas of operation, or go through Jay at TWH – I am totally separate from Emma and have completely different areas of operation so I haven’t had the benefit of that management (Australian style) in the US. Emma offers what they refer to in the UK as ‘bespoke’ service (now used way too often) – she gets great buys and properties and tenants that no bulk operater could possibly manage. My story is that after 15+years and ‘going it alone’ I can assure you I have achieved no more return than Jay is honestly offering (though by the grace of gods subprime didn’t affect me at all in CG terms, and casflow increased) but I have had the worry. I have a great deal of respect for both my sister and Jay. My way worked, but it was in hindsight lucky and I would not recommend it – even though it worked. Over time it has been made very clear to me how lucky I have been. Buying a property in the US is easy. Management is the key. You have to have people on the ground in the US and very personal and very local helping you or you will fail. It is sadly as simple as that….
Thanks for that great post Jay – it was (as always) far from advertising.
I’ll check out your online store – could save me filling bags from OSH, Lowes, HD etc and taking them home myself…
I will point out to people that (so far) my sister (emma171) has had great management success hand picking tenants and being very careful with their selection. Obviously she is a tiny operator but so far it does seem to be working very well.
I thought A3 was mainly domestic type staff – not aware of it having an investment arm, any link?
Not interested at all in living in the US, but 3% down has great appeal and $500k isn’t a huge hurdle…
I have to comment on the driving:) Driving in Aus is like driving in reverse. I drive 50/50 Aus/US a part in the UK and occasionally priviledged to enjoy Germany/Italy. Far from having nerves of steel in the US I feel people there actually use a car to move from a – b rather than as a surrogate way for governments to tax the already over red taped and way over policed nanny state that Australia is.
What the rest of the world calls ‘commuting’ we call ‘street racing’. US guys – to give you an idea, 20mph over our stupidly slow limits earns you an immediate court date, confiscation of your vehicle, six months immediate disqualification of licence and a $2072 fine…… Put our island qualified drivers on any real road anywhere else in the world and they would be shocked – much like WI needing ‘nerves of steel’ to drive in GA. When she gets home she will not believe how Australians dawdle around terrified of their own shadow.
Rant over, back to property discussions immediatement!
PS: It was a shame to see another unlicenced LLC pedlar get a plug:(
Emma171 is exactly that.
There is a company based in the Pacific Northwest that makes jets that can do it much faster Jay, you may have heard of them…
Heard the one about the Indian Ocean between LAX and HNL/HTO? Full of Warriors, Seminol, Navajo, Cherokee etc…
I would think if Steve were involved any of you guys should be compensated in some way at least. Anyway – sorry for thread drift, looking forward to Gavin’s next installment.
And on that topic, if I were Steve McKnight I would be inviting Jay, Emma, TXCC, Alex, Cheeves etc for a USA ‘Super Saturday’ or something similar to have ‘experten’ (Luftwaffe speak for ‘real experts’) talk real world issues to real investors…….IMHO it is WAY overdue.
Thing is Jay, we live in a very safe world where tenants rarely wreck property, pay their rent and (generally) aren’t accomplished scammers. It is why Australians get so easily taken. As you saw, rent rolls are the real money behind Australian RE agencies. It is all so very different. Without people like you, Alex, Kyler TX CC, Cheeves, Emma etc posting, the truth is just not accessible. Between you all you would have saved thousands of would be victims.
.It would be a great shame if ANY of you guys stopped posting. It will get boring occasionally because we don’t know anywhere near what you all do, but keep up with the pearls of wisdom – people like Andrew Allan only survive because people like you aren’t easily accessible to newbies…
Jay – great post (response to me). You are one of the VERY few guys from the US that has taken the time to understand how nice and easy the Aus market is. TOTALLY different on almost any level imaginable. Gotta go, but thanks for the details….
My issue with the LLC model is not with professionals – it is with these quasi legal foreigners that have no business doing what they do. They cannot directly market property, so buying an LLC means it HAS to be a flip… You know the issues, it should be urgently addressed even if it is difficult. Foreign buyers must hold property 90 days in their own name or something??? I don’t know..
Thanks again Jay – I always learn a lot!
