morpheusbushy, thanks for starting this very interesting thread. I know it's been a while since anyone has posted but wanted to ask a couple of questions specifically relating to the information contained herein. I see from your blog you have purchased your first property in the USA. Looks nice, but you haven't posted for a while so I hope all is well Would be very interested in hearing how it's all going.

jayhinrichs, I have looked at your website and you appear to have an interesting business model. I do have a couple of questions however. On your success stories page, you list some properties such as this one below:

836 Eagles Nest

Monthly Cash Flow: $309.16

How does this work exactly? Investor equity day 1 is $20,000 – is this half of the purchase price of the property? Note price is $53,000. Would it be correct to assume the note price is half the purchase price plus closing and rehab costs? ARV is $93,000 – where does this valuation figure come from? Is it backed up by MLS sales or an appraisal value? I think the model is quite clever but my concern would be that the actual sales price that the property would achieve on today's market may not be $93k. Perhaps there will be capital growth potential over the 5 years until note expiry, perhaps not and perhaps the US market has further to fall. It's difficult to predict in the current economy no? We'll be in the US mid next year so might swing by and say hi. You also mentioned you had a buy and hold strategy on some land. Would be interested in exploring further. I'll PM you with my email address.

We have been umming and arring about purchasing in the US for the past year and a half. At first we were attracted to the potential rental yields but digging further we were put off by the horror stories of people paying too much, tenants and property managers from hell. We are still interested in investing but don't want to make a terrible mistake with our retirement money.

In terms of where to buy, it seems everyone has quite strong opinions and with the US being such an enormous market it is very difficult to know where to start looking.

Thanks everyone for your comments on this. It has made for enjoyable Christmas holiday reading.