When you work for yourself, you don’t get any leave.

Long service leave is unfortunately a dying practice, Jay. But guess what, we get 17.5% extra on our wages when we take it. How about that?

Just a question to the Americans. In Australia, we have a RTA. Rental tenancies authority. This is a government dept which looks after tenancy matters, disputes, etc and also holds all bonds, usually 1 months rent, until the end of the tenancy. The property manager signs off on a form that the home is undamaged, etc and the tenant applies for…[Read more]

Dj_ajay

I think the properties only cost Jay 5k in the first place so interest free finance is all profit. Is that right, Jay?

Similar experience with HousebuyersUSA.  Salesperson hadnt even been to the U.S.  Upfront fee for a look.

Nathan.

I don’t see anything in your figures for repairs, vacancies or letting fees?

Property-Scout,I agree with regarding Top Rental Returns.  My only issue is that there is NO mention of maintenance costs, letting fees (1 months rent) or vacancies in their figures.  They say to allow 6 weeks per year for vacancy plus ongoing costs.  It makes a big mess of figures.

Highincomeproperty,I think in the long term, your flips may be the way to go for Aussie investors as property management seems to be the biggest issue.  Do you have any information on this?

I had a look at these guys website. There is a property on there, a duplex in Atlanta, that I was offered about 3 months ago from a us wholesaler. Can’t remember too much about it but I do remember that it was a whole lot cheaper than what it is now so they’re all on the gravy train. I see they allow $191 p.a. In maintenance costs. Is that…[Read more]

Comment from OZforex regarding bringing money from overseas: If you got the rental money deposited straight into our account we would be able to transfer the funds back to your Australian account. We are not however a deposit holding institution so any funds sent to us would need to be transferred back to your Australian bank account. If that’s t…[Read more]

Another pay upfront mob.

What nobody has mentioned as far as I know is the idea of an Australian consortium buying a number of US homes, thereby sharing the risk of vacancies, repairs etc. If you are going to invest in property anywhere, you need multiple properties because if you only have one or two, a vacancy, repair or non paying tenant can Mae a massive hole n the…[Read more]

Interesting exchanges happening. For what it’s worth, I actually agree with both of the posts above. The US is different from Oz and as we Aussies are the “aliens”, I guess we have to respect the differences. We want what they have, which is investment opportunities, something sadly lacking in Australia at present. So it makes sense to understand…[Read more]

Transfer it whle Greece is still solvent? Governments have been known to freeze bank withdrawals.

Alexsc

I didn’t mean to denigrate Americans. But the horror stories I am getting are coming from Americans themselves as well as Aussies. What I am referring to is the buy and hold investor not the hands on investor. An australian investor mostly wants hands off investment in another country. The spruikers of us property provide little or no…[Read more]

Nearly bought in Atlanta, GA.  Nice properties.  I am exploring other avenues of investment in the US property market now without maybe actually owning any.  There are some horror stories around, even from the very people selling them.  It almost makes me wonder if there is as much profit in them as first appears.  In some cases, I think you are…[Read more]

Well, I tried to buy one. Turned out no renters were allowed in that subdivision. Didn’t find out until closing, but did get my money back. I only lost on the exchange rate. Worth checking things like that in the future though. It’s made me a bit cautious.

Starting to look like a no-brainer. Interest rates set to rise again in Oz. Lowest home sales in 27 years and talk of recession. If the USA could just borrow a few bucks off Steve Jobs, we could all breathe easy and buy more US property. Although, with the USA being flat broke, maybe we would better off just buying the whole country. $200 should…[Read more]

Rick,i was refering in the eighties to aussie farmers taking US loans which turned against them when the dollar took a plunge.  Nothing to do with 19% interest rates here.Some economists say the Australian housing property market will crash.  I dont believe this will happen, but we are seeing a slow decline in prices.  I experienced it in the 90…[Read more]

right. Australian property is way over priced to the point where it is totally unaffordable. Great for the rental market but what is the future for capital growth? The oldest saying in Real Estate is that something is only worth what someone will pay for it. When there are few buyers like now, what is your investment property worth? A big fat…[Read more]