Last July my wife and I purchased a property in Texas which fit the profile of a good investment. Good area, rents would cover the mortgage plus extra every month, etc. What I did not expect was the poor job the real estate agent did to get this place rented. Scratch that, make that the poor job 2 different agents did. Granted we live in Tokyo, but it took the agent a week to return calls (when they did call), and 2 months before any pictures were on the website of the interior! Mind you we were told only a handful of people had seen the property over the course of these couple months. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it the agents job to market the property in order to get the most people to see it? That's really the the only reason why I'm staying away from investing there again. We have a property in the northern suburbs of Melbourne as well that we are very happy with the service and attention that the property gets. In fact that is where we are looking to invest again.

BTW – that place in Texas – we did finally get it rented after we enlisted some family to be the property managers.

In short, make sure you can find good re agents that will get your property rented out and managed to your liking.

Rob