I spent a good two months looking for a partner to work with in America before I bought my first property. Checked out some Australian companies and some US based ones. Both types seem to have advantages and disadvantages.

For instance, Aussie ones are good because you can meet them in person without a long haul flight, but the 2 I went to see didn't have a true presence on the ground in America, so I did some further research and it seems that they are buying wholesale from other companies in America (one of the sales guys actually let something slip which helped send me in the right direction). He kept talking about the research they do yada-yada, but then spoke about a partner on the ground (I won't mention the name), and tried to retract the statement in a weird kind of way, so I looked this company up and didn't have to dig too much.

The American companies I spoke to, didn't seem to know enough about my tax situation or legal standpoint, because they mainly sold to US Citizens and overseas investors were a small percentage of what they dealt with, in fact 3 of the companies i spoke to refused to sell to overseas investors!!

Anyway, it seems there are a couple of companies with both advantages, I Ended up going with USInvest because they were based in the US and Aussie, and were only selling in markets they were active in. After my research I was pretty wary of trusting a company in Australia who basically ‘claims’ they have a presence in the US whereas really they were just wholesale partners of some US company and made a tidy commission in the process.

I’m not one to rush my decisions so I actually flew to the States to meet with the guys and conduct my own due diligence. That was in April from memory, so 8 months or so later everything has been going fairly well (fingers crossed) and they seem to be holding up their end of the bargain. Terrafirma, to answer your question, they also provided me with an independent valuation of my property before I bought it.

I'm also interested in some Aussie investments, particularly Queensland but at this stage my US ones seem to be holding up pretty well.

Hope this helps,
Rog