You can open a etrade – business account online. Bizarre but true. Quite good facilities as well.

I think that with land there are other advantages, such as no management, lower outgoings, no maintenance etc. Also land is so low now because nobody is building any houses so there are great opportunities to buy eg in cape coral [Cheeves you'll know the price better than me so feel free to correct me } land with gulf access for 35-55k which sold at the peak at upwards of $250K, if you don't have to have a return for 5-7 years then this is a great investment in my opinion.    

I think you may be surprised by Florida there are sub 35k properties with double digit net yields available in many Florida markets. Plus of course you have any future capital growth.

What returns you can expect to achieve there?

Hi Simon,

Ill be in Miami then if you want to meet for a coffee.

best

Mark

Yes Im familiar with their approach, essentially they take the house price at one point in time and then the same house price at another point in time and from that extrapolate the house price market for a metro area. The reasons it is a very general indicator of the market are surely obvious. It s info is constructed from prices 5-6 months ago, which is then smoothed out to represent a three month rolling average. It is a metro wide indicator which takes no account of suburbs and quality. This means you have million dollar homes on Collins Ave, Miami mixed up with foreclosed condo's in Hialeah, Miami. It is just an indicator of the general health of the market and no one should use it as  a method of choosing where to invest. I think its largely considered something for the media to chew over.

As regards the second point the only info and research I rely on being accurate and up-to-date is what I conduct myself when  buying assets. If you are serious ill happily show you the level of due diligence I perform. Just not on a public access forum. Drop me a PM.

Regards,

Mark

I dont think there is one, but it would be a useful tool.

There are apartment rental websites such as rent.com where you can get a good feel, especially when comparing class a with class a, and class b with class b etc, of course this doesn't deal with the shadow rental market which is historically very large at the moment  and skews things a bit. I think, Section 8 is determined at State level so they will determine a maximum for a two bed or in some cases a certain family size, so if your buying that type of stock you can know across the board what your looking at.

Perhaps more detail than people might want and I thought I had posted this chapter of my US investment guide before, but I cant seem to find it.
 
Prior to the passing of the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act 1980
(FIRPTA) unless the holding of real estate constituted a US trade or business any gain
on its disposal was not subject to US taxation. FIRPTA changed that by imposing US
tax on income and gains from the operation and disposal of “US real property
interests” (USRPIs) by non resident aliens and foreign corporations. A USRPI is any
interest in US real property or “US real property holding companies” (USRPHCs)
which are basically any US corporation 50% or more of whose assets consist of
USRPIs. The FIRPTA provisions are now included in the revised Internal Revenue
Code of 1986.
 
Accordingly both non US resident individuals and companies are liable to US tax on
capital gains from the disposal of US real estate. Capital gains are calculated as the
difference between the sale price and the cost basis of the asset sold. The “cost basis”
is the purchase price adjusted to take account of brokerage, legal, sales and other fees
and expenses, sales, excise, real estate and other taxes paid on the acquisition or
disposal of the asset, the cost of improvements and depreciation.  For US tax purposes
capital gains are either “short-term” if the asset disposed has been held for a year or
less or “long-term” if held for more than a year. Short-term capital gains are taxed at
regular income tax rates which for individuals currently start at 10% rising to 35% on
income in excess of $373,650 and for corporations 15% to 35% on income above
$18,333,334. For non residents only US income is, of course, taken into account for
this purpose. Long-term capital gains are currently tax free for taxpayers in the 15%
bracket or below and taxed at a flat 15% for those in the higher brackets.
Unfortunately from 1 January 2011 the long-term capital gains of those in the lower
brackets will be taxed at 10% and for those in the higher brackets the rate will rise to
20%. The 15% bracket applies up to $34,000 for individuals and $50,000 for
corporations.
 
The FIRPTA provisions, however, require the purchaser or closing agent to withhold
and account to the Internal Revenue Service for 10% of the purchase price on sales of
real estate by non resident individuals or companies. This is credited against the
seller’s federal tax liabilities and any balance is refundable on filing of the appropriate
returns. It is possible to get a “withholding certificate” from the IRS in advance
dispensing with this requirement but there are obviously strict conditions and it takes
time to obtain. If however you have a US LLC owned by a foreign national this requirement isnt enforced.
 
For purchasers, whether individual or corporate, who do wish to retain their
lots after development for rental purposes the rent will constitute “fixed or
determinable, annual or periodical gains, profits and income and is primarily subject
to a 30% withholding tax on the gross amount. It is therefore usually advisable to
 
make an “effectively connected business” election in respect of real estate rental
income in which case it becomes “effectively connected business income” subject to
tax at regular federal rates on the net amount after all deductions and expenses
normally allowed to US residents. This means that all legitimate expenses related
thereto including local real estate taxes and homeowners association assessments will
be deductible. In this case an individual will need to file an annual tax return in Form
1040NR and a corporation in Form 1120F. A local US accountant should be engaged
for this purpose whose fees are also deductible.
 
In the case of purchases through a SIPP a return will only need to be filed by the SIPP
Trustee, which assuming it is a UK company will be in Form 1120F, when the lot is
actually sold.
 
In order to submit tax returns an individual needs to obtain an Individual Taxpayer
Identification Number (ITIN) by completing Form W-7 and submitting it together
with their passport or a notarized copy if sent by post to the US Embassy, 24
Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE. Form W-7 is available from the embassy or
can be downloaded from their website. A company needs to obtain an Employer
Identification Number (EIN) which can be done by downloading and completing
Form SS-4.
 

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The point I want to make is you shouldn't pay any fees to any companies to find properties, membership fees etc etc. All the properties will have commission {normally 6% } built in. Essentially what it means is that there is three agents earning on the deal , the listing agent, the buyers agent, and the company charging the fee. Most of those charging fees tend to be one stop shops which only sell USA property and are purely opportunistic not property guys.

Hi Treasure,

Its a long answer because as you know there are so many different housing markets and within those markets there will be good and bad areas, but some of the ones, and types I would sidestep are;

Brickell, downtown Miami, epicentre of the condo building. These were the most high end condos and as such developers were falling over themselves to make it the most lavish which resulted in huge HOA fees, a lot of which is now unpaid. That being said I recently acquired the last 60 units in Capital Lofts for a client which is in this area, which is the exception that proves the rule in  my opinion.

Orlando/Kissimee, in this market you have to be extremely careful because a lot of this isnt built for the primary market its built for the holiday market, this means that as there is still over supply here if you buy a property which is in area mainly for holiday rentals you will struggle to compete with the more established and frankly the more local operators, and you may also struggle to get a US tenant because who wants to be living in a street full of holidaying Brit? ( I dont and Im a Brit).

A type of area I would avoid are areas which are tertiary markets  that were largely unloved before the recent housing bubble, its obvious but these areas will take longer to start to recover and the recovery will be slower.

There are areas of cities in Florida which were all built around the same time so you have mile after mile of gated communities all of a similar age, the problem with this is that when you buy in here these are going to be the new ghetto as they get older and cheaper the renters and owners will slide down the social scale and in time maybe only a few years there will be developments which were solid B class originally becoming c-/d grade which will have obvious impacts on your investment.

There are lots of areas away from the main population centers of South, west and central Florida which look good on paper but are easy to go wrong in, Citrus County, Marion County to name a couple.

just my opinion.