Stuart,

As I understand it, you will pay 30% withholding tax on the gross rental income UNLESS you are registered with the US Tax system. i.e. you have an ITIN (and an EIN if you are using an LLC).

I suggest you get a US CPA accountant to set up your entities etc properly to ensure you avoid this withholding tax.

Cheers.

MakingTheJump,

As with StreamlineInvesting, I think I have enough info to get started, but would appreciate hearing your story to use as a checklist in case I am overlooking anything obvious and/or important.

Please PM me if you don’t post it on this forum.

Sreeram,

Read my post just above yours.

Hi mattnz,

I am really keen to hear more from you as to why those 2 Texas cities are your favourites. It obviously depends on your investment strategy and risk profile.

Texas’ employment figures and economy impress me (compared to Florida for instance), so I see it as a relatively “safe” investment. But I am having trouble seeing where the high ROI can come from with their relatively higher purchases, and where the opportunity is for high capital growth (as you say, they have not had the boom-bust cycle of other cities). You may well have research that proves my beliefs on these 2 matters unfounded…….

May I ask, if you have purchased properties there, what price range were they in, and what ROI are you achieving? And is that with section 8 tenants?

Cheers, TH

Hi Paul,

Have you considered avoiding these companies and doing it yourself, so you really know where your hard-earned cash is going? As Steve McKnight told many of us at a recent seminar – “don’t be a lazy investor”. (referring to using the services of turn-key companies). There may be (much) more work, but if you do your DD properly, much higher returns.

Think about this :-
how hard did you have to work to earn your money in the first place? So, why would you throw a large portion of it away with large and duplicated fees, and middlemen who make big profits from rehabbing and flipping properties that they buy dirt cheap and sell to unsuspecting Aussies who place blind faith in them?

There are obviously many pitfalls either way to be very wary of, but keep reading through this forum and I think you will see a strong case for being an “active” investor. There’s a lot of great information here, but be careful :- Many are openly wanting to sell you something, and that’s fine – you can see them for what they are and decide if you want to engage them. They may offer something useful to you. Some keep promoting certain areas because that’s where they have established their business. But then there are those who are more surreptitious and present themselves as objective investors generously sharing their experience, but actually are “plants” who relentlessly plug certain companies. It won’t take you long to spot those ones.

Just my view though!

TH

white-goodman, thanks for reminding us of an excellent point with your numbers :-

– particularly when buying properties of lower value, it is imperative that we are mindful of the need to keep costs in check. Larger projects may be more forgiving, but smaller ones quickly lose their viability when multiple costs/fees apply.

TH

Hi Spyglass,

Which areas in Florida would you avoid, and why?

Cheers, TH

Hi Melbourne Girl,

That’s quite an announcement, about your friend losing $80K. I’m sure I’m not the only one reading this who is keen to know what went wrong for your friend, so we can learn from this by avoiding the same mistakes.

Could you share with us what happened?

Hi Marie123

I notice all of the properties on the investusatoday.com.au website are in Rochester, New York State.

Cheers, TH

Hi Lenny, Zita, and others,

I’m also in that situation, with a USA investment trip planned for early in the new year.

I feel very indebted to British Buyer for his generosity with information.
This thread has obviously run a bit cold with his absence (hopefully only temporary), but after the festive season has quietened down a bit, perhaps we all can rekindle it with some new enthusiasm.

Cheers, TH