Forum Replies Created
Hi saturday
The majority of my properties were purchased from Karina, Select American Homes. I have posted some of my purchases on this site, just do a search on my posts and you will also see the many properties I have purchased.
Cheers WI
Thanks Freckle.
Good start.
Now I need to work out what they mean by millage rate means??Cheers, WI
Alex SC wrote:Hey All want to get the opinion of investors who took these type of tours. We have been doing these for the USA investors but not for the international clients. We are trying to get feed back on what was good and what was bad on these type of tours.Any and all feed back would be great If you flew over by your self and checked things out.Please feel free to chime in as well Trying to get a idea to see if investors actually like these events and if so why or why not . Things like to many days, would you want to see multiple cities.
Our thought process is no more then 6 _ 8 clients at a time. Again it is not all about numbers but customer service . I do think with to many people companies would lose that one on one relationship . I have been talking with one other market on here Florida if you all want to know. One of the larger groups in the USA just did 150 people three greyhound buses can you imagine.
Thanks
Sincerely
Hi Alex
Happy to give you my feedback but you probably wont like it.Personally I do not like these tour set ups, as every man and his dog is doing this and there have been many negative reports regarding some of these operators, ie quality of stock, hard sell approach. I understand this is certainly not your intension.
I like a one to one, meet the person who is sourcing the properties, view the set up and then start to do my homework on what is being sourced etc.
Cheers, WI
Alex SC wrote:worldinvestor wrote:Jay
forget the $850-900 rental returns, that is why I really like the big homes at the right price, I am achieving from $1000-1300 (8 properties) so far. I certainly care about 20% gross yields, plenty of fat in the deal to mitigate any slippage and that is the point.Personally I don't need someone holding my hand, I appreciate different strokes for different folks.
I want maximum return and when I offload the properties I want to keep ALL the profits as at the end of the day it is my money, my risk regardless of the model.
It is important not to assume that every OZ investor is buying blind, sure there will be those that will muddle and achieve very little, but I am also in contact with some savy investors who research and spend lots of time analysing data and organising correct structures to reduce tax etc. not every investor is tarred with the same brush.
OK, I will clarify, first trip to Atlanta was to view the area and I would recommend any forgein investor to do this, second trip was to view properties, not a necessity however a great opportunity to get away with husband and a spot of shopping at Lenox Mall which I will highly recommend.
I can not see the need to go back for quite some time, no point when you have a team doing all the work. Emails, skype etc is fine, many businesses today operate/survive using this technology.
Cheers, WI
WI
This was a good read and good points. There are alot of ways to be involved in real estate. Saying one system is better then the other . Looks like you are doing just fine. To be honest wish you found Charlotte before Atlanta . The homes and the way you have handled things are the type of clients we like to see come in. While things were down in real estate you really had to go with all clients. Now we are at the point where we can pick and choose who we deal with.Glad things are working out for you in Atlanta. Keep us updated on your trip.I keep saying I am coming to Australia but we got so busy. With the democratic National convention in Charlotte in Sept. I am hoping my wife can get off during that time so we can both do 12 days in Australia.
Talk soon
PS love Skype I am always one there
Hi Alex
Good to hear that you are doing very well. All the hard work will pay off am sure.I agree with you in the main TRR have purchased some great deals for their clients.
Charlotte is interesting from what I have researched, I am yield focused and that is what has driven me to Atlanta and that is also why I am now not purchasing as I mentioned in another post the jump in property prices.
Atlanta is just so hot at the moment.
Cheers, WI
trinalewis wrote:For those who asked about my property – it is in Smith Ridge, Norcross ( photo in my profile taken at house with Bronwyn from TTR). Next one is in Union City – rehab underway now. All great so far!! thanks , TrinaThanks for this, always interested in what other investors are sourcing.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2940-Smith-Ridge-Trce-Norcross-GA-30071/80142085_zpid/
Is this the property.
How much did it rent?
Looks pretty good, newer construction and good county.Was it difficult to secure as I know TRR have many clients and properties don't even hit the net.
Cheers, WI
jayhinrichs wrote:I think the lesson here is :One ; WI from what I have read this year has traveled to Atlanta 2 times ( of course correct me if I am wrong)… So that is 2 to 4 weeks of travel.. this probably cost at least 3k or more per trip.. Not sure how many houses she owns.. but lets say she has
4.. and lets say her cost to travel and her other soft cost accounting lawyers etc. plus I am sure she has had some maintenance, and maybe a vacancy and maybe a letting fee. So this could all add up to 10 to 12k in one year.take the 4 houses in atlanta probably rented average 850 to 900 a month.. thats 3 months of income per house per year.
And this is the honey moon period, right after an investor buys them and rehabs them,,, maintenance becomes more accute there will be vacancies and based on her e mails she is hands on and will fly over to Atlanta to deal with these issues.
So yes the gross yeild is what it is
its what is the net yield I still do not get how the Aussie can think in any terms except Net yield who the heck cares what the gross is … Its all about net..Just ask the people that posted that bought 4 houses from TRR and have had Zero net yield and probably have had negative yield they will never come close to what they thought they would get,, will probably exit the market and I will bet dollars to donuts will take a capital loss..
WI will continue to come to the US and and have this over head,,, yes its a tax deduction but its still time and money..
Now if the market turns and we all sell for double what we paid for them you will recoup…
My point is the NET yields are just fantasy because you want to beleive
wait until WI has a condenser unit go missing or a house trashed,,, It happens to ALL of us in the business…..When you play in the Blue color trending to lower neighborhoods and if you do not know what that last statement means then keep your money at home…Please we do not need anyone else losing their hard earned dollars chasing a fantasy dream.. At least I do not need it.. Some spruiekers do and other johnny come lately OZ resellers.Its funny,,, any true investment property that is sold in the US no buyer will buy it without full disclosed Pand L for the last 2 years backed up by tax returns, Sellers disclosures and the like ,, I bet non of the OZ buyers even know to ask or know what these are. you have this whole SFR industry where every one buys on promises and data that is just bull crap to say the least.
JLh
Jay
forget the $850-900 rental returns, that is why I really like the big homes at the right price, I am achieving from $1000-1300 (8 properties) so far. I certainly care about 20% gross yields, plenty of fat in the deal to mitigate any slippage and that is the point.Personally I don't need someone holding my hand, I appreciate different strokes for different folks.
I want maximum return and when I offload the properties I want to keep ALL the profits as at the end of the day it is my money, my risk regardless of the model.
It is important not to assume that every OZ investor is buying blind, sure there will be those that will muddle and achieve very little, but I am also in contact with some savy investors who research and spend lots of time analysing data and organising correct structures to reduce tax etc. not every investor is tarred with the same brush.
OK, I will clarify, first trip to Atlanta was to view the area and I would recommend any forgein investor to do this, second trip was to view properties, not a necessity however a great opportunity to get away with husband and a spot of shopping at Lenox Mall which I will highly recommend.
I can not see the need to go back for quite some time, no point when you have a team doing all the work. Emails, skype etc is fine, many businesses today operate/survive using this technology.
Cheers, WI
zmagen wrote:worldinvestor wrote:do not believe I could achieve the returns I am achieving if I purchased turn key
Absolutely, that's exactly what I'm saying.
More hassle = More profit. 4-5 weeks is spectacular, but it's the time it takes me to find and negotiate a new deal. I'd rather do more of those with lower profits.worldinvestor wrote:brilliant for the Oz investors who have purchased and plan to bring the cash home, nice little earnerYup, we've been enjoying that one too, so have clients. JPY up, AUD down, time to bring them cows home
Yep, we are on the same page.
May be a little more work but all worth it to achieve better results.Infact I do not like the idea of a property with a tenant in place, no control whatsoever.
Cheers, WI
Hi Ziv
I personally like to buy, renovate and then tenant all within 4-5 week period. This has been cost effective for me and I do not believe I could achieve the returns I am achieving if I purchased turn key.Jay
Maintenance issues, sure I think this is a big one for all investors, as you mentioned in previous posts you need to account for I think around $2000 per property….. yield is very important to help mitigate this.
Its not all bad for the A Oz investor – the re-assessment of county taxes will improve the rental yield significantly in some cases.
Also, we now see the Oz $ starting to decline, my gut tells me it may now struggle to maintain recent levels, this is brilliant for the Oz investors who have purchased and plan to bring the cash home, nice little earner.
WI
jayhinrichs wrote:would be extremely rare if a company like TRR that is doing 100 homes a year or so would have any direct pipeline to any bank save the odd one… When they say bank they probably mean short sales,, and the for profit auctions.-All TRR properties are purchased direct from Bank or auction, I assume they work with a realtor, my point is there is no huge mark up on properties no hidden costs etc, the investor pays a one off fee of $4000 for TRR to secure the property.
They currently manage over 300 properties from information I have sourced.This is attractive when you consider the outrageous markup on properties in US, as much as 50%+.
Most companies selling foreclosures to investors require a membership fee of $4000+, do not disclose the address, so they can tack on their huge markups.
Cheers, WI
J.Simpson wrote:I had a bad experience just thousands of others not naming any company in particular but they all do the same thing which is flipping for want of a better word. I lost 60K and almost my home but instead of getting angry i took them on. I set up my own US property firm We don't sell homes for a start We just sell the service and source property to meet investors needs with no financial interest in the property as it should be. I too have heard so many people tell me their stories about slick sales men but if there is just one thing i can advise it is this. Get the full address before making any commitment you may laugh and think of course but you will be very surprised how many just will not disclose it because that opens the door for you to do your research through zillow.com and trulia.com and the like. If ever there is an issue getting the full address walk away fast! this should solve 90% of the problems providing you do your homework. I actually wrote to the 7:30 report (email) thanking them on their story and for 3 years now asking ASIC to play ball with this industry for tighter regulation in most cases these companies change their names every so often or have 2 separate companies running full of smoke and mirrors. Anyway my 2 cents worth i don't get to the forums too much but glad to provide my insight where i can. In most cases there is 10% commission on sale to the Aussie agent on average but some may secure as much as 30k if they are doing the US part as well, I should know i get asked to flog the same over priced crap on other sites almost every week. All the best Jason Simpson http://www.cashflowgold.com.auHi there
I agree with your comments – if an address is not provided walk.I am amazed at how many investors will buy blind regardless. Buying property from these groups is akin to playing Russian routlette, how can you possibly make an informed decision when you have no idea what you are purchasing.
WI
Hi Trina
Depends where you are purchasing, I believe some formites have secured finance in Texas at US rates. Texas Cash Cows can help.However, different story when purchasing in other areas, I can speak for Atlanta, I have looked at various hard money lenders etc, rates are high, fees are high and overall very risky scenario. I also had my lawyer look at a couple of these, his reply was not to touch them.
I am purchasing in Atlanta and I know I will can not source the product you mentioned. Unless it ticks the boxes I would not be interested, just another layer of fees.
Cheers, WI
quickchick wrote:We have found the above info to be true,
Namely that you do have to be in the States to set up a bank account. unless you have very big contacts there.
I think it has to be a notary who will personally vouch for you, ie has met you in person and will I.D. you in Aus with your Aussie passport.
You certainly need a real US address (not a post office box) for mail from your US bank.Make sure your bank operates in the area you are doing business! Not at all necessarily so.
Don't expect Aussie interest rates and terms! You'd be dreaming!
Don't expect to ever borrow from a US bank without a social security number (ie a visa and living in USA).
This is our experience, but others may know of a different way…Look at transferring money through a foreign exchange group (we use and like OzForex.)
Quick and easy, much cheaper than using either an Aus or US bank to transfer money.Ruth
propertyinvestingusa.comHi Ruth
we have set up bank accounts from Aus, our lawyer organised this, bank requiring address in US, that's correct, we use our property management companies address.WI
Hi Rowan
Anyone's guess, I have watched the Aus $ go from 94 to 1.08 over the last 12 months. However, my gut tells me we are going to see the Aus $ start to decline and remain below US$.
Where was Aus $ when you purchased in Atlanta? Personally I see this could present as a great opportunity to bring funds from US back to Aus.
Do you subscribe to Ozforex, good to get the weekly update.
The latest update belowAustralian Dollar:
It was a familiar story for the Australian dollar overnight with risk being shed across the board. Global stocks slid as did commodities with fears that Greece could leave the Euro-zone gripping markets. With attempts at forming a new government again failing in Greece, continued insecurity and volatilities across global markets have investors braced for the very real chance that proposed austerity measures may fail. After dipping briefly below the parity level against its US Counterpart during local trade, the Australian dollar failed to hold such levels dropping to an overnight low of 0.9956 against the Greenback. Opening this morning below parity for the first time this year the Reserve Bank are set to release the minutes from their most recent meeting today with any further hints at future rate cuts likely to lead to further downside movements in the Australian Dollar.WI
nyc88 wrote:Hi WorldInvestor, thanks for providing an update and I have enjoyed reading your posts on your adventures in Atlanta. I'm glad you are pleased with how well your properties are performing. Another investor has given me the name of his accountant (based in Atlanta) and I'm wondering if you know of any investors who have worked with him. Would you please send me a private message and I'll reply to you and you are not receiving private messages? I'm looking to speak to an accountant who is based in Atlanta. Thank you.Hi there
Sorry, can not help you I have not dealt with any accountants in Atlanta.I have used James from US Tax Central based in QLD. He seems to be reasonably good, however it is early days. His fees were reasonable, however my situation has now changed so it will be interesting what he charges this financial year.
Last year he organised my US tax returns to align with Australian Tax, makes sense to do this.
Not sure whether investors have also considered setting up loans against properties. I arranged this with my lawyer in Atlanta, as I do not plan to pay any tax in US.
Cheers, WI
Hi Alex
TRR have been very successful as they have been able to generally provide a decent product and as they are buying direct from the Bank there are no added commissions. As I said I know some investors who have purchased some great properties and when I was in Atlanta last year I viewed a couple.I think they have sold over 300 homes.
Cheers, WI
Here is the link which provides info/addresses on properties TRR has purchased.
https://picasaweb.google.com/115538073800065255894?gsessionid=19qOn-0-8nQ8oVveQjIsGw
jayhinrichs wrote:When anyone or company says they rent a property in one weeks time,,, big red flag for me.Our portfolio in Atlanta we average 4 to 6 weeks to get a tenant and thats because we usually have to go through 3 to 4 applications before we choose one.
Atlanta is a big place like WI says… And it has just as bad as neighborhoods as anywhere,,, if you get out in the suburbs its much better thats thats the sand box we play in.
TRR if they were sourcing properties through Key property investments then they are getting hit and miss for sure.. Although I have seen some of their properties on line and they were pretty decent,,, Reno's were grossly over stated and like WI suggests 3 months to reno means no one is working on them… And or they are selling more than they are capable of handling.
Its why we never do more than 5 a month in any market you lose operational quality and control.
If your waiting 3 months for insurance check you may not be getting it… Read your fine print on your insurance check.. Some insurance has 30 day vacancy and others 60 unless you specifically paid for builders risk you may be out of luck if the properties sat vacant more than the above mentioned time frame..
Again these are not uncommon experinces its just hard for people to post these kinds of result because they then feel like they have been taken advantage of.
My partner in Atlanta … Has shown me properties that he knows OZ investors have bought that NEVER got rented been vacant a year and are totally vandilized…these were in clayton county.
At the end of the day that is why our TWH model is so compelling to US investors.. If this person had invested in 4 properties with me.. they would have gotten 4 checks each month without fail for the last year.. Never more but never less !!!!!!!!!!!! And never a zero return, which from the sounds of it is probably going to go negative based on Vandilism..
I still can't see why OZ investors think that they can deal with these OZ reselling companies that have no experince in the market place makes no sense to me… I guess maybe because they speak your language or something they know what buttons to push.
I would love to see a closing statement on one of the TRR deals Unless they are on the HUD 1 as the sellers here you go again another company selling real estate without a license… Just incredible to me really. And right now as competitive as Atlanta is if they are double escrowing these they are going to have a hard time buying houses of the quality most investors want to buy… Too many US investors in the game now that will out bid and out perform the double escrow companies.
JLH
JLH
JLH
Jay
TRR do not purchase from wholesalers, they purchase direct from the bank.
I know a number of investors who have purchased properties through TRR and I believe they are decent properties.
I think they have been purchasing in Atlanta for perhaps 3 years now and also providing a property management service. As I mentioned, when they started they had no experience and unfortunately they unwittingly purchased some properties in undesirable areas.
WI
trinalewis wrote:Hi,
In response to the request re posting my property purchases – would you like the addresses?
thanks
TrinaTrina
that would be great to share this information.Cheers, WI
trinalewis wrote:I have bought one property from TRR last year, and have been delighted with it all.
Obviously – I was a bit nervous at first – it is a long way away – but it is a great property and the team at TTR were great.
The property took a few weeks to rent – but that was because they wanted to get the right quality of tenant in there to avoid issues later. I went over to check the property out in April this year in person and met the tenant – fabulous – couldn't have asked for a better quality of reno or tenant. Obviously there is always rental risk, as there is here in Australia – but that is the risk you take for the greater return.Since April, I have bought another – and to date that is all going very smoothly also.
I am really very, very pleased with my experience and recommend TRR to all my friends. I aim to buy another property with them by the end of this year. Happy to respond to any queries about my experience. Trina
Hi Trina
Can you post your property purchases?Thanks
WI
AKNZ wrote:We own 4 properties which we acquired through Top Rental Returns which we acquired just over 12 months ago. Over this period, two properties have been fine, but the other two havent. We got tenants at one point in properties 3 and 4 but they never paid rent aside from the initial month and so both had to be evicted. We understand the third property has been rented again, but dont know yet when the tenant will move in. The 4th property was vandalised while vacant and we are waiting for the insurance company to come through with a cheque to repair – so far this has taken more than 3 months. In 12 months, the net cash yield, pre debt, across all 4 properties is essentially zero Interested to hear how others are going. We may have been unlucky and fingers crossed for a much better year next year!!!! We will update on progress.I have heard similar stories from other investors who have purchased through TRR.
My understanding is that when TRR initially purchased in Atlanta they purchased in some undesirable areas due to lack of experience/knowledge and it was a bit of hit and miss, hence the tenant issues. I also know that they take approximately 3 months from purchase to completing rehab, this is a killer as far as I am concerned. I would be looking at no more than 4 weeks.
They have also purchased some great deals, unfortunately though some poor investors who purchased from TRR in the early stages may now be left in the cold.
WI
More hassle = More profit. 4-5 weeks is spectacular, but it's the time it takes me to find and negotiate a new deal. I'd rather do more of those with lower profits.
