Actually, I think sample deal breakdowns are very helpful – not from the "model property, this is what you should be looking for" perspective, but more for the purchase/annual costs breakdowns, the details of the process involved, and the criteria used generally (aka "why we recommended this property").

We receive very positive feedbacks on the deal breakdown sample on our website – it actually paints a very clear picture for people of what they should expect, as opposed to "bottom lines".

Thanks for reminding me, time to post another deal breakdown here too

How would he do that? Did he have a PayPal account, was readily willing to get one, or do you charge their credit card? Very interesting concept!

Yup, hassle free is right. The Japanese are so spoiled with this hassle-free management, even the monthly property manager's "all is well" and rental income report and the annual tax-return hassle of communicating with an accountant is too much for them sometimes – we've now started receiving interests from foreigners living in Japan, of all places – people who work in Tokyo, but want to invest in Kyushu, and can't be bothered to research, communicate and "manage" by themselves (if you can even call that "management"). No complaints on our part

lifrey, out of curiosity, how do you plan on handling emergencies/issues when they occur? Do you plan on personally visiting to address stuff every time, or do you count on your property manager to do everything for you?

Couldn't agree more, timing is crucial in every market. And since there's always some crisis happening somewhere, "the world's our oyster", so to speak. just invest somewhere you enjoy dealing with, is my motto, as you'll be dealing with a local team if you're going to be owning property directly.

Would love to hear more about the cash-flow you're describing in Aus. Existing pre-tax yields, ROI expectations, equity speculation, areas, etc etc etc, as much as you can spare the time to list. Always great to learn from successful deal breakdowns 

I haven't run across any area in Australia, even in recent years, which have definitely improved here opportunity-wise, that I was confident could generate sustainable positive cash-flow much beyond 6-7% long-term (which quite a few fund/bond/note setups, and even general everyday interest with some clever foreign exchange play can do with far less hassle).

The existing properties with dev potential and subsequent build sound interesting and like something that has potential to break this mold, and Australia's not a bad place to deal with as a rule – so I'd love to see an example of one of those (don't need identifying info of course, just area and type of residence, some numbers etc).

Thanks again for the tip!

Thanks for that lol There are quite a few members on here, in various stages of the pre, mid and post purchase with us, who can probably testify to the pros better than me, so I'll play devil's advocate to myself and, for the sake of integrity, list the cons, as well as the counters to them –

1. Japan is Asian, which to those unfamiliar with the vast differences between the various countries in the continent, seems alien and dangerous – ironically, people feel that an English speaking environment offers less risk – as you and others can unfortunately testify, this is probably as far from the truth as possible, and while they're probably correct in Indonesia and China, to name a few "dodgy" Asian countries, in Japan's case, I don't know of any business environment that offers a more regulated and honest purchase and holding experience (which, coupled with personal circumstance, is what drew me there in the first place).

2. The more realistic side of the language barrier, is that you'd need to have a Japanese speaker at your side, or use a multi-lingual proxy like ourselves, and people are usually concerned that, should we some day go out of business for any reason, they'd be stuck holding an alien language deed and trying to communicate with people who don't speak a word of English. While this is true for all future purchases, (when you want to expand/sell, you'll indeed need to contact a property-savvy multi-lingual realtor there, which would probably cost more than we do) – but considering the zero-maintenance management involved in Japanese properties, all you'd really need to do in order to continue and manage your portfolios in such a case is pay a Japanese foreign exchange student $10 an hour or so, to continue receiving reports on a monthly basis and read them to you, or when a tenant moves out (once every 4-5 years on average in Japan), ask them to "be your mouth" in front of the PM until the property is tenanted again.

3. Finance to non-residents just doesn't exist. On the upside, it's quite achievable through Hong-Kong and Singapore banks, who are more than happy to loan against properties overseas (providing you meet their criteria of course). However, the overhead in most of these cases (flight to HK/Sing, Incorporation fees, setup costs etc) would dictate a certain minimum portfolio size and yield, and profitability needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis – whereas if you're purchasing with cash, you can be quite comfortably profitable on even one tiny property in Japan without a problem (again, as mentioned above, very different from the state of affairs with US or other overseas property investments, where if you don't plan to hold a substantial portfolio, you wouldn't really want to venture).

4. Then of course there's the capital gain issue. While this seems to be improving, for the first time in almost two decades, it's still pure speculation – and for some people, even 15% (which can definitely be achieved in Japan, just takes a bit of digging) is not worth the hassle if there isn't the potential for CG. Personally, I don't like this casino mentality one bit – I prefer my cashflow reliable, stable and realistic (I'm boring and chicken like that) – but I understand the "get rich or die trying" mentality too. Some people just can't wait 5-9 years to get their principal back, if they can't get out with a large profit in 3-5 years they feel it's not worth their time. Takes all sorts.

"In the US or PG"- thought you were talking about Papua new guinea there for a minute lol.

The US is far from being the only place where you can get serviceable, affordable (eg diverse) and positively geared properties. There are other places that'll get you that with far less of a hassle and MUCH lower risk – also much closer to home