Usa property contacts

Guys stay away from any where that has a horrible winter ( in the USA ), just asking for to many potential problems( I agree very strongly with Jay Hinrich ). Also if I can go and buy a neighborhood of homes for $5k each. What type of investment can I really have. To give a better example my partner and  I are buying 67 homes in  Rock hill SC. The numbers would look great if I put them out there. This is not the true picture. These homes are in a rough area . I already own homes there and know what I am dealing with. So I will buy rehab and keep most of the homes. The true picture is this is only for a hands on investor who is on the ground for some thing like this.

There are to many factors for out of state investors that would make these properties unattractive to over seas investors. Such as neighborhood , type of tenants ( you will get )

So again make sure to do your research and not just pay attention to cash on cash return , or rental income. There are alot of hidden factors that investors, and wholesalers forget to discuss.

Guess that is why I like pretty homes 15 years or newer ( less headaches) less problems)

just my 2 cents

have a great day

Sincerely
Alex Franks

selectusaproperty.com – or if you are looking to buy in LA, PM (email link) me for info. 13+ years of successful US investing means please don’t waste their (or my) time. 10 years ago people thought I was mad. 5 years ago it was ‘how did you make your money?’ Now I wonder why I gave people so much free info and contacts that they never bothered to contact.

I have never understood why people seem to be so keen to throw money away on the Gold Coast style Real Estate Developer and Part Time Tax specialist types when there are 24 carat gold contacts out there that no one seems interested in.

I must have had too much to drink tonight to write this….

I made at least 2000 calls in ’97 to find someone who could help. I struck gold. I didnt have any money back then but bought $1m worth of LA real estate with credit cards. That was when the dollar was worth something. I have found management difficult to run the way I want, but I have a sizeable collection of US property now. The rip offs I see appearing I find intensely annoying – especially given the genuine agents out there who get no calls from Aussies at all. I havent bought a single foreclosure and I havent bought outside LA but I started to watch the market more closely when I saw what I could only term australian lemmings racing over to lose money with a million Henry Kaye disciples.

I urge anyone to think for themselves and get their own contacts, but if you are genuine and want LA (contact me) or LV (you can go to the website yourself) particularly then those are very good places to start.

One suggestion I followed was not to play the LLC game as it makes no difference to your au tax and really only stops someone serving papers on you, which they cant do really if the person is overseas. Net effect is add to your accounting bills (mine are quite enough already) for no net benefit.

BTW its not really me that gets time wasters. Emma in LV is australian and therefore used to dealing with us, but I dont want every man and his dog tying up my LA agent for no reason. And either would help with everything you want, its just two that I will guarantee are NOT going to rip anyone off. I have mentioned my contacts in the past to countless people, but until it was ‘trendy’ no one cared – lemmings?

I dont think it is difficult to buy (although the structured finance I get in LA is not simple) but having someone care about you after the sale definately is. Im talking 2-3 years down the track when I think most guys will realise they have near worthless shells instead of dream investments. With $1-200k to play with I think most people would be better off with a 7-10% return on a $1m+ West Hollywood or Malibu VF resi deal (I don’t buy those either, but you are dealing with ‘quality’ tenants etc and you can get a LOT with a little over there right now) but sadly everyone wants ‘bargains’ which I think most will find become very expensive and impossible to manage.

Stick to your guns, Tahoe would be a great place – half your luck!

I would strongly urge you to look at the VF way of doing business. Tahoe would probably open up a lot of possibilities. Find a quality property for 'normal' sale (something you don't think you can afford) and find out about the person selling it. What do they want or need?

If you have $100k for example and a place is $1m. They might have a loan of say $800k – ask if you can 'assume' it, ie: take over their loan, give them the 100k, or even get them to carry the paper on the place and put down nothing. As in, if you had $100k offer it obviously, but maybe go for zero down and offer to assume the mortgage, ask them if they would be interested in $200k interest only at 6% over 5 years – pay them the lump sum then, in 5 years….. Worth a shot – its worked many times for me.

I _really_ like to see people not rushing off down the path everyone does and look only for foreclosed 'bargains'. There are many out there, but you _really_ need to know what you are doing (or have someone you trust help) to make it work. Keep up the great work, I think you are being conservative and smart…

jjrose wrote:

Hi all,
Have been a bit of a lurker on these forums for about a year now, first time post however…. I'm wondering can anyone recommend a usa buyers agent (non turnkey properties) in California (Sierra Nevada area)? For background I've lived in the USA before (work visa, know the area I want to buy in inside and out), have my own funds and a SSN, just looking for a contact who will assist with bank account and facilitate the buying process start to end, but I'd like to find my own property…..have done a lot of research and keep finding companies that will sell you their properties which isn't what I'm after…..

Any leads would be most welcome ~ thanks in advance.

From what I garner from you post, all you really need is a Local Real Estate attorney to sheppard the deal. Although in the states a good Real Estate broker will do all of this for you. With a SSN # you can open an account.  LLC in my mind is not necessary just buy a umbrella policy for protection cost the same or less and actually gives you big dollar protection.

Again just contact a Real Estate broker have them send you listings off the MLS and there you go. I flew over Tahoe yesterday its one special place thats for sure, I grew up skiing there. A little crowded now for my taste.

And property is very expensive in certain areas especially lake front which will be many millions per parcel.

So no cash flow just enjoyment.

My other recommendaiton would be just to hire a local attorney on retainer, Tell him or her what you want to do and give them a budget this is a no brainer for them.

JLH

PS been California RE broker since 1975………………………….

Tahoe is pretty popular. Not sure you going to see that kind of price compression there. Its not he central valley.

You cannot assume morgages in the US anymore, you can however take title SUBJECT TOO: although all deeds of trust and Morgages have Alienation clauses. Which state the loan can be called if the titel changes hands. Ergo lost of contract for deed transactions.

Folks that have those high of mortgage balances tend to be far more sophiticated than those that have 100k mortgages or lower. So they are much more difficult to work with on anything that does not pay off their existing mortgage if they are to convey title.

Anyone bought US Property as an investment and being a non-us citizen? What are the drawbacks ? and is this possible ?
Homes for Sale | Ingersoll Scott Real Estate

A few thoughts after reading the post…

If you want to buy US property, get Steve McKnight's US Property Power Pack. Lots of education, much cheaper than learning the hard way..

Decide before you set up a US structure (eg LLC) where you want to buy. Then set up your structure in the same state.
And avoid costs of registering to run a business in that state for a "foreign" (ie interstate) LLC.
You still have to pay state tax in the state you are doing business, from my understanding, whether your LLC is from a no state tax paying state.

The only money you can borrow in US, is from (private) hard money lenders. Generally you need 50% deposit cash, they will lend you around 50% at around 12-13% interest in general. (The safeguard is, hard money lenders generally know the local market, and will not finance a deal they consider to have an inflated price.)
Easier and cheaper, to borrow equity from Australian property. But beware of your liability to changing exchange rates, ($US to $AUD).

In my opinion, if you don't have money to buy at least $100,000 of property, the net profit is not worth your set up and accounting fees for quite a while.

Be prepared to do your own research.

Jay, foreign investors can't get a SSN# unless they move to USA. They can get an ITIN however (similar to tax file number in Aus). 
Easier to get an ITIN if you have an EIN (employer -in our case entity eg LLC- identification number.)

understand that refinancing your AUS home is risky to purchase US property.

But it may actually help you pay off your AUS home sooner

Borrow @ 7% in AUS

Purchase a property net returning 15% in Atlanta?

You could be closer to the Aussie and American dream by doing this?

only issue is worrying about not having the place rented

by land on line

Had a look at your web site. Looks like your buying tax sale properties for cash given the randomness of the locations and parcel's your offering then owner financing them.

From what I have seen on this Forum most if not all the investors are really looking for cash flow producing properties and ones that are cheap

there is a company in the SF Bay Area that really hits San Bernadino and Riverside counties real  hard and has sold thousands of these tax defaulted properties over the last 30 years. He was real heavy selling to the Chineese community.

for our Aussie friends a little history on Land development Circa 1900 to 1930's

Between 1910 and 1930  Early Real Estate developers in CA. and other states  carved up millions upon millions of acres of land throughout the states. creating legal lots of record and ergo a taxable property. In the ole days the developers did not need to put in roads power water sewer or any other type of infrastructure and as such most of these properties are not developable for housing. Yes one can own them pay the small tax bill yearly.

During the depression for instance Movie theathers would give out deeds to these properties for going to 5 movies in a 30 day period. So at the end of the day you have deeded ownership of all these parcels to literally millions of people around the world. And what has happened over the years is people die and just stop paying tax's or their kids inherit the property and they try to find it literally realize it has no value and they stop paying the tax's… The properties are then sold at TAx sale auction for in a lot of case's next to nothing and I mean nothing 100 dollars, sometimes they will go higher up to 500 and 1000. 

So there are business's that do nothing but scoure the country buying these properties and then remarketing them by selling them on contract and they a make a living collecting the monthly cash flow…. There is a good market for cheap property by and large that people will think hey for 5k 500 down and 50 a month I own a property.

Now not all properties like this are unbuildable but a very large % are that is why they are let go for tax's and thats why you can buy them for these prices. And in the old days when buildable lots where 100's of thousands buying these little cheapies was appealling.

I for one am a big proponant of buying land. However I only buy land that I know can be built on or is clearly in the path of progress like my Oregon land holdings.

But if someone wanted to stick their toe in the US water as it were you could search a few of the properteis out from a company like this gentlemens do some good research on if they are buildable under current zoning and health codes and it could be a good way to have yourself something that is no hassle.

Just always keep this in mind in the US you can definatly own a property but you definantly do not have the right to build on said property by the fact that you own it. It must meet city and state zoning and health codes. And these codes change over the years.
The biggest issue will be on site sewage systems. There are counties in CA like Sonoma county that its next to impossible to put septic systems on a smaller property. I know I own 2 ocean view lots at Jenner by the sea and if they were built on in the 50's there would be a house there today but today you cannot get a septic approved. CA is working on some new septic rules but who knows how long.