Aussie off to buy US property – anyone want to join me??

Sapphire,

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, we have been flat out.

It’s great to have our first professional critic. Thank you for your praise. We know we are doing very good things for people. There are few errors you have made once again due to not contacting us directly which in turn has lead to making assumptions as to the way we work. Most importantly 677 Alta Place Atlanta – the duplex which you said was purchased 6 months ago for 20K is in fact a REO or bank owned property which we have purchased on behalf of our client. We do not hold and on sell any of our own property preferring to source great deals for investors direct from the banks foreclosed inventory.

Please find attached, as you may not have seen, the tax records for this property. These have come from the FMLS listing details which we pass onto clients and details the county appraised values, sales history and mortgage details as you have explained in your post. The figure you discussed of $22,500 was the actual foreclosure deed on the property on 12^th Nov 09 – not a sale price. The last actual market sale on the property was 29^th Nov 2005 for $255,000. We are more than happy to go through these reports that can appear confusing even to experienced investors. We do feel it is essential to provide as much information as we can for people to make an educated decision and welcome people to question the figures.

Now we have addressed that issue lets go into the deal a little closer as you have chosen this one as the example.

We have been very conservative with the figures we have provided the client presenting under estimated rents based on comparable data and over estimating renovation costs. Our final build quote came in nearly 10K cheaper which of course our client is delighted with. This property will then have a net 25% return – where else in the world can you achieve that?

Expenses include ongoing insurance, property management and county taxes.

Taxes on foreclosed properties are based on the county assessed value which occurs generally every two years. Therefore as we are dealing with properties that sold for high prices in the boom the county taxes appear high. Due to the low purchase price our clients are picking up properties for, we suggest they request a new appraisal of the property which in turn may reduce the county value and therefore the county taxes required to be paid.

We cannot know what the future taxes are to be upon reappraisal and have therefore done our best to estimate/calculate this figure.

We do not know of any other agent in Australia or the US providing the level of service we do, plus the added benefit of dealing with Australians on the ground. We do not load any services or take trails or kickbacks from any referrer and actively hunt for the best services and prices for our clients.

We search for properties based on our client’s interests and our strict requirements. It is a balance to find desirable property in quality areas for a low purchase price. We could find property in prestigious areas such as Buckhead with a much larger budget, but they would not return 20% net ,defeating the purpose of investing in high yielding property which is what we are all after on this forum.

We do not sell property we would not be comfortable to buy ourselves. We walk away from many properties where the area, the street or the property do not stack up. We know people would expect no less of us. We believe our standards are quite high.

Alta Place is a quiet no through street where the neighbours are very friendly and houseproud. Not what I would call “the hood” in anyway shape or form. It may be interesting for your Atlantan contact to drive the street and take a look. And finally yes we agree this is a brilliant high yielding deal, as does the client.

This is not a market where you can buy anything simply because it is cheap and we agree that location is important. Not all areas off the Bankhead Hwy are suitable to invest in but this pocket is.

Rather than batting backwards and forwards on the forum please give us a call to go through any queries you may have as we are happy to discuss our process and the way we invest at anytime and would love to hear about your investment experiences in the US.

At the end of the day we are all on this forum looking to achieve the goal of investing in high yielding property and it would be far more helpful for people to hear about others investment experiences rather than tear apart the efforts of people are trying to or thinking about having a go.

By the way we are here in Atlanta everyday and if you would like to drop in we would love to show you or anyone around our properties. Once again please contact us via our contact details below. We would like to show you a bit about us, what we do, our conviction to our clients and our process.

For hardworking Australians investing in US foreclosure real estate we are trying to do very good things for people just like us.

Although it is imperative to understand the risks involved with any investment or purchase we do believe it to be more fruitful for longtime forum goers like yourself to lead by personal example, particularly if the experience relates to the forum at hand. Otherwise it does appear to be nitpicking at those sharing and having ago by those that are not. Thoughts?