My USA Property

Hi there British Buyer,

I've actually been reading all of your posts for a few days actually. Interesting stuff!

The problem is that I don't have $100k sitting in the bank to have a premier account

I'm going to purchase a property for around 50k-80k and put down a 30% cash deposit as I don't have enough equity in my current property yet (only bought it a couple of months ago)

I was told the broker that it was high because I was a foreign invester…. I take it this obviously isn't true

Thanks for your reply

Hi everyone,

I recently had a meeting with Tony from myUSAproperty at the Brisbane branch.

I have a couple of questions that I would like to clarify with people who have previously dealt with myUSAproperty.

1) When they said the property had been recently refurbished, did you had to fork out any additional money to get the property up to scratch?

2) If the property is tenanted, did they provide details on how long the tenant had been living in the property, a history of the tenant paying rent on time, how much had the property rented in the past when property prices were higher?

3) I have trouble getting my head around this question – I have been advised that when you put in an offer for a USA property, at that point in time, you do not actually know what the interest rate will be if you are applying for a loan from a US bank. Only once you place an offer on the property, then the bank will advise on your interest rate which will depend on the previous owners level of debt and mortage rate. Once the bank offers you an interest rate, you can decline and retract your offer since the purchase contrat is subject to finance. Is this how the procedure goes?  I have also been advised that on average, interest rates are around 7% which seems awfully high for the USA at this point in time.

4) With the cheapy properties that myUSAproperty offer (around the 20K mark), I was advised that there is no guarantees whether or not the property has been refurbished. This sounds really odd to me. Do you know if myUSAproperty actually visit the properties individually or do they simply take an agents word for it?

5) Are you receiving the returns that you were expecting?

Hi Everyone.

I have been reading your comments about My USA Property and Loans USA.  I must disagree with you.  I have purchased two properties in Florida using Loans USA.  My interest rate was 6.75%, fixed for 3 years, they offered me the 9.75 % rate and it was fixed for 15 years.  The lass I dealt with was excellent – he name was Melinda.  Very helpful indeed.  I think you should call back and ask to speak with her – a bit of a charactor to speak to – but very knowlegable.  I unfortunatley had to deal with the last gent in the office Adrian who I have heard has left – he seemed not to know much of what was happening or ever emailed me back.

The only complaint I had was the fact that they needed more information that originally asked for.  This I have discovered is because they are finding better deals all the time and each bank has different requirements.

I went the path of contacting the banks directly myself, this was not successful.  They insist that you are in the US to sign documents.  Something I do not have the means to do each time I want to finance a property.

The service I have recieved at My USA Property is just excellent also. 

On the finance again.  I think what you have to remeber is that it is difficult even for the Yanks to get a loan atm.  The small amount of finance we are getting is well nothing.  I borrowed 70% LTV of my properties.  that amounted to a whole $80K.
I really think if you are concerned about the finance side of things that lass Melinda or her boss Steven McClatchy would be a great help. If Melinda doesnt have the answer – she certainly finds out quick smart for you.

So good luck with your investing.  I have found it really profitable. My properties were leased on a section 8 (Government paid rentals). I was provided with a funding position on each property, Great pictures. Even a copy of the lease agreements!

Go forth and invest

kurnstur

I have never heard of My USA properties. But I noted their first property currently listed on their site is from Kansas City Missouri.

I am a an Investor, Realtor, and manager of the Local Real Estate Investor Association in Kansas City Missouri and I have to ask exactly where they have a house worth $53,000 as theirs is listed.

If it is in a better area and 100% renovated great. But if it is on one of 1000’s of blocks of our urban core areas where 1 in 20 houses are renovated and maybe occupied and you can buy fairly decent rehabbed properties from $20,000 up, then I have to say that their prices seem very high.

Before buying any properties in the US from anyone I would recommend several things:

1) asking questions right here on this site to see if anyone else has good things to say.

2) contacting a real estate investment group in the city in question and picking one or two contacts there to ask questions. It could be very well worth the $40 to $300 to join the local real estate investment association to save you $1000s in wasted money.

In my position in Kansas City I receive 2 or 3 calls a month from out of state and out of country investors who want to “wholesale” me a property for $30,000 that they bought for $20,000 and who are very dejected when I tell them that I would not take the property if they gave it to me.

So do your homework on the city in question before you buy a house!

My first post here as I just learned of Property Investing site yesterday. I live in Grandview, MO, a South Suburb of KC about 15 minutes from downtown. All the above posts about KC being a good RE investment city are right on, and lots of great bargains
here for investors. A protege of mine says he sees the situation lasting for another year, maybe two.

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Lplate101

Properties for $40,000 and under are abundant across USA. Just look on http://www.trulia.com or http://www.realtor.com and you will see plenty of properties across USA at very low prices. But remember just because it is low price does not mean it is necessarily even worth that, a vacant property that will not increase in value is worthless to an investor.

James

Speedy,
Be sure to check out zillow thoroughly to see whether you're getting a reasonable deal.  eg.  If you look at that property you'll see that it looks like that it was for sale at $45,000 in Jan this year and by Sept this year it had dropped to $14,990??
Some people are happy to pay a premium for houses to be renovated and handed to them on a platter, and that's fine, just be sure to do your DD and research the areas/houses well.  The question is, what sort of premium are you prepared to pay, and what are you looking to achieve out of the investment? How much would it cost to employ someone to do the work for you, remembering on a whole, labour/rehab's are much cheaper in the States then what you'd pay here.
I'd be checking all of this out first and doing all the research you can to check on figures like that…
My guess would be, this looks like a classic flip deal??
Cheers
reme

Interesting that you all mention the word caution so much.  I have come to think that the amount of money I am investing in the US market is similar to the amount I would be putting into a term deposit for my kids education.  I dont size up the bank,. take multiple photos of it or check out what every other web site is saying,  I simply look at the numbers.

That is why I think we are sucessfully purchasing in the US.  We are keeping emothion out of it and just looking at the numbers.

I think if you actually speak to My USA Property, then call the people at Loans USA and let them all explain what they are offering you will see that it IS a non emotional choice you are making.  They give you an excell spread sheet that has all the numbers on it.  The guy there Steven is the owner, he seems very experienced at the US market. 

We are now looking at properties in Memphis.  They are all newly rehabbed and if your super suspect you can even see them on youtube! A full home inspection! Technology is just unreal!   They have let me know that I will OWN the property in 5 years.  The rent pays my mortgage.

Hi there…

Has anyone looked into the Dymphna Boholt US Property group?
It is $5,000 for the course including a 3 day boot camp, reading material and a bus tour in the US.

Keen to hear anyone's thoughts on this?

Josh

>>I can transfere the properties at anytime into the LLC name

Wouldn't this involve paying stamp duty twice or whatever the US equivalent property ownership transfer tax is called?