soooo Who here ownes property in USA ?

Didn't Steve just announce he will take 30 people on tour of the States next year, not real sure but I think he said all expenses paid (flights, accommodation, meals etc) $10,000  … sounds great! Now I just have to sell a kidney.

Seems like a cruise ship without the water. Once "on board" you don't pay for anything. Hopefully the Pacific Northwest is in the itinerary. I'm sure we will hear more details as the dates get closer.

Hello Stacy   be careful in the states when one offers these high returns.I am in the states and some of our deals for local, national, and foreign investors never reach those high returns . Now there are some that do give a high return but one must take into consideration the areas these properties are in . In the USA you will have a different spread of homes and different rates given buy every wholesaler or turn key operator.Hope this helps .

sincerely
Alex Franks

We bought 2 properties in the vacinity of Atlanta, Georgia. For me, the most important relationship that you need to built is with your property manager. I have access to my property portforlio through my property management portal. There I can see my statements, rent payment, expense etc. I get informed once the rental income has been deposited into my account. So constantly communication with your property manager is vital. So far the experienced has been great.

 I've just signed up for the 3rd property and looking to buy near Atlanta, Georgia, again.

Risk??? What risk?! Ask Steve McNight, he bought 100s of properties  from 10K to 20K in the US Last seminar I"ve attend with him, he showed the property he bought in Florida for 15K and hundreds similar properties like that he purchased some above 20K, others under 30K…so he went for quantity primarily which gives him HIGH yield. I have absolutely no problem emulating his approach.

Again, every investors are different….different strategic and different goals to achieve. No strategic fit all. I rather put it this way, the investor is the risk, not the investment. Why? If you blend in with the local, knows the market well studied well, attend seminars,  have good contacts on the ground etc., your chances of succeeding in real estate investment is HIGH.

On the other hand, if you are investor from remote location, have no contacts on the ground, done no market research about the target area, have not read any books about real estate investment, attended no seminars, have no  contacts in the ground, the chances of succeeding in real estate investment is very LOW…hence you are the risk, NOT the investment. BTW, don't quote me on that, I heard that from Robert Kiyosaki, who's worth only billions of dollars.

If I owned hundreds of properties and or had a billion dollars, real estate investment really wouldn't be risky. The occasional stinker would be analogous to having candy pinched at the convenience store – its just a business expense, On the other hand, if your a small investor or just starting out then individual issues with a management company or a particularly vexing set of renters can really impact cash flow and capital.
I do not totally disagree with your entry. The point I would take is to understand that as stated above  – real estate investment is a risk. It is about numbers first and there is a touch of luck. In the long run luck evens out. An investor needs to have adequate resources to absorb the inevitable "hit". Hope for the best but plan for the worst. Adequate volume and diversity of investment provide a safety net. Sometimes a deal seems like a "slam-dunk" (remember CIA Director George Tenet of George the Lesser's administration) other times the ground is deemed unfit for development (please refer to Disney World). 
As with most things – if you work hard and have a talent you are likely to succeed. Golf is a game of luck the more you practice the luckier you get.  

DHCP

just to make a few observations on your line of thinking,

Your lawyer and CPA are not going to do anything for you when your house is sitting vacant and has just been trashed and vandalized. Your property manager is going to call you with the bad news and come up with bids to fix it.

In these single family transactions involving so little money Attorneys and CPA's are just not used here in the states it just drives up your costs and what are they going to do for you anyway.

Any good Real Estate agent can take care of the purchase and sale agreement. Its not very technical or difficult. And the accounting is the same way, There seems to be an inordinate reliance on those 2 professions from OZ investors. When US investors would rarely if ever use them for these little deals. The CPA you would use for tax returns, and basic run through the numbers but thats it. Lawyer only as a closing attorney in the states that use them. But they do not comment on the deal and again the paper work is dead simple.

Now Risk ,  your so far off base on your assessment of risk as to be a danger to the public in my opinon. There is HUGE risk owning rentals in the US. And its not from getting sued for a slip fall or some tenant issue, Its monetary, you can mitigate that with the most important member of your team and thats property management, and that is the key as you state. And the trick.
Any good property manager has to be making money to stay in business and you want them making money, you want the best. To do that they need to charge letting fee their monthly and mark up for maintenance. If they don't they are not really  making much money and its thankless job. Beleive me we have hundreds of houses in our portfolio and tenant issues suck and they can suck the life out of a property manager, dealing with them and then dealing with some out of area owner who expects the impossible as normal… Now if your property manager is also your property provider this can get mitigated because they are making a 5 to 20k profit when they sell you the house. So they can do the management for less money.

I have heard Steve has ‘unusual’ ways of dealing with property management. Similar things are done in Australia and although I have personal issues with the hows and whys if you can make it work then great. After all, I suppose that even though it is a bit of a captive market no one is ‘really’ forcing particular tenants to rent from you, so I guess I would wrestle with my conscience and probably convince myself it is OK too! There is no doubt his methods improve an area/property but be very aware that Steve’s approach is probably as far from rocking up to an agent and asking them to manage some property as you could possibly get. Like my (eventual and hard won) approach to US property management it requires very close ties to people who you trust to make anything work.

I would suggest that unless you are very lucky, buying a property in anything other than a very prime area and ‘hoping’ you have a great managing agent is going to cause a lot of headaches. My guess is a lot of people will simply walk away from the ‘investment’ (as no doubt the previous local purchasers did) and be happy to pay the price to stop the nightmares continuing. Assuming of course, you get to sleep with the phone/emails constantly waking you up:)

The US guys posting on this site might seem like killjoys, but each of them firstly _really_ understands the culture and secondly has very good reasons for saying what they do. It is extremely generous of them to post answers to newbies over and over again, especially when they are clearly good enough at what they do to make money on their own!!

Property management is the key – and it is very hard to maintain all the relationships in good shape.

Alex,
I got back from long flight yesterday and go to LA in a couple of days.. No need to apologise!

I was going to add this to the comment above, but you stopped me.

I read the infomercial on Steve’s last property power pack US thingy (or whatever the name is) and was somewhat surprised to see mobile homes given as examples with 30% returns or something similar. They are hard to spot as anyone selling them is expert in disguising their origins, but mobiles they were. Firstly if you want to delve into the mobile home arena (and amazingly some do) then 30% return is not really all that high, and secondly those returns are very easily dissolved into nothing with the types of tenants you usually get. You will need humvee equipped Delta Force agents to collect the rent in most cases – and even then they must posses VERY good interpersonal skills to get cash from the deadbeats in a meaningful ongoing way. Warning shots to the head will get you out of the place alive, but will not get you paid next month:)