I have never actually been to the United States before, but we are planning a trip now. I have heard great things about the state of Pennsylvania, and that there may be some good opportunities for overseas investing. Has anyone ever bought any property in Pennsylvania? Can you tell me about your experience?
This seems like a lonly post so thought I would give a little feedback
penn state is pittsburgh and philidelphia…
both of these cities are old steel mill towns.. and have very low end neighborhoods that would rival Detroit for the same environment and such..However have nice blue and white collar areas and high end high brow as well.
I am partners in a RV resort in pennsylvannia dutch country ( AMISH) that does pretty well, our clients come from NY basically.
Other than that I think same rules apply,,, be carefull not to buy in the HOOD,,, and make sure your ground team is top notch.
Linda Fetke from LA pushed Pittsburghard last year.. but from what I saw it was super low end stuff.. .Philly has not had any real turn key guys that I have heard off… there are whole ares of philly were the housing has been bricked in..
by bricked in I mean the homes and apartments were not torn down the appatures were cinder blocked Inn.. or Bricked in.. So squatters and druggies could not get in easily..
YOu can see these areas very easy if you take the train from DC to Newark you roll right past miles of it clear as day….
JLH
I imagine that the same rules should apply to buying in the US as in Australia – dont buy in a hood area. For some reason though when people see a property for $10k the automatic thought is to snap it up. It might be cheap but the consequences can be tragic. I have american friends that lived in a lovely neighbourhood but the property taxes were high in comparison to other towns nearby and a bad school area – they sold this year. I have been to america many times, but I would struggle to find a non hood area without going and spending some time there or having friends/ reliable contacts that know the areas well.
Thanks for your response. My post was feeling a little lonely. I had been hearing things about Philadelphia, but it seems that Pittsburgh may be more up to date.
Hey Mattsta,
I don't know anyone investing in Penn State, except me. I chose it because it was close to New York City where I was based. It has a huge range of entry prices from $1200 upward depending on the town or city and depending where in that town or city and I could drive there and back in a day.
I was buying properties from the county courthouse and at Tax Deed Auctions and onselling them to investors. Very profitable but you have to know what you're doing. The small mining towns are a goldmine for cheap rentals if you can be bothered and although the folks in them thar parts are poor and simple compared to the dog eat dog "sophistication" of NYers, they are honest folk, friendly and generally very helpful.
Ian
Block Head @ http://www.theblockblog.com
Free Property Investment Info, Tools & Resources For Investors With A Sense of Humour.Could be the place to go if the herd has not found it like Atlanta these days.
Just stay out of the Ghettos and hoods and I am sure you will do fine
JLH
As a first time property investor in USA we purchased (through a LLC) a duplex in Pittsburgh last December which was fully tenanted. It was in a lower- socio economic area however we saw the potential (we hope) of it being 8mins drive to the CBD of Pittsburgh. We chose Pittsburgh solely because our son , who is our property manager lives within an hour of the city. We purchased a 1bdrm and 2bdrm apt ,duplex for $58,000 which returns $1000 mth rent. Tenants pay utilities and we pay water. It needs some cosmetic updates but they can wait for a bit. Our major obstacle was trying to get reasonable property insurance without a credit rating consequently we paid over the top at around $1600. There was no leverage for my husband who is a non-residential US citizen. This will be our continuing challenge, I think. If he buys a company vehicle or another property it seems it will build the credit rating even though we were able to pay cash for the property. So far we are happy but feel so much more confident in having our son as the property manager. He has established a satisfactory relationship with the tenants. I did make an earlier trip to view some Pittsburgh properties and orientate myself to the city, however with the help of Trulia.com and Zillow I was able to send a shortlist to my son to do the actual viewing. Our plan is to build on this property and maybe purchase one similar within another year.
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