Fly and Buy Tours to the USA Looking for Opinions ?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

guys, SERIOUSLY? I love you guys… Don't do this to me….

every investor is different – we all have different needs, we all have different goals. I was with someone yesterday who asked me "why on earth would you go for yield????" I had to point out that I live totally off passive income, someone retiring might be too and thus our houses are in totally different areas and subdivisions  (I view the Select thing as a pure hobby to help fellow fanatics at this point and as pocket money for things like the Masters etc and to find "like minds" for an addiction I have had since birth… ergo investment club… all for one, one for all..)… but that being the piont….. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT…

Cattle herding has rarely led to anyone appreciating that Daisy at only 3 years of age and Mabel at 10 years of age were both going to the slaughterhouse…..

I always recommend clients either go on a tour or go themselves at least once. The tours should not be about buying property, but should be about doing the due diligence and feeling comfortable with the market that you are looking to buy into. If not you may be flying blind.

Totally agree with you Emma.

Investing in the US is no different to investing in OZ in that there is different courses for different horses so to speak !! EVERY investor is different and has different needs and objectives. Tell me if I am wrong but the person you were speaking to yesterday you mentioned has only ever been used to investing on the basis that homes only ever go UP in value ? So concentrated on equity via appreciation ?

We don't do large tour groups. Most of our buyers come on their own accord under their own travel arrangements. We do suggest some places of accommodation close to our office for convenience and you get our corporate discounts at them under no obligation. Most will spend a few days meeting property managers etc & looking around at the homes for sale or sold. The object of large tour groups is to promote a sense of urgency so you feel you have to buy so you don't miss out. Reminds me when I was over last I had a couple of clients that wanted to come with me. As we were looking at homes this lady kept on saying oh I don't like this and oh I don't like that. When we stopped to buy a coffee she pulled me over to the side and said I want to buy those two homes. I said to her but you spoke like you didn't even like the homes and she replied well I didn't want the other person buying them !! Funny when emotions and investing combine….

Alex,

You wouldn't believe it…..I am actually listening to a webinar you did with Kevin right now !! One you did with RWN. It's educating me on your market. Sounds like you have a good thing going on there. I'd love to drop by and visit you when I am over next but will avoid November.

Yeah there is lots of good stuff happening in the state of Texas. Jobs, population growth…all adding up to good things for investors

Emma,

Texas…pro tenant ?? No you have it wrong. Texas is very pro landlord. One of my places….just went through an eviction process and he & his contents were out in the street in 21 days straight.

In Texas, there is no defense for non-payment of rent. Rent is due on the 1st of the month….it's officially late by the 3rd. On the 3rd day a Letter of Demand was hand delivered by the PM. Most property managers in Texas use a promulgated TAR form (Texas Association of Realtors). The TAR agreement provides a demand notice of three days for tenants to vacate the property. If it's not paid by the 3rd day an eviction notice is filed with the county courthouse. Within a few days the sheriff delivers papers to the tenants. Generally you then have from 6-10 days for the judgement to be awarded to you. Once judgement is awarded they have 5 days to appeal otherwise a Writ of Possession is issued and the Sheriff will oversee the tenants and their possessions being removed to the street.

My only bugbear….if the contents weren't removed within 24-48 hours…I would have to pay and arrange for the contents to be removed and disposed of (thankfully they were!!)

Generally speaking…the red states are good

In Oregon by law you are suppose to store the possesions of the dearly departed tenant… Me I haul them to the dump and will take the risk…..

Most of the south and mid west is pretty straight forward on evictions… California is the one where you can have real issues.. It can take you 6 months to a year to evict…

Also in CA and NYC  there is Rent control… I don't think I have seen that mentioned here on this forum…

But in SF  Berkley  NYC there is rent control… Also in CA in Mobile parks there is rent control…

Rent control means that the city or county can fix the rents for years and you can never raise them.. Until you change the use or the original person living there moves.

So case in point.

One of my employees was raised in Manhatten,, Single mother raising a child.. She had a rent controlled building where her rent was fixed at 2200 a month…. for the last 20 plus years… once they moved and they were no longer there for 24 months the owner of the building was able to put it back on the market for free market rent. and it rented at 14k per month….

You can not sub let either has to be original owner and backed up by tax returns.

JLH

I agree with Jay.. I recently had 7 people from Singapore in.  I rented a van that I drove.  No third party buses.  I like to drive and talk.  At lunchtime, we all sat at a table at a local buffet restaurant and while this is a time for me to just take questions about my business or myself personally, I had one guy who has NEVER BEEN IN THE U.S BEFORE transform into a Negative Nancy.  I rebuttled the first 3 or 4 of his comments.  Clearly the other investors were getting annoyed. .  Ever see the movie Avengers?  Well you can imagine I turned into the Incredible Hulk and my New Jersey attitude came out of nowhere.. (and so did the accent a little!)…. I point blank told him that if he had nothing but negatives to say I would gladly get him a cab and he can go back to the hotel and chill by the pool.  As he antagonized the group, I told the waitress he was no longer on my tab and told him to leave or we would all get up and leave this moment without him.  (I think I cussed once).

He ended up leaving..  My point is, I agree with Jay's take on that one negative guy along for the ride.  Once everyone got back to my office, they started playing devils advocate and asking me similar questions as jerky was asking.  I was able to overcome those concerns with facts, but they were temporarily poisoned.   I try to keep my groups to 3 or 4 max. 

Alex, fly and buy's have screamed "ripoff" for awhile.  There are many ways to strucrture it, but those offering don't pay out of the goodness of their hearts.  They reimburse IF the investor closes on a deal and that deal is fluffed with an extra $5k to reimburse their trip expenses. 

This is why I know so much about Lehiegh, and coral, I visited there in the early 80's.

And my dad was one of the larger land developers in N. CA.

Same theory as Lehiegh.. sell to those who want to retire in 10 to 30 years….

In SOCAL  you can find their versions of lehigh out in the inland empire and High desert, when 2 million lots were platted between 1915 and 1930,,, they still exist on paper.

JLH