Australian Property Investing

[Adam Sellers]

Hi there! My name is Adam. I live in Adelaide, Australia.

Have been a part of biggerpockets for only a week now and I’m loving the content here! Love what you guys are doing. I’m actually reading Brandon Turner’s ‘the book on rental property investing’ and there is so much good stuff in it, I’m just concerned because it’s based in America that a lot of parts are different here in Aus! 

My main question is: Is it crucial to buy a property through a trust? 

I read one Steve McKnight’s books as he is in Australia, and he talks quite a bit about it and I haven’t heard anything about trusts here on biggerpockets, so I’m not sure if it’s different over there or not.

Would love to have a chat to any investors here in Australia, if there are any on biggerpockets!

Anyway, I could write a few pages with questions, but I’d just like to network with people in America and/or Australia! I wish there was something like this page in Australia!

Thank you for your time.

[Joel O'Leary]

Hey Adam,

Welcome to BP. 

I was born and raised in Adelaide and now I live in Los Angeles.  I’d be happy to chat with you about investing over here. A couple things off the bat:

- You don’t need a trust. But you will need a few things for identification like US tax file numbers and such. 

- Are you financing or buying all cash? You may have a hard time getting a loan over here due to no US credit history or income. Expect a long process time for financing. 

- If you are getting financing, know that the banking system over here works a little different than in Australia. I can discuss how/why this makes a big difference your in numbers. Things like ‘offset’ accounts don’t exist over here. 

- Different US states have different laws for foreign nationals buying and holding property. They can hurt you if you don’t know all the laws going into it. Do you have a city/state or area of interest?

- You may want to consider partnering with someone over here and having them invest your money. I believe there are a few investment firms that specialize in this and invest for Aussies on their behalf. 

There are more Aussies on BP so hopefully you can connect and get a few different views and experienced answers. I’m happy to chat on the phone, just PM me. Or, I’ll be back down in adelaide for all of December visiting my family. 

Cheers! Joel