Broomfield, CO · Member since 2016 · 1 post · 9 votes
Calling all foreign investors! How has BiggerPockets helped you grow your business?
We know we have a small but growing community of non-US investors from countries like Australia, The United Kingdom (UK or England, Ireland, Wales, or Scotland), New Zealand, and European countries. While we'd love to hear from our Canadian friends to the north, we are really looking for success form other continents around the world.
Your success story may be featured on a little video we are putting together to show off BiggerPockets, so please let us know!
Obviously, that list is not exclusive - we'd love ANY success stories around the world, those countries just happen to have the most users after the US.
Investor · Suwanee, GA · Member since 2014 · 579 posts · 347 votes
9y
I lived in South Korea for over 20 years.
Thanks to BiggerPockets, I met other investors who happen to live in Korea and we started a meetup in Seoul. We've grown that meetup to over 1,000 members, in part thanks to great BP members who appeared virtually as guests:
BP also lead to my meeting investing partners in Jacksonville, Florida, and I was able to make my first investment while living in Seoul, Korea. (I documented much of that process here on BP through a members blog to help others looking to do the same)
Through the local meetup we started, I was also able to connect with others and that eventually lead to my becoming Director of Acquisitions for a Mobile Home Park focused private equity group.
It's been a quite a journey and it all started because of BiggerPockets. Without the forum and the chance to start asking questions and meeting other like-minded people, I'm not sure my desire to become a real estate investor would have ever evolved past reading books and online blog posts.
If anyone new to real estate investing reads this post, know this - it doesn't matter where you're living or where you're starting from. I knew nothing about real estate when I started and I was living in Korea but wanting to invest in the US. It really sounded crazy to most people, and even to myself!
But thanks to BP and technology, I was able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time.
Stay focused on your next goal and the obstacle you need to overcome to reach that goal! Between BP and Google, you'll undoubtedly find the solution ^^
I've got the same question as you...I've wondered about scaling, but so far have been content to just grow very slowly. But I'd also like to have a nice passive cash flow built up to make the transition back 'home' smoother.
I'll be following this thread to see if anyone has some wisdom to share!
Rental Property Investor · Vestby, Akershus · Member since 2017 · 7 posts · 6 votes
9y
I am investing in Norway. My first deal was a run-down single family house with double size plot. 20m from the main road Oslo-Stockholm.
Purchase price 3.4M NOK, money down 0.7M (@2%, secured in family home), loan 2.7M (@4% business loan)
I took over the current renter, a contractor business paying NOK 3000 for each bedroom. The living room was converted to a bedroom as well making it 6 bedrooms total, renting now 18k NOK per month.
2 months later I got a land- subdivision approved. The newly created plot is worth 1.3-1.6M NOK. The neighbour agreed to buy at 1.3M, buying cash and will remove garage.
End of August I will have my down payment back and 0.6M in company account. The bank is fine with the current rental income and allows me to keep the money as down payment for a next deal.
Anyone interested in repeating that in Norway 10x next year? :-) .... its hard to find such deals but possible. Thanks to BP I learn about finding deals and beeing creative.
Investor · Sydney, Australia · Member since 2017 · 17 posts · 10 votes
9y
I wish investing here in Australia was an option. The returns are too slim on flips for my liking, especially when you're putting down $500,000+ for a junker home an hour plus out of Sydney, sell it for $600,000, only to have $90,000 chewed up in contractor and local government costs. Not to mention, the housing market is hyper-inflated. Property here in greater Sydney is between USD$480-$620 a square foot. Buy and hold is out of the question too. There is no such thing as being positive geared anywhere in greater metropolitan Australia.
I wish investing here in Australia was an option. The returns are too slim on flips for my liking, especially when you're putting down $500,000+ for a junker home an hour plus out of Sydney, sell it for $600,000, only to have $90,000 chewed up in contractor and local government costs. Not to mention, the housing market is hyper-inflated. Property here in greater Sydney is between USD$480-$620 a square foot. Buy and hold is out of the question too. There is no such thing as being positive geared anywhere in greater metropolitan Australia.
I have to disagree with you. Property prices in Toronto are comparable, and I thought it wasn't possible to flip here, but learned that it is. I'm flipping here. The key is to buy right, and there are many ways to do that but it takes a lot of effort. You could potentially make much larger returns on flips in hot, expensive markets.
I wish investing here in Australia was an option. The returns are too slim on flips for my liking, especially when you're putting down $500,000+ for a junker home an hour plus out of Sydney, sell it for $600,000, only to have $90,000 chewed up in contractor and local government costs. Not to mention, the housing market is hyper-inflated. Property here in greater Sydney is between USD$480-$620 a square foot. Buy and hold is out of the question too. There is no such thing as being positive geared anywhere in greater metropolitan Australia.
Hi Dallin
Actually Luc is correct there are deals, just much harder to find. I invest in both US and AU real Estate. Admittedly I stay out of Sydney, but have colleagues that do very well there still. Just a totally different market requiring completely different strategies. QLD is very good and can find some good positive geared properties is cities still - and you get great capital growth to boot! :)
Investor · Sydney, Australia · Member since 2017 · 17 posts · 10 votes
9y
@Lindsay Stewart I would love to pick your brain and see what I could do in QLD. We should try and setup a BP Meetup somewhere here for all the Australian BP fans. Who's in?
Investor · Melbourne, Victoria · Member since 2015 · 203 posts · 58 votes
9y
Sure thing Dallin. I am based in Melbourne but do travel quite a bit on the east coast at least. Let me PM you and see if we can set something up for a catch up
Kyle originally from England but now a Kiwi in Dunedin, NZ. Originally found BP from the podcast which like @Hadar Orkibi a mate of mine locally, I listen to religiously and save a number of episodes specific to my interests to go back over when I find time on the end of a paint brush ;-). I have been a member since about the same time I found the podcast about 3 1/2yrs ago and like to help out in the Forum post that we started for Kiwi investors on BP here https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86/topics/308...
We started researching investing in RE in 1999 and bought our first one in 2002. We bought in Dunedin, NZ from the UK with a view to returning to NZ to 'early retire' in our late 20's early 30's. We have since ended up with a portfolio up to 25 units in multi family, duplex, and SFH. We have for the last 10+ years also run a successful PM business, a vertically integrated renovation business and property coached and spoken at conferences and meet ups, as well as sitting on the regional, and national boards of the property investor associations including being on the committee that ran the 2011 NZPIF national conference in Queenstown and the Property management association in NZ with my wife Tania.
I have been using BP to both connect with those who want help in investing here in Otago and NZ as well as plan the next stage of our own investing which may look like getting in to new unit development due to new planning rules coming into law soon in our district and having a real interest in increasing our Cashflow from our existing assets. So I have been taking real interest in the Podcasts around the turnkey providers who can provide great product for their investors as well as the vendor financing, alternative funding choices you have in the US that in a large part we dont have access to currently in NZ but which I am hoping we might be able to find ways to do?
I am also looking to see if anyone is using alternative energy options to increase returns from their investments whilst reducing environmental impacts, I have some ideas but am struggling to work out the finer details which may trip it up?
Thanks to all those in the BP team and community for your efforts and tag or PM me if I can be any help
Although I am an American citizen, I have lived in South Korea for the last fifteen years and have done most of my investing while living abroad. Since January of last year, I have purchased seven SFH's through a turnkey agency and I hope to max-out my allotment of 10 Fannie Mae mortgages by the end of next year.
Hey Wade,
What process did you go through to get mortgages in the US while living abroad? Do you have W2 income or were you able to support your mortgage applications through your South Korean income?
Any specific place you suggest I start if I want to do something similar?
Investor · Daejeon, Jeollabuk-do · Member since 2017 · 12 posts · 10 votes
9y
Hi Josh,
The banks look at income from my job here in Korea in lieu of having a W2. The process becomes more complicated because multiple documents need to be translated into English, but at that the end of the day I have yet to be turned down for a mortgage. If you already own some cash-flowing rentals, the banks will take that into consideration as well.
I recommend using a turnkey company for investors living abroad because they provide a great resource for helping you find lenders who have experience dealing with ex-pat investors. In addition, they become a valuable team member to make phone calls and send emails in local time to help verify everyone engaged in the process is doing what they should. Sure, using a turnkey is not as profitable as doing everything on your own, but if you are a longterm buy-and-hold investor I think the profitability difference becomes negligible over time.