Australian investor in foreign territory!

[Al James]

Hi Guys, I am a property investor from Melbourne (sort of), Victoria, Australia. I have properties in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and I have recently started looking at the U.S market. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts and after exhausting all of the available Australian titles I recently purchased "the book on rental property investing" by Brandon Turner.

The market in Australia seems very different from the U.S with most investors buying negatively geared (not sure if you have the tax break in the U.S) properties in the $500k+ range and then hoping for capital growth. The way we calculate yield is different but cashflow is poor in Australia and you generally have to wait 4 or 5 years before a property becomes positive cashflow.

Due to massive capital growth in Sydney and Melbourne (Australia's two biggest markets) in the last five years our banks have been forced to becomes much stricter on lending which has slowed the ability to invest. One of the ways to improve your ability to borrow is to improve cash flow, hence my interest in the U.S market.

At this stage I am trying to find a region in the U.S that I can start purchasing cheap buy and hold style rentals, preferably single family houses that cashflow.

If anyone is interested in the Australian market let me know, I don't have anything to sell but I love to have a chat about property!