investing overseas with a small capital

[Samuel Chua]

Hi guys, do u have any tips on investing overseas with a small capital? Thanks!

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Samuel Chua:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Samuel Chua:

Originally posted by @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Samuel Chua:

Hi guys, do u have any tips on investing overseas with a small capital? Thanks!

 Welcome aboard Samuel. Small is subjective. What are we talking here?

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me! I currently have a capital of 10k currently but am willing to work even more to increase this capital. However, as a student, I fear that I am unable to raise a huge amount of money in a short time. Do you have any advice on this? 

 Keep it in your pocket for now. It's pretty hard to get loans to buy U.S. properties if you are abroad & you can't buy anything reasonable for $10,000. Keep stacking the cash until you are ready to make a purchase. Never a good idea to try & throw your money in the ring before you're ready to. Once you've got $40,000 or so you can pick up some inventory in the Midwestern markets with cash. Although if I were you I'd probably wait until you can pick something up in the $50,000 - $60,000 range as the risk will be lower.

 Sounds great, a friend of mine also suggested that as an option for me. May I know after I achieve this amount of money, what my next move should be?

 You can spend your time now doing research on the markets you like. The Midwestern markets are probably what you should focus on as they are where you can get in for that $40k+ amount.

• Cleveland (my market)
• Toledo
• Memphis
• Birmingham
• KC
• Indy
• Detroit

Each of these markets is popular with turnkey investors because of the low barrier to entry, high rental demand & high rent to price ratio. I recommend setting up keyword alerts for each area as they are discussed in the forums daily with advertisements posted in the BiggerPockets marketplace hourly.

One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or loose money in any market. Don't think that one particular out of state market will shoot you to success or abject failure. It's not really that complicated to buy out of state. It only becomes complicated when investors try to over complicate or over think everything. Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.

• Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
• Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
• Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
• Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
• Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
• Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

You probably want to look into Cleveland, Detr