Investing While Living Abroad

[Brandon Curson]

Hello All,

After the most exciting year and a half of my life (25 Yrs Old Now) living and working abroad in SE Asia , I have acquired enough money to begin investing.  My company takes good care of me and pays for all monthly expenses except food and pleasure (yes this includes housing!).

I would like to take the 70%+ pretax income I am able to save and begin investing in real estate, however, I do not know where to start.  Currently my father lives in Nashville (retired) and is willing to take car of any properties I purchase.  Also, I have an Uncle who does contracting, flips and rents houses as well that is will to do any rehab at cost. 

After private lending to a friend (2 pts & 12%) who flips and rehabs properties in Atlanta, he has gotten me interested in moving forward on my first rental property.  I would like to explore Multi-Family properties from $50-200K and purchase 1-2 properties a year (more when things begin to pick up!). 

Right now, I am looking for a push in the right direction to begin finding properties within this criteria.  Anywhere in Tennessee and around the Atlanta area are potential options and I would like to purchase the house on my next trip back to the US in June/July. 

Any and all posts/help would be greatly appreciated and know that I am ready to take action today!  Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon!

Best Regards,

Brandon S. Curson

[Micah Copeland]

Hey @Brandon Curson sounds like you are in a good situation to set yourself up for success! What part of SE Asia are you in? 

The Nashville market is a great market to invest in and I have 4 properties under contract I will send you that meets your criteria. 

[Al Williamson]

Welcome @Brandon Curson yes you are in a good situation with some seasoned people around you. Real estate is a very broad business - enjoy the journey of finding your niche.

[Josh Bakhshi]

my brother is my partner in real estate. He's in Israel and find most of our properties online. If your credit is good then you should be able to buy without much issue. Are you looking just in TN? 

[Brandon Curson]

I am looking in the ATL area as well because those are the areas my team know the market.  I would also be interested in FL since I lived there for a few years, however, a property management company would have to be used outside of ATL and TN which is making me search those areas first.

[Pyrrha Rivers]

Hello @Brandon Curson, Welcome to BP. Your situation is almost exactly the same as mine! You, however have a very strong team core to rely on.

You will do well! I started in January of last year, determined to buy 2 properties per year. I bought 1 in August and I'm currently working on #2. I know once I get a bit more traction I will be able to make up the one I didn't get last year but I had to start from scratch. No team on the ground. I have been able to bring my daughter along and she now helps by looking at properties, neighborhoods, walking through with the Realtor and inspector, but having a contractor uncle, father willing to manage your properties and the BP family to support you. You are in a great position.

Best wishes  

[Tracy Bauld]

try zillow ,realtor.com, craiglist

[Brandon Curson]

Wow, thank you all so much for the support and information.  Did not realize how lucky I was to have a core team like that; especially one you can trust.  Looking forward to taking all of your advice and putting it to work.  Will update you on the progress and share any locations to see if y'all think it may be a good buy!

Thank you again and looking forward to any future comments or messages!

[Andy Mirza]

@Brandon Curson

 As someone who travels often for work, I'd advise against the fix and flips and unless you have a very good partner that you trust. For rentals, your management is critical and I'd be wary of having just one person do it. What if they get incapacitated for some reason? Much better to have a reputable property management company.

I acquired rentals while I was in the U.S. They're all rehabbed, stabilized, and rented and my management company takes care of any issues. I still do accounting and give direction when needed but it's doable.

Keep in mind that if you go the rental or fix and flip route, that there might come a time when things go wrong and you have to physically go out to one of your properties. Do you have the ability to do that with your current job? How much of an inconvenience would this cause?

I'm angling toward investing notes instead. No tenants or toilets. I think I can easily manage them from abroad. You are already originating notes for your friend. Your risk is if one of the rehabs goes bad but hopefully you 100% know for sure that he won't bail on you if a project goes bad. Maybe you'll be interested in buying performing notes for cash flow. Good luck!

[Milton Johnson]

Hello @Brandon Curson

I am in pretty much the same boat as you with being overseas and all. However, I do not currently have a core team in place to rely on. I am also looking to get started in my own journey into REI. The only problem I am finding is where to invest and also who would manage the properties. I am from Los Angeles, CA, but also have people that I can work with in Tucson, AZ. The only problem is the reliability.

I was considering investing into notes as @Andy Mirza said in his post. Andreas, do you know how I would get started in investing in performing notes? 

[Andy Mirza]

@Milton Johnson

To learn about notes read the last six months or more of BP forum posts under "Tax Liens, Notes, Paper, & Cash Flows Discussion."

You can also check out www.papersourceonline.com