Foreign friend to help fund deals

[Luke Glaze]

Hi everyone,

I have read some of your articles related to foreigners investing in the USA. I have been working overseas (Jordan) for the past 6 years but have managed to build a small but successful portfolio of rentals in Salem, OR. I was recently approached by a friend whose company does small business and real-estate investments for their Middle Eastern investors. The company is in Jordan but the money is coming from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, etc. He believes that his company would be interested in investing in US properties and with me specifically. He is also interested in personally funding deals.

I have been reading about partnership for sometime but I always assumed it would be for a US based partner. I would love help trying to understand the steps required to have a successful partnership with a foreign business or individual. From my understanding, I would start by setting up an LLC and drawing up docs with a real-estate attorney. I would then open a bank account and have my EIN. Could the funds for the deal be wired to the escrow account/title company at closing. How could I go about disbursing funds to the investor? Would it be easier to just have the investor loan me the money, like a personal hard money lender with better rates? Any help would be much appreciated, like I said, I have only done personal purchases and I have never worked a partnership deal. Thanks.

Luke