Hi! My name's Tracey and I live in Brisbane, Australia. I've invested in real estate here in Australia for 10 years, full-time the past 3 years. Currently I only own one property, a 16-unit multi-family, which we plan to keep to fund our retirement, plus our own home.
With the strong Aussie dollar, Australian property being at the height of the bubble or just about to burst, and recent falls in housing prices in the USA, I think that now is a good time for me to consider investing in the USA. I've spent considerable time online the past few years, researching various areas and trying to learn your terminology, which is completely different to ours!
I've visited the USA perhaps 5 or 6 times, but never invested before. I've decided (for a number of reasons) to initially focus on the Fort Worth / Arlington areas to the west of Dallas. I've never actually been there, but I have been to other parts of Texas and I have some local contacts.
I'm planning on coming over in a month or two to get to know the area, and establish links with trustworthy professionals, particularly property managers, solicitors, and mortgage brokers. If I find the right people, I'd also plan to proceed to purchase. I'm thinking of targeting single-family homes around the $30-50K mark for holding long-term, generating a small positive cashflow initially, and over a 15-20 year timeframe, generating a significant positive cashflow and also capital growth - sorry, appreciation. :wink: Though I'm also considering multi-families with on-site management; that may help ameliorate some of the problems associated with long-distance management.
I initially plan to use foreign national mortgages (I think I can get 70% LTV), plus some cash and hopefully also some carry-back financing, for the first purchases in 2008. We are eligible for the relatively new E-3 special working visas for Australians. :D Once we have those, we can get SSNs and begin building a FICO score, and I'm hopeful that in 2009 we'll be able to access conventional mortgages.
I'd appreciate any feedback on my plans, tips, suggestions, etc.
If anybody is considering investing in Australian property, I'm only too happy to share what I know about our market. The market here is at or just past its peak from an overall perspective, but there are a few segments of the Aussie market that would still be OK investments. As with the USA, one just has to be much more selective than was the case a few years ago, when one could buy almost anything anywhere and it would make a profit, fast. Those days are gone.
