All Forum Posts by: Cole Evans

I live in England and have found a property that would offer a good Air BnB income.

The seller's realtor is saying that he can get Air BNB receipts from the current owner to prove the income. At first he was saying he could get these receipts before I make an offer on the property. Now he is saying that the seller is getting additional interest and I should make an offer now. Once the property is in escrow, he can get hold of the air BNB receipts.

I have the following questions:

1) If I make an offer, do I have to put the full deposit in Escrow straight away. Or can I put a percentage of the deposit in.

2) If I make an offer and the Air BNB receipts don't materialise, will I get a full refund of any money I put in Escrow. Or will the Escrow company keep a percentage to cover their costs.

3) The seller's realtor and my realtor claim that under California law, if you make an offer on a house, you can withdraw it in 21 days for a full refund without providing a reason. Is this correct? I have searched but cannot find anything to support this?

4) Are there any other things I can request to verify the Air BNB income? E.g. such as maybe tax returns? Thanks!

I live in the UK, but would like to invest in the US.

What's a good way of finding unbiased information about good cities to invest?

There's lot of good articles suggesting places, but they are often written by providers who are selling in that area. Many of them are offering bargain price properties, but don’t consider things like cashflow, tenant availability and service people to manage the property, which means, despite the low price tag, the property isn't a great investment.

Where can I find info that isn't by someone who's trying to get me to invest in that area?

I found this great list by Forbes which is based on property prices and jobs growth. Would that be a good starting point?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2018/02/01/full-list-where-to-invest-in-housing-in-2018/#5290407a627e

I am very keen on using a Turnkey provider. But I want to get objective information first about the best areas first, so that way I can better parse what a turnkey provider tells me. 

I live in the UK, but am trying to invest in the US. Once I've found some properties, what's a good way to research the area the properties are situated in?

One useful resource I have found is http://www.bestplaces.net/ which gives plenty of information about every aspect of an area. However, the info is at a general level. 

For example, a US city might be listed as having high violent crime. But that will be for the whole city. There will be pockets that are perfectly safe, which the site doesn't do a good job of reflecting.

Are there any other ways of researching an area?

Thanks!

Are there any tools to directly extract information from Zillow and Relator to a spreadsheet after entering an address in a column?

I would like to extract information such as:

-Property tax
-Past occasions the house was sold for (including price and date)
-Estimated rental
-Home price
-Agent details

I've done a bit of researching and found the following, but they don’t do what I want:

https://data-miner.io/featured/zillow - Lacks rental data

https://www.stevewisner.com/zillow - Lacks rental data. Doesn't work with Google docs or Mac.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/80/topics/722... - This thread (from 2012) suggests some ideas but doesn't offer tools.

I know there is an API which I could use to build my own solution, but it seems a bit on the complex side.

Are there any existing tools?

Thanks! 

@Jay Hinrichs, @John Thedford, @Ali Boone, @Larry Fried 

Thanks for all the advice. It has been very useful and has made me re-think things that I hadn't seen before. Thanks!

Does Anyone have any experience with the following Florida Turn Key Companies: 

Bric-Investment, restore818, portfoliobuilders, Corner Lot Properties
or any other turn-key provider in Florida?

Background:

I live in the UK but would like to invest in US property. I’ve got experience investing in UK property (being the landlord of 4 properties).

However, the US is so vast that I am finding it a bit overwhelming. It’s a bit hard to find good properties, because I don’t know much about the neighborhoods or how to find reliable management companies and handymen (and unlike the UK, neighborhoods in the US are much bigger with much great variation)

After doing research Turn Key seems to be the way to go. But most of the Turn Key providers are in areas where the houses don’t appreciate in value.

However, Florida seems to have turnkey properties that do increase in value over time. Of course, it’s hard to find out how reliable/legitimate a Turn Key provider is, so I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the help. It seems doable, and it looks like both turn-key and commercial are areas worth considering. But the USA is so vast. What's a good way to find a good region to start researching? 

What is the best way to earn $4K of rental income a month that is as ‘hands-off’ as possible?

I live in the UK, approaching 70 and have £200K ($260K) to invest.

I am no stranger to being a landlord and have two properties that I rent out already. I could probably sell these to increase my amount to invest to £500K ($660K). I just want a solution that is as hands off as possible and can generate $4K a month in rental profit.

I’ve been looking at properties in the UK, but they either tend to be quite expensive or generate low rents. Would I be better be looking of in the USA or another country? If so which areas?

I have a secondary goal of retiring in the USA, although I am not sure how feasible that would be as I don’t have US citizenship. I know there are schemes where investing $500K in real estate projects can provide a green card, but they don’t seem to generate $4K a month in income.

I would appreciate any input or ideas just to get started with some inspiration so I know where to get started with looking. Thanks!