All Forum Posts by: Les Edwards

Congrats on your situation and being where you're at! Miss you on the Vikes as well!

Something to consider with leverage is what the markets that you're looking into are doing. Is it a hot market where prices are moving upwards at a high rate in which case the cost/risk of leverage allowing you to get in earlier is likely going to pay significant dividends down the road as you pay less and gain more on the property? Or are you buying in a more subdued market where the cost/risk of leverage and being in the market a bit quicker doesn't really provide any significant advantage?

There's a ton to consider when deciding to leverage, personal risk and the peace of mind is probably the top of the list, as someone fortunate enough to be in the position to not need it that's probably the top of your list and the thing you'll most need to decide, if being debt free helps you to sleep at night I'd argue that means more than anything else. If you think that you can handle some debt to further your other goals then you're in a great position.

Also agree with others on the idea of trying it with perhaps one of your properties and seeing how it feels for you. And speak to your accountant, if they're any good they'll be able to give you a really good idea on whether you're going to make money just on the tax side of things from either decision.

Great list and resource.

Thanks for taking the time to create and share!

Thanks guys. Becoming abundantly clear that building the team is important.

Would love to make a trip over and check out a few of the cities and meet some folks on the ground when I'm allowed to do that again :)

 Thanks James, great advice all around and thanks for expanding my list. Will be sure to give the articles a read as Birmingham was very much one of the "parts of Alabama"! Will check out some of those others that I hadn't looked into at all!

I'll almost certainly go through a bank and real estate agent for at least the first purchase and until I'm very comfortable with the lay of the land! The rest of the advice matches what I'm looking for and the good neighborhood portion in particular is a strong reason why I'm looking at a lot of the cities I am, the ability to get into good areas for good prices!

Thanks for the response. This is one of the few areas I'm prepared for at least :)

Greedy as they are!

Hey everyone, figured this was the best place to post. I'm a tax accountant in Australia with a strong background in property investment here, so pretty knowledgeable of the general gist of property investment and given my current investment strategy and goals I've ended up looking towards the US for my next, hopefully, few investments.

I'm looking for buy and hold investments with good rental returns on them on low cost of entry.

The basics of my situation are that I'm a US citizen who has never lived/worked in the US, have a stable job with reliable income in Australian dollars (the exchange rate is brutal these days!), looking to buy somewhere around August onward but happy to get in earlier if plausible, will have somewhere in the $40k USD deposit available at that point with the potential to get substantially more but the desire to use less and stretch it as far as I can across multiple properties if possible. Aim is to acquire multiple properties over the next few years if possible with strong cash flow to enable this as a priority. Capital growth is realistically a bonus outcome but obviously very much desired.

The areas that I'm not certain and looking for pointers in the right direction are as follows:

Investment Structuring - I'm pretty ignorant on this area in the US from both a tax and legal perspective. I know the absolute basics of the available structures and from my, admittedly, very basic understanding I would probably be best suited to investing through a LLC or perhaps a S or C Corporation. From a tax perspective the ideal result would be for the entity to be separate from myself as Australian tax rates are extortionate and my income is already in the extreme brackets of that, if it's possible to only have it be US based that is the ideal result. Legally I want the standard asset protection. I'm woefully ignorant on state taxes and their potential impacts in all this as well. I'm full bottle on the Australian tax aspects but the US part is still very hazy to me.

Financing - This is another area that I have a strong understanding of in the Australian market but I'm pretty ignorant in the US and finding information for my specific situation is generally pretty difficult. My understanding is that a good amount of lenders will lend to US citizens on foreign sourced income without any issues. So basically looking to understand LTV scenarios, interest rate penalties and the like as well as an understanding of what type of lenders are the best to be approaching for this.

Markets - This is the part that is probably easier to find options but I'm very much open to more suggestions. Based on what I'm seeking the markets that seem to consistently appear within my desired prices/returns are Cleveland (Ohio in general), Detroit, Memphis and parts of Alabama. Basically any other areas that fit in similar profiles to these players will be great suggestions for me to dig into. I understand the broader demographics of these markets but still very much in the early phases of delving deeper though I must say Cleveland has definitely shown some early appeal.

Other Costs - I'm just looking for a general idea of what to expect on this front of things, things such as land tax (if the US has it), Stamp Duty (again if it exists), insurances (required/desired), management fees (I want a property manager in place due to time zones/distance/peace of mind), etc, etc.

Finding a Team - This is one of the harder parts, I'm not averse to a trip to America for some research later in the year (if Australia ever opens its damn borders again!) but ideally I want to try and get together a team in my market that can handle most of the transaction and potentially future transactions. I personally think this is probably the most significant part of the overall process for me being where I am and with where I want to be.

Other - Any other general tidbits I should be aware of that are unique to the US market for anyone going from afar, or just in general.

Basically I'm looking for any suggestions that people have in relation to anything. Web material, books, etc, if you can answer anything then that is an even bigger bonus as time is money but happy and even eager to put in the hard yards just really looking for some direction to avoid wasted efforts.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far and really appreciate any advice :)

Hey all,

New around here and looking to get into the US market from afar. Based in Australia for the most part and given the nature of our property market and my personal investment goals the US market holds more appeal to me.

Stumbled upon this place thanks to the power of Google when looking for more information and looks to be a great community and resource for learning!