All Forum Posts by: Sebastien Hitier

Indeed @Jay Hinrichs, we should tell OOS investor that one should not compare gross yield or apply x% rule broadly across states: Florida and Texas have very high local tax and insurance cost. 

To clarify, @Diane G. winter is coming to the bay area or you mean other metro areas as well?

SF growth appears to be rank 22 combined stats area nationwide.

Looking at smaller area of MSA, we see there are 16 metros that grow faster than any metro in California. The year on year growth are a pale 2%-4% but this gives a metro growth of over 40% over 15y.

So you are saying that some markets are priced to perfection? I would just advise to look at the numbers and buy if the margin of safety is sufficient.

Cities were cashflow/appreciation make sense are Charlotte NC, Tampa FL, Dallas TX, Atlanta GA.

Midwest city indanapolis IN and Kansas City MO and Memphis TN are classic cashflow places.

I am in similar situation as you, you can PM me.

@Andrew Reich, if investing own money or getting a mortgage you can pay back over 30Y, you only need look at the long term rental yield to identify whether your investment is robust. 

Crash worries are very serious for those who must find a buyer to pay back a 1Y loan, or find a new lender to roll over a 5Y loan.

@Grant Smith to answer a few other of your points.

I am also an out of state investor. 

I find it hard to find reliable real estate information from friends: many do not care so much about real estate, and those who did had relatively dated information (telling me to buy in Austin TX or Phoenix AZ after the appreciation had come).

Sales people cannot give you impartial advise indeed, so you have to skip the sales talk and look at what impartial sources tell you. Like zillow home index forecast.

The home inspector can be a great asset. He is legally bound to send you a factual, written report. But when you talk to him on the phone before hiring him, you can ask him if he agrees to give you verbally his subjective impression of the state of the property. That will be a correct opinion from a pro.

As mentioned before, web sources such Neighbourhoodscout want 30 bucks a month, but it is well worth if you are going to own a house. Another product is rentfaxpro.com. Again, you spend less than 15$ to have a fact based opinion on an investment soundness.

@Grant Smith, congrats for looking into investing. If you go out of state, there is no reason to constrain on Dallas until you have done your research.

I would expect that some who use neighbourhoodscout do it because it saves them time and money, not because the service is altruistic. 

You can expect your tenant to be congruent to the median population of the subdivision of your rental. So check the median income per person, unemployment, single mother prevalence, racial diversity, vacant property rates and property and violent crime. School quality is the next differentiator. all these are factual data point.

DFW prices have gone up to a level where tx local pty tax hurt investors

Hi @Michael Plante, what kind of ARV, gross and net rental yield do you think Orlando can offer?

Option 1: cash

Option 2: buy syndication

Option 3: buy sfh and learn real estate slowly

Option 4: buy larger MF and get seriously involved

Option 4 has most upside but represent most effort/risk. Only option 1 is low risk.

Hi BP,

I read that you can depreciate more if you depreciate building and components separately, and that big buildings are often depreciated this way. Does anybody confirm? Does anyone use this with SFH?

The 27.5y depreciation is one thing, but many things (hvac, kitchen, carpet,...) do not last 27.5 years.

Rgds.

Hi Evelyn,

Concerning the treaties, whats his country of fiscal residence?

you should be able to wire unlimited amounts of USD to title company escrow accounts. The money should arrive in the US recipient account same day unless your bank is inefficient.

For a transfer cost should be between $20$ to $40 for an international wire is typical.

You'd better have the money transferred from a USD account, a 3% of fx conversion fee would be typical for most banks I know, unless you call a personal banker and gets you the fx converted for 0.5%-1%.