All Forum Posts by: Zach Howard

 I'm new to real estate. Hope this doesn't count as some sort of thread hijacking, but what makes you say - "Never put a property in an S Corp?"

@Robby Sanchez

Thanks for the offer - actually Texas is one of the places where I've started to look at potential properties and so on. My ideal location would currently actually be Augusta, GA because I really want to start somewhere with a very low crime rate. 

Any part fo Texas you might recommend that are safe?

@Patricia Steiner

Thanks for your post. 

Haha, you're right, I've definitely drank some kool-aid, but at the same time I don't think that things will be easy or cheap. I just think that I'd like to get started with one property. As long as I do not lose money I think I'll be ok with that. I'm fine with losing lots of time and effort even if it just means breaking even. One thing life has taught me is that really and truly, one of the best ways to learn is by doing. Sure, I wo't have the same financing options, but I might be able to work with hard lenders, or perhaps eventually set up a LLC and maybe that will open up some other financing avenues.

You're also right about the fact that it is building a business. I agree wholeheartedly, and if you've lived in China I guess you'll be familiar with the concept of "guanxi" which I think translates quite well to real estate. It's all about building relationships, trust and have a long-term mindset. 

As for my goals, I want to own one property and not lose money! That is my first goal. I think if I can achieve that I will rapidly learn, then be able to evaluate what steps might be best for the next stages. As for why the US, simple - trust, market size, and access to information. I also think Australia is a great place to invest in real estate, but it's harder to find resources, deals, financing options and so on. 

I'm hoping to start some social media campaigns which are completely unrelated to real estate, but if I build up a sizeable audience over the years, then maybe I can get others to invest with me. And my final dream is to buy land in my home country to build affordable housing for people there. Where I'm from people do not like living in apartments/high-rises and so on, but I think more options like that would make housing more affordable to the average citizen. I'd really love to be able to give back one day, haha, assuming I ever become successful. 

Anyway, these are just my dreams. Now it's time to see whether I can bring some of them to fruition. 

 Thank you so much for the advice. As I said, I'm definitely a risk taker, it's either going to be Bitcoin or real estate, I'd prefer a mix of both though. 

As for other international markets, I think the US is probably the best even with the distance. In this day and age of zoom meetings and working from home, I don't believe there is much of a difference between investing in the US vs Australia if one is based in China. Other international markets may be too opaque for me, and I'm definitely going to invest in China as it's not possible to even have more than one property in your own name (to the best of my knowledge) and the local government can find many ways to screw you over if they wish to. Perhaps it is hard for people from the states to understand - but the rule of law, and clarity in regulations etc really makes it so much more attractive than other places where you never know what new policies might come into effect forcing you to take massive loses etc. I am currently in Hong Kong, and there is no way I can or will invest here as home prices compared to rent yields just don't make sense according to any of my calculations. So, again, to me there is not much difference between remotely investing in let's say Vietnam vs the US, because I don't have any intention to move to either location. 

thanks for the heads up on BRRRR, I'm just at the start of my research, so always happy to hear opinions and information from others. To me buy and hold also seems good, I'm not very interested in flipping as that seems to be a step to far to manage remotely. I believe if I manage to acquire a property or two now, rent them out and hold them for 10-20 years they will most likely appreciate in value. In the meantime, if rental income is able to pay for the cost of the mortgages then I frankly do not really care what the interest rates are. Or am I misguided here? Thoughts would once again be greatly appreciated.

I have no experience with real estate investing. 

I do not live in the US, and I'm not a citizen. I went to university in the Midwest many years ago. Currently living in China - have a very stable job, decent income. Have a small flat here that was just recently purchased and under mortgage. Have some ok-ish savings, and I really, really, really want to try to get into real estate investing. 

From my limited research so far I believe I'm most interested in BRRRR and Multi-Family. Seller financing is also quite attractive, though I guess there are few of these kinds of deals available.

I have no particular area that I'd like to start with or focus on, but probably prefer somewhere in the south of the US due to my strong aversion of winter. Not that I plan to live in or even visit the US anytime soon, but I don't want to deal with winter-related issues like heating, de-winterizing a home etc. 

For any deals that I actually jump into I'll need a property manager. 

It seems like there are additional obstacles to success for me since I'll have to do pretty much everything remotely, but an expression that I like, and I'm paraphrasing here, "If the path you're on seems easy, you're on the wrong path"

Would love any and all advice, guidance, comments, warnings or whatever else you'd like to share. Desperately hope to find a mentor, or partners to invest with. Also totally willing to go in by myself on deals. I just want to soak up as much knowledge as possible and get my feet wet as soon as the right deal presents itself. 

Oh, I'm pretty decent at video editing - just thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone needs simple video editing services. I'd be willing to do small projects for free to spread some goodwill. You have to give in order to get. 

Thanks for reading!