(I strongly recommend the former).Thanks Deidra,Is that $550 in Hong Kong $$$ or US$$$?

As a consequence, you can't protect yourself, even if the legal system protects individuals better than in the US.Often, inheritance and liquidation tax will murder your equity, while an LLC eradicates your NOI (different tax structure than personal income-generating assets).Now, I'm not talking about a mailbox company in Belize with a front representative in Hong Kong or anything illegal like that, but I keep thinking to myself: there has to be a better way.Who here knows a little about these types of things and where can I get myself educated on the matter?

" * The Colon Free Zone (the largest in the Western Hemisphere and second-largest in the world, following Hong Kong) registered an increase of 12.1% in business for the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period of 2007.

It's also possible to own a condo, but this is probably only suitable within Metro Manila.Our firm caters to USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe; not so much the Philippines.

It would be difficult to find a bank to provide this kind of financing, I did hear about a guy from Hong Kong who inquired with a friend at the local HSBC, they then reached out to a US based HSBC that provided him with the financing for his US based investment (even though he had no other assets or collateral with in the US) but this sort of situation is far and few between. 

That is indeed correct and I would like to share an example - we are currently working with an investor (PE fund) in Hong Kong looking to acquire commercial real estate in the US for 40 million USD (cash).  

This is not unique at all as there are many countries in the world where foreigners cannot own freehold and landed property except in certain circumstances and these countries include Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Switzerland, Vietnam, Korea, Japan etc. etc As a consequence in our situation we are NOT a condominium but are classed as an APARTMENT complex [REMOVED] and [REMOVED] (a different meaning in law) and as such we only do Leasehold but as previously explained we then give the Land Ownership Company to the owners themselves so they are leasing from themselves and become both the Lessor and Lessee, nothing could be safer!

@Jimmy Hong, if you buy subject-to, then you ARE getting bank financing (in a round about way).

I think he has several international investor clients as well (I see you are from Hong Kong) which is important.

SF, LA, London, Hong Kong and Sydney in Australia are all appreciation markets.Auckland N.Z which I invest in and flip also becoming an appreciation market only. house prices increased by over 75% from the peak of the last boom in 2007 and the median house price is near 1 million dollar. say +800k.