20 US properties in 4 1/2 years

Great post. Thank you for freely sharing your experiences. I admire that you relied on yourself and not the help of "gurus" to get a foothold in the market and grew from there.

Funny that......... Australian Gurus, well some of these have been the ones who have been ripping Aussie clients off by selling inferior USA properties for twice as much as the purchase price.

The problem was the average Aussie investor buying from these did not understand this, there was certainly the tools available to research what they should have paid. Then to add insult to injury they also provided dodgy loans, I call them the clayton loans.

Select American Homes only charges a BA fee, those who purchased from SAH purchased at the price she secured the property from either bank/government, no hidden/inbuilt costs.

MTR:)
 
Opportunity cost
For me I can't identify an investment at this time that has more upside than the Atlanta opportunity. For someone like MTR that develops sites in AUS and has the skills and resources to do it it may make more sense to continue developing in AUS.

Yes, Karina, hit the nail on the head I am now involved with developing property in Australia therefore I can leverage my money and makes sense for me currently to play in my backyard.

MTR:)
 
What about options to invest in US REIT's? I see that some of them such as SNH are yielding over 7% and thus provide a cash flow positive option to a diverse portfolio of properties without the hassle of directly owning. I guess it's horses for courses;)
 
Standard lease is for 12 months. They do not offer 6 month leases.


$50 to Georgia Secretary of State
$100 to registered agent

Rental market
Most homes rent within 4 - 6 weeks on average. Some go quicker than this. Dec/Jan are slower months for rental.
First of, amazing post. Very uplifting to see hard work paying off.

Are you sure about the lease part ? I lived in the Southern states for about 4 years, Alabama, to be specific and I never signed up for more than a 7 month lease (only to be sure the neighbors were a quiet lot). May be GA has different laws?

The prices of foreclosed properties around Birmingham, AL are/were jaw dropping. A girl I room mated with bought a foreclosed house (with a huge yard and all) requiring very little to no repair for USD 28k. The repairs that were required were done for a fraction of cost relative to the US- thanks to the amigos hanging by the Home Depot. Only if I were a citizen and only if I understood squatters rights (AL) as little as possible :rolleyes:
 
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What about options to invest in US REIT's? I see that some of them such as SNH are yielding over 7% and thus provide a cash flow positive option to a diverse portfolio of properties without the hassle of directly owning. I guess it's horses for courses;)

Indeed, a popular option with my clients has been the Steve McKnight Passive income fund which has done well since launch...http://www.passiveincomefund.com/

Numbers are stacking up for the moment
 
I have a lot of respect for Steve McNight. He is in my opinion one of the best property educators in the county. He also has the ability to adapt to change constantly and is always changing his strategy to take advantage of the next opportunity. I enjoy listening to his presentations whenever he is in town.
 
First of, amazing post. Very uplifting to see hard work paying off.

Are you sure about the lease part ? I lived in the Southern states for about 4 years, Alabama, to be specific and I never signed up for more than a 7 month lease (only to be sure the neighbors were a quiet lot). May be GA has different laws?

The prices of foreclosed properties around Birmingham, AL are/were jaw dropping. A girl I room mated with bought a foreclosed house (with a huge yard and all) requiring very little to no repair for USD 28k. The repairs that were required were done for a fraction of cost relative to the US- thanks to the amigos hanging by the Home Depot. Only if I were a citizen and only if I understood squatters rights (AL) as little as possible :rolleyes:

Aussieb,
Yes leases in Atlanta are generally a minimum of 12 months. I doubt that is a law as such but all the management companies I have worked with only offer 12 or 24 month leases and tenants seem to be fine with this. This seems to be the standard practice.

The cheapest house we ever picked up was 27,500k. Was a steal of a deal in a nice part of town (stockbridge) , 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch style home, newer constructed with a small yard. Spent about 12k on rehab (tiled all the flooring except the bedrooms) and rented it for 850 month. That was early 2012 from memory. I am pretty sure that would have been one of the lowest sale prices on record in the subdivision at the time of purchase they were selling around 40 - 45k, probably worth 80k now and Pre GFC they were likely around the 130 - 140k range.

My attorney had mentioned some cheap deals in Alabama. I believe there are lower priced properties there but have not looked in to it. Memphis also has cheap properties. I may get to exploring new markets eventually but still like the deals I am seeing in Atlanta today and have a great team in place to make it all run smoothly.
 
Aussieb,


My attorney had mentioned some cheap deals in Alabama. I believe there are lower priced properties there but have not looked in to it. Memphis also has cheap properties. I may get to exploring new markets eventually but still like the deals I am seeing in Atlanta today and have a great team in place to make it all run smoothly.

Memphis is not cheap....anymore - we have had quite a few clients buy there - mostly flips, closing can be complex but as long as the right choice is made through effective DD then success can be achieved.

I suggest anyone buying in Memphis or Alabama should either have a trusted advisor (with a track record in memphis) or travel there themselves (highly recommended!), a google search can be very misleading. Remember to do a title search and ring local agents if you are buying from a screen on the net. I had a disaster occur in memphis where there was confusion on the contract between XX Drive and Cove - there was a large difference in quality of the properties. Again, Memphis and Alabama have the 'slumlord' tag, that is a lot of low socio demographic neighbourhoods, a good PM will help to avoid disaster.

Have quality connections in Memphis which is good as well two finance providers who lend to aussies and the attorneys/ closer/ PM all know each other.

Cheers Ivan
 
Thanks for posting Karina.

Karina is a truly inspiring person. Sure she helped facilitate my Atlanta purchases but more importantly, in the process, changed my mindsets on investing with a focus on income streams. This has helped in other areas of investing for me.
 
Agree Oscar.

Also, a nice place to be when you now can achieve 20-30% more on your rental returns due to the AU$ dropping, prices also doubled, do you take the money and run or do you live off the rents? Either way it a win/win.
 
a nice place to be when you now can achieve 20-30% more on your rental returns due to the AU$ dropping, prices also doubled, do you take the money and run or do you live off the rents? Either way it a win/win.

What a lovely problem to have.

For now I'm keeping them as I wouldn't know where to put the money (if sold) for a better return. There's more upside in capital appreciation and AUS/US exchange benefits over the next couple of years. In total at least another 30% (10% on exchange and 20% appreciation) to be very conservative.

I still remember all the sh*te I copped for taking such a "huge" risk. I was stupid not to double my holdings at the time.
 
Thanks for posting such an inspiring story! I admit I am a little envious that you had the gumption to take on the USA ... but also thrilled for your success.

One question ... we hear a fair bit about the high "land" taxes ... are they the county tax (same as our council rates) or extra again. If it's the country tax, then they're really no different than the council rates costing
 
Thanks for posting such an inspiring story! I admit I am a little envious that you had the gumption to take on the USA ... but also thrilled for your success.

One question ... we hear a fair bit about the high "land" taxes ... are they the county tax (same as our council rates) or extra again. If it's the country tax, then they're really no different than the council rates costing

Lizzie,
The County taxes are essentially the same as our council rates. They are dependant on the appraised value of the property and can fluctuate each year as valuations are adjusted. There is no land tax as such or stamp duty on the purchase.
 
Lizzie,
The County taxes are essentially the same as our council rates. They are dependant on the appraised value of the property and can fluctuate each year as valuations are adjusted. There is no land tax as such or stamp duty on the purchase.

I then wonder why you hear of the locals complaining it's so high (and as pointed out by RK)? Maybe we're just used to being hit by the government
 
I am a little envious that you had the gumption to take on the USA ... but also thrilled for your success.

Same here!

I looked at all the stuff that was going on at the time, but didn't really have enough $$ to really make much out of it, since you needed cash to do the deals, and I had most of my stuff tied up, plus I thought you'd need 8-10 properties to make it worthwhile. Yes, there was equity there, but I would have only managed to do a couple, so I stuck with the safety of what I knew.
 
At the end of the day its the yield that matters, at the time we were buying up US properties at Aus$ 1.05 with 20 percent plus yields (gross) attractive at that time. County fees included in costs/outgoings

Today aus$ at 80 we tack on additional 20% to gross rental return, bringing money back to Oz is Just awsome and I dont know how I could achieve this with property anywhere today
 
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