Buying in the US

Oh Quiggles, I can sooooooo relate to your comments (and was especially tickled by the bit I've highlighted in blue). Although I have not taken the plunge to invest in the US, I know that one day, I most certainly will as I love the country too much to not have an excuse to revisit time and time again!!! But my love for balmy beach weather would force me to invest somewhere along the west Californian coastline.

Either way, I would visit it more often, but I have to agree, their coffee (unless from Starbucks, where you will get a so-so cuppa at best) is abysmal!!! I mean really, where else in the world can you look straight through this faintly coloured liquid (checking out the diners at the opposite table at the same time) as the waitress refills your cup???!!!!

Okay coffee break over, back to the topic..........

Jo

 

Hi quiggles

Have enjoyed the last 3 months listening and reading about the USA market and it seems that everyone is jumping on your ban wagon.
I am heading over to the USA next week to give it a shot but i will be focusing on Texas area . Would like to hear from anyone who has been there or has some words of advice on the market .

Kind regards Rick

 

Hmmm....might pay you to wait another week before you head off to Texas Rick, especially considering "RITA" is making her way there at present, and if she gets there ahead of you, I'm guessing she won't leave too much standing!!!!

 

Thanks Monopoly

You are right I have already considered it.
I think I'm more worried about getting there before RITA does , I don't think I want to be in her way

 

Perhaps look at large cities in Texas close to, but not in the path of hurricanes which people may move to in the case of an evacuation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4237744.stm

At least one person showed some foresight!

Nat

 

Texas

Spoke to my cousin in Corpus Christi last night and to a good friend in San Antonio neither area was in the path of the Hurricane.

 

Hi,

I had to log on as a different user due to I forgot my pass word and the email address is based on my home computer, anyway here I am. I posting from Texas over here looking at propertys . I like this place reminds me of Perth , W.A. Looks like the rest of USA investors are moving quickly with there money into Texas . So any Aussies considering , I advise to move fast . Not that bad but the sooner the beter.

Kind regards Rick

 

Rick

If the number of finance applications I have received over the last 60 days anything to go by I agree with you.

 

Quiggles, Awesome story, very inspiring.

This is my first post on here so hi everyone.

A couple of questions:

Do they have an equivilent of a section 32 over there that spells out rates, taxes etc?

Have you or anyone else on here used this site?
http://www.foreclosurefreesearch.com/

FWIW I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina on business at the moment and there are truck loads of opportunities here too.

Regards,

Martyn

 

Hi Martyn,

I've been to Raleigh, one of my mates went to Duke Uni. Its a nice place and i've actually been thinking that it would proably bea good investment market with all of the students in the area.

In terms of the documentation you rececive when you purchase a property, I can tell you what it is like in Texas, but it is possibly different in different States. Usually taxes etc are stated on the advertising material, especially if it is a block of units rather than a house. Have a look at www.loopnet.com, which is a commercial realestate site often gives a lot o detail re expenses although they tend to be understated and the rent overstated. However, once you place an offer down the vendor has 10 days to supply you with all of the documentatioin pertaining to the property, including taxes, insurance, utility bills, rent roll etc. so you have ample time to do a proper due dilligence.

Regards
Alistair

 

Thanks Alister,
Unfortunately I dont think I'll have enough time this trip to do much but definately got me thinking about the area. There is a lot of IT industry here too(which is why I'm here).

Regards,

Martyn

 

No problem Martyn, have a good time on the rest of the trip.

 

Hi Martyn

Yes they do have Section 32 but not as I believe you are referring too.

Section 32 legislation relates to the Trust in Lending Act and refers to High Cost loans those under $50K USD.

Whilst acceptable under the FM & FM models many lenders shy away from Section 32 loans.

 

Researching the States

Hi Guys,

Does anyone have some good sites that they used for their research? Loopnet, etc might be good for looking at specific opportunities but I am having trouble finding generic information like house price data, average yields, etc, even with the usually helpful google search. Considering the size of the market I am surprised that I couldn't even find a US version of Residex. The only site that got close is www.houseappreciation.com which seems to focus more on school rankings than anything else.

Cheers,
Todd

 

Hi Guys

A little information about how hot the Buffalo market has got:

News source

Regards

 

Research

Jimmy,
Here`s a list of useful sites that have helped me out in the bottomless pit of US investing.
Still waiting to close on 3 properties, may only end up being one, since July.
Looks like early next week is the go.

Hope the attachment works, it`s 9 pages worth, too long to paste to here.

Good Luck

 

File was too big, see how this goes.

 

I notice that Dymphna Boholt is presenting seminars on investing in the US- https://www.dymphnaboholt.com/ModCoreFrontEnd/index3.asp?pageid=97

It's not my mug of coffee, but somebody may be interested.

 

Dymphna must have left town to escape the heat of ASIC....
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17067057%5E3122,00.html
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/711757/fromItemId/684968

 

She has been investigated by ASIC.

She has also been given favourable and not so favourable reports on the forum. I posted the link for its relevance to the topic at hand.