Non-Residents buying US property - anyone done it?
 

Looking into buying houses/units in areas that haven't really gone through the boom and subsequent bust.. (mostly not the sort of places you want to live - ie West Virginia) There are a lot of places there are seeing small increases, but more importantly have considerable rental return (some are 15%+) With the current exchange rate I'm considering parking some US income in US real estate until the Australian economy starts to slow down and I can bring it over again at a more favourable rate and still make better returns than sticking it in a bank can, only really thinking a 1-2 year timespan.

No one's noticed rental returns are higher than the mortgage payments and you can buy a house with cash in some places? (ie the deposit on a house in Sydney!)

Shhhh you speak lies :winkwink:

Why are you holding dollars? Are you sadistic?

You should convert to euro or pound sterling or swiss franc.

was thinking in the shower that if i were not american making a currency other than USD i'd be all over buying up real estate... granted i dont know the legalities of foreigners owning land etc.. was just thought

we'll take your money and sell you real state but when the time comes, we may want it back.... (no refunds)

Well.. The whole point is to avoid converting into a currency that is currently strong against the dollar... hence delay converting to AUD.

Say you have a 10k affiliate cheque owed to you. rather than cashing it now at 10.76k AUD (92.8).. might it not be better to use that 10k as a deposit on a 40k piece of shit somewhere that still rents for $400 a month when the mortgage is only $200/mo.. so wait 18 months for the AU economy to chill the fuck out... you've made 3600 in rent.. minus 600 for upkeep, paid off maybe 2000 off the loan (it wouldn't be this much but i'm being back of the envelope here and assume this is wiped out for selling agent fees) and presuming the capital hasn't moved because it's in an area that didn't go up and is still rising (but not taking that into account to be safer.. or maybe assume it cancels out lawyer fees) the original 10k you get back now converts at 12.37k(80.8) and you transfer across for 1kAUD.. 5.3k more than shunting it across. 4.1k more taking interest into account. Anyways fuzzy maths not taking into account lawyers fees and taxes and duties and various other things.. and assuming no change in capital and a return to more normal AUD/US exchange which the professionals are forecasting. But you get the point...
Also if the houseprices go down you can just leave the thing over there pumping 250AUD in rent over every month.. only take 3.5 years (no vacancy) to get the original 10k back and after that it's gravy with a 5% rent increase a year.
Anyways.. more to it than that.. but thats the general "vibe".

Maybe you're better buying 10k worth of gold bullion :) Just been thinking of possible maneouvres.. hell you could throw your tax money on property in some of those places and generate enough income to pay off the tax debt bleh.

I think that you would need to do that Via a corporation. But im not sure. Tooo many changes lately.

done that ... got the t-shirt... sold in 2003 when dollar was still up ... as well as property prices....

You must file an income tax report as a non-resident alien, and you cannot live there more then 182 days in a year.

What is a good website to search for real estate in the USA?

http://www.realtor.com

or if you wanna rent www.rent.com