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Posted over 7 years ago

Investing in the US market as a foreign investor

Disclaimer: All the facts are true, names have not been changed (bugger protecting the guilty) and last of all this is my very first attempt at a Blog, so I apologize in advance if it is rubbish. I’ll try my best to not produce rubbish so please work with me!

I hope to share with you, my experience in investing in real estate, the trials, tribulations, and challenges I faced and still face, so with that in mind “why do you bother” you say………………

I can’t help it, I love the chase, the hard work, the challenges, (most of) the people who I meet in the game and despite all of that along with my best attempts to do it right, I did succeed and make a lot of money, yes overnight too.

So, whats the secret for success? please follow me along my journey, where I am going to explain how to get rich quickly in 25 years!

Who am I?

I am guessing that you have deducted from the title that I am not a US born person, well you are right I am an Australian, who lived all over Australia, travelled extensively throughout the world, lived in West Africa, Russia and finally made it to here, to be honest it was easy, just turn left and keep going!

So how did I get started in Real Estate investing?

Well I work in the Mining Industry, hence the travel, and as such Mining is a very cyclic business, one day your house in the predominantly Mining town, is worth lots of money then over night when there is a commodities crash (correction) your now stuck with a house worth half or even less.

So here we were with a house worth considerably less than we paid for and I needed to move, so what do I do, well we moved, hung on to that house then rented it and bought another, easy.

After all it was not even my money some kind person at the Bank said sure, you can borrow more so we did just that.

Sounds ok!

But Australia is not like the US, it is nearly impossible to buy a house and have it Cash Flow positive, they even made up a name for it, negative geared…. A nice way of saying you are losing money every day out of your pocket that is.

The market in Australia works mainly on capital growth, so all you had to do was wait and your house was worth more than you paid and owed (eventually) and voila you now had equity.

So, what did I do with this equity?

I bought another house, and another and another, you get the drift. Over time we ended up with a nice collection of negatively geared houses each taking a bit out of my pay check every month. Sure, on paper we were worth over 1M but we could not afford to eat, but that’s fine I guess.

When did I make money?

Eventually we started to sell off some of our properties, (liquidate) then voila we had money once again.

Some of these properties had tripled in value so now I was rich and overnight. (The reason I say overnight was because it took 24 hours from the sale to get access to the proceeds from the sale.)

So, there you have it, the secret to success in the Australian real estate market.

USA here we come!

So we eventually ended up here in the US in 2013, and what’s important is the fact you have such great opportunities here in the US, well at least I think so.

To make it even better I discovered Bigger Pockets, and the great amount of wealth it holds both in its members and contributors, a word of caution though, not every one on Bigger Pockets is honest so I found out, but more on that in my later entries.

The secret to success in USA!

It’s as easy as falling off a rock,

  • 1)Find a property that’s below market value
  • 2)Make sure it is cash positive
  • 3)Make sure there is room to force equity from day 1
  • 4)Trust the person selling the property
  • 5)Buy it and start making money, how easy is that!

Well I will tell you this is obviously simplified, because it’s not easy but its still great fun and it is profitable from the word go, (unlike Australia), interestingly enough, not to long ago I went to a few REI meetings up here in Michigan, heard people telling me that there were NO deals to be had.

So then I did just the opposite to that, I found deals and we now own 23 doors all making positive cash flow in the double digits.

So there is my brief short introduction on how I got into 2 totally different Real Estate markets, and I am looking to share what I learn along my US journey, how to find the deals, smell the rats and succeed, that’s what my other blogs will be about, so you will need to read them to see how we are doing it.


Comments (7)

  1. Great job David. I'm a USA resident but I'm planning to buy a house in my father's  name who is in India. (all cash deal). Can we do it without him ever settling foot in USA? He does have a tourist visa to USA and he does visit, but, I am just curious. 


  2. "I went to a few REI meetings up here in Michigan, heard people telling me that there were NO deals to be had.  So then I did just the opposite to that, I found deals."

    So how did you do the opposite?

    How did you find those deals?


    1. Hi, All it takes is networking, looking and calling agents until you find the ones who know how to deal with Investors.

      Then I found Bigger Pockets a great help, not so much in Kalamazoo but more so in Columbus where we also have properties.

      Are you in Kalamazoo? I could introduce you to a friend who is a agent and she can put you on the list for regular MLS mail outs. 

      Please feel free to contact me if you want. 


  3. Hello Vanessa, thank you I know at times it can seem like this is the hardest way to make money, (Real estate that is,) but for some strange reason I love it and it has proved to work for me and my family, and w love your country, every where I look I see opportunities, its a bit like being a kid in a candy store. 

    I am willing to share all my experiences if they help you in any way, please feel free to ask and I wish you well on your venture. 


    1. As a fellow alien with the same love for the US, I thank you very much for sharing your experience!


  4. Thank you for sharing your testimony, David! Congratulations on your success. Your journey is inspiring. 


  5. Thanks David.  I'm in the same boat, and love it as well. Thanks for sharing.