I know what your thinking, why would anyone from good old England, ever decide to invest in the US Real estate market?
Firstly, have you seen what prices are like in London. They are insanely expensive, outside of london does present a few opportunities but recent changes in regulations has created an extremely unfriendly environment for small investors.
Secondly, I am Jamaican, with the aspiration on moving back to the Caribbean in the next 5-7 years from the United Kingdom. Its a move I want to make for family and quality of life reasons.
With that in mind, I am looking to build relationships to enable me to become a successful long distance real estate investor starting with the my first deal. After reading several post and listening to a few podcast, I have settled on investing in below market multi-family properties with the potential for good cash flow and equity growth.
Any suggestion or advice is definitely appreciated.
Hey @Lance W., welcome to BP! You're in great company: There are a horde of Brits looking for great long-term deals here in the States. Some of them are right here on BP!
I agree with @Chris Sellers that your next step is to begin narrowing down your market choices.
My best advice:
Lance,
Sounds like a good high level plan to me. I would advise you to get some cash together and pick a market in the USA to attack. You really just need one market, unless you have tens of millions you need to invest right away. This will be a lot easier. There's tons of data out there, but you'll likely be in the center of the country where real estate hasn't already exploded.
After picking a market, I'd get some contacts in that market. Realtors and property managers for sure. 3 of each would be good. Have the realtors send you listings, put you on their auto distribution. Study these markets. Understand from a far the demographics, neighborhoods, $ / square foot, etc. Study the municipality's property website (this shows you all the sales, tax values).
Next, take a trip. Go spend a few months in this market. Let lined up with financing (if needed). Look at properties with your chosen realtor(s). Buy some deals to hold and pick a property manager.
Move to the Caribbean, fly to your market now and then to check on things and buy more.
Good Luck!
Chris
Hey @Lance W., welcome to BP! You're in great company: There are a horde of Brits looking for great long-term deals here in the States. Some of them are right here on BP!
I agree with @Chris Sellers that your next step is to begin narrowing down your market choices.
My best advice:
Thanks @Chris Sellers ! I appreciate the encouragement and advice. I have actually been looking at the center of the country, casting the net wide at the state level to get a idea of what is possible. So far Ohio, Indiana and kentucky seem like they may worth taking a closer look at ( a purely numeric observation). Three states is definately too wide an area, so i would be looking to narrow that down to a few small pockets with those three states.
Not knowing any about these places i will mostly like pick population size to narrow down my search to pockets before starting to contact realtors and wholesalers in operating in those pockets. I would expect to start contacting them in th next 1-2 weeks. If you know any rockstar realtor or wholesalers in those states feel free to me refer them to me. :-)
Then i will see how we progress, i do agree with your one market suggestion. That one market/city/state will be determined by our first deal, where we hopefully would have setup a good enough team to aquire more without the need to be there in person. The trip is definately on the cards, for the reasons you stated meeting local lenders, agents, property managers and possibly contractors in person when we are closer to a deal. My work situation would not allow more than a week or two.
Thanks again,
Lance
Hey @Lance W., welcome to BP! You're in great company: There are a horde of Brits looking for great long-term deals here in the States. Some of them are right here on BP!
I agree with @Chris Sellers that your next step is to begin narrowing down your market choices.
My best advice:
Thanks for the pro-tips @Mitch Messer
Welcome to BP Lance Wisdom !
Having moved from Germany to the US myself I understand the challenges and benefits of investing in US real estate. I think you already took a great step by being here. As others have said, the next step is zeroing into a market that you like or that fit your goals. Then connecting with people from that market and buy your first property. The first is always the toughest. Let me know if you want to chat sometime.
Thanks for the input Anderson, I would love to pick your brain sometime.
Gonna go ahead and be the voice of reason....again.... step 1 in real estate investing, learn the r.e. cycle!
Value investing is dead in this segment of the cycle, so no such thing as below market multi family. That means anything on the mls is overpriced, and "wholesalers" that do manage to extract some "value" out of the marketplace aint gonna give it to you, cause they don't have to. Sellers also don't have to give up equity, even those that need a quick sale. The goal might therefore be a "fair" deal. Still hard to find.
I would warn you though, so many overpriced "deals" around here are sellers waiting on "california money" (Out of market players who will accept ridiculously low returns, or no returns, or buy crap neighborhoods with no hope of appreciation).
This 10 year run in us real estate is a by product of artificially low interest rates, so we are not sure if it is real! don't forget, you can have negative returns in real estate.
Keep an eye on u.s. treasuries, as the benchmark 10 year is expected to continue to go up,and if the market is still intact after 4%, then you can feel pretty confident that this is sustainable.
@Lance W. good advice here. I'm an American, but live abroad and invest in my home country. I work with family and other expatriates. Partnerships, good agents and property managers are critical when purchasing across borders.
I would love to see some of the numbers you are finding on properties in Ohio Indiana and Kentucky. I had researched on SFH but in the end, it was multi-family that won. I have two triplexes currently both at 10%+ caprate and 12%-16% cash on cash ROI, with 20-25% down @ 5.75% loan rate. Strong numbers for the Colorado market, though my research tells me Texas and Florida are even better. You might want to check out these markets..not to mention, Florida is getting pretty close to Jamaica. ;)
I know what your thinking, why would anyone from good old England, ever decide to invest in the US Real estate market?
Firstly, have you seen what prices are like in London. They are insanely expensive, outside of london does present a few opportunities but recent changes in regulations has created an extremely unfriendly environment for small investors.
Secondly, I am Jamaican, with the aspiration on moving back to the Caribbean in the next 5-7 years from the United Kingdom. Its a move I want to make for family and quality of life reasons.
With that in mind, I am looking to build relationships to enable me to become a successful long distance real estate investor starting with the my first deal. After reading several post and listening to a few podcast, I have settled on investing in below market multi-family properties with the potential for good cash flow and equity growth.
Any suggestion or advice is definitely appreciated.
Welcome to the site Lance.
@James Wise thanks. checkout your site, you have been a busy man. Are you only covering Cleveland.
@David Bardwell Thanks. Its been really interesting experience so far and I am eagerly awaiting @David Greene book, "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" any day now in the post. It should hopefully give me a few pointers on strategies to combat predatory pricing tactics aimed at long distance investors.
@Will G. assessment was spot on, and I liked his it way more than I let in on. It was open and honest.
I like your idea of only purchasing in areas where you would be comfortable renting to your own kids. Its prudent, areas can obviously change overtime but you can only act on the information available.
@James Wise thanks. checkout your site, you have been a busy man. Are you only covering Cleveland.
Yes Cleveland is the only market I handle. Keeps me pretty darn busy, lol.