All Forum Posts by: Gary Dezoysa

I have the luxury of being able to relocate anywhere in the country for real estate investment. I'm thinking the best place to go would be one that conforms to the 2% rule and still has appreciation potential down the line. 

Does anyone have some good tips on how to do proper market research? I'm not sure where to find the data to do the proper analysis over large areas.

Hi, I'm looking to find a US market to call my new home. I am fortunate to be able to choose anywhere the cash flow is strong and there is a possibility of appreciation.

1) Does anyone know where I could download sale price data over LARGE areas?

2) Same with rental data - is there a good data source that can cleanly aggregate the data for Excel analysis?

Thank you!

Being in Asia right now I'm looking at Malaysia. It's one of the few countries open to foreign property investors. I haven't looked into the country in depth yet but here's what I've found so far:

The good:

Most properties can be obtained freehold. This is rare for Asia, where in many countries properties can only be obtained on a long-term lease, or sometimes bought freehold as condos if the condominium complex is 51% owned by locals.

Bank financing is available to foreigners, another atypical option for the region. The numbers I've seen are about 15 to 20% down at about 5% interest, which seems exceptionally competitive, maybe those numbers are pre-bust. The question of how many rental houses one can acquire before exhausting their bank borrowing capacity has yet to be answered.

Malaysia is a middle income country growing at about 6 to 7% per year. Current GDP per person is about $10,000, compared to about 50,000 in the US.

English is commonly spoken.

Long-term stays are possible with an investor friendly 10 year renewable visa, unlimited entry and exit.

The bad

The minimum purchase price for foreigners is about US$317,000. This law was put into place due to politics from the lower classes (complaining of rents being driven up due to foreigners). For those of us interested in commercial this probably won't be a big deal. For the typical three bed two bath SFR investor, this restriction is a real pain.

Taxes on rental income are 30% flat for the first five years, 5% thereafter.  Fortunately many deductions are possible. Lower tax rates are available to Malaysian residents and clever use of a local partner can sidestep this issue. 

(The local partner may also sidestep the $317,000 minimum purchase price also, I haven't read about that specifically though but it makes sense to me. )

Malaysia is about a 22 hour flight, one way, from the US.

Corruption and rule of law are comparatively low for the region, but much higher than back home.

Hey guys,

I've been outside of the US for a while, planning to come back early 2015.

The great thing about being away for so long is that my eyes are completely fresh. I'm ready to plant down anywhere that cash flows are strong (and there's not extreme racism – I'm dark skinned).

Goal is to achieve the 2% rule or maybe even better.

Here's how I plan to find such areas:

1. Ignore the coasts for obvious reasons

2. Target 3 bedroom 2 baths, roughly 1,300 sf. Look at retail listings. Take off about 4% to approximate the sales price. Take off another 20% to get to wholesale.

3. Rental prices: Use asking rents from Zillow as a rough approximation.

4. Rents less than 50 times wholesale value should signal a qualified market -- at the very least, worth looking into further.

^Do you guys think this is a decent way of quickly finding "2% rule markets?"

If not, anyone know a cleaner data source I could tap into for this kind of research?

For those of you who invest abroad using OPM.... how easy/hard was it to find people willing to invest in foreign real estate? I imagine it'd be a heck of a lot harder to convince Americans to send their money out of America, but I'd like to hear from the experiences of others.

Hi, I'm trying to create a list of every neighborhood in my area that has more than 50% 2 story houses. Anyone know how this could be done? I'm trying to find the most efficient way possible so I'm not spending weeks driving around neighborhoods.

He has another business that requires a lot of office space and does it for his own use. Doesn't mean you can't get creative with the concept ;)

I got to talk to a master RE investor recently. He does something I've never heard of---he rents commercial units at 1/2 to 1/3 of the market rate using a first right of refusal. "Mr landlord, keep marketing the place at full rent and give me 30 days to vacate or match, and I will. Its a win-win". He tells me most places he keeps for years.

He does this for another business he runs that needs a lot of local office space but I see no reason why it couldn't work as an arbitrage opportunity.

When renting general office space, what access hours are typical? 24 hour access, building closes at X pm, etc? Or is there no "typical" at all?

Thanks

Hi; a rehabber told me that I could get a rough idea of repairs by walking the aisles of home depot to get a feel for material costs, and simply double them to get an idea of the full repair costs. Do you agree with this? Seems like it wouldn't be very accurate at all to me, but I don't know this stuff