All Forum Posts by: Benoit Roose

Thank you @Mike D'Arrigo, super helpful! This definitely backs my conclusion, I'm going to pick a state that appeals to me and start digging into the information on the markets. I'll make sure to check your website out.

@Erica Muller it's definitely harder to break into back here. A lot of factors seem to work against you in Belgium compared to the US. Your neighbors are right, whenever I start talking to Belgians about US real estate numbers they usually don't even believe me. A lot of Belgians seem to be investing in FL from what I've seen. I'm going to try and pick the mind of a Belgian realtor that markets FL real estate to Belgian investors and try to figure out why.

Thanks @David Hedges & @Dustin Lauer. I'll definitely keep all of those in mind when I start looking for actual markets.  For now I'm simply trying to narrow it down between states so I can go into deeper research of different markets and pick a couple. Whatever state I do end up picking I'm sure there will be different laws and taxes between the counties. 

@James Wilcox I would love to invest in my own area, but seeing as I'm from Belgium it's almost impossible to get a property to cashflow out here. At least not in the same sense it does over in the US. Property prices are quite high and I have no intention in spending any majority of my life in Belgium. As soon as I find a market I will go out there and spend my time investigating it as thorough as I can.

As a young foreign national who wants to start investing in the US I started working out a step by step investment plan. One of the first and maybe most important steps is obviously picking my market, not an easy task with such a wide variety to choose from. I decided to try and narrow it down to a small handful of states before going into a more detailed market.

My main goal is to get that first deal under my belt to gain experience and get me started. I’m hoping to find a small multifamily in a “cheap” & healthy market that cash flows for less than 150K.

Here is the thought process I’ve gone trough so far:

As I will not be living in the US and unfortunately won’t be able to manage it myself I definitely want to go with a state that is landlord friendly. I came up with the following list.

TEXAS
INDIANA
COLORADO
ARIZONA
FLORIDA
KENTUCKY
GEORGIA
MISSISSIPI

As I started looking into these states I quickly realized how easy it is to start making decisions based on emotion. I started leaning more towards states that appealed to me because of their cultural or geographical aspects.

I started looking for parameters to run on the different states to make a more numbers based decision. All I have come up with so far is property tax and the fact wether the states have an income tax or not. (will this even matter as an investor or will I be able to write off most of it trough deprecation etc?)

Based on emotion my personal favorite would be colorado but I found the property prices to be that much higher and I want to start very small. Or am I missing something here?

stateproperty tax----yearly tax on 176K house-------median house price ----median house taxes

TLDR:

What parameters are useful to narrow down my choice of state ?

Is it a bad thing to let my emotions play any part in my decision between these markets or does the importance of picking an actual marker outweigh the importance of state?

Any input or tips for foreign investors are appreciated.

Hey @Gus Van dender, welcome to BP!
Always nice to see some other Belgians around.
I'm going to try and get started myself later on this year.
If you have any Belgian related immigration tips those are always welcome.
I guess I'm going to start off with trying to get an E-2 visa down the line.

hey Frederic.

After doing some research on the E2 visa I found that you can apply for one starting at a 100K investment. I will attempt to jump in at the end of 2016. Best of luck to you!

Exactly, I've listened to his podcast a while ago. It seems like it should definitely be possible with the right mindset. I'll have to figure out a way that I don't get taxed trough the roof though. I suppose I should go talk with a tax professional in belgium somewhere for more specific information.

Hey @Guyoz Golan, sounds great!

How long will you be around for?

@Chad U. thanks!
That sounds exactly like what I was looking for.
You just kickstarted my American real estate dream again.
I'm amazed how helpful this site can be.
Now if I can only figure the taxation part between the US & Belgium out I should be well on my way.