All Forum Posts by: Lee Sal

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share with everyone something that i recently discovered. I may be a little late to the party with this but i just downloaded an iPhone/iPad App that reads PDFs to you. Its called Voice Dream but there should be many other similar apps out there. It makes getting through ebooks that much easier. You can adjust the speed (words per minute) at which it reads to you. It will show you a progress bar with time-read and time-left so you know how much time it will take you to get through the book. You can also choose accents, i find the UK accent is the smoothest to listen to, some others sound a little robotic. 

I always knew there was such thing as an audio book, but i didn't know that there were apps that could read just any old PDF. 

I believe reading is important to real estate success and this app makes it easier and more productive. Im halfway through reading (listening) the 5 books that Brandon Turner recommended in a recent post:

- Rich Dad Poor Dad, 

- The 4 hour workweek, 

- The total money makeover, 

- The Lean Startup, and 

- The One Thing - The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Another book i recommend is The ABCs of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy

Anyways hopefully I've informed some people who will find this useful!

Don

Thankyou for the recommendation. i will be sure to check out his website

Hi nancy

Thanks for sharing your experiences. The main reason i do not want to invest in Australia is due to the outrageous purchase prices. Most homes in Sydney cost over $400,000, and these are the cheap properties. Same goes for all the major Aus cities. So this market is for those who have a lot of capital. For someone like me who only has around $100,000, i wouldn't be able to accomplish what I'm after in Australia. Coupled with the fact that i want to,and have always wanted to live in the US full-time, it makes more sense to invest in the US where i can buy properties under $50k with cash and gain a positive cash-flow

Hi guys

Thank you all for your input. This was my first post on here and i wasn't expecting to have so many replies. I understand why initially so many people are telling me not to do this. I just want to clarify that i will not be investing from distance, i will be moving to the US and thoroughly doing my research into the suburbs that i would be investing in. And I definitely would not buy a house in the hood. I would also be managing the properties myself as this will be my full time job. I have worked in property management for over 5 years in the residential rental market so i know how to deal with tenants. I have also lived in the US on two separate occasions before, one time where i was a cross country tour guide which took me to 39 states, so i know US history and geography better than most normal americans do as it was my job, and another time when i completed my Masters Degree in Real Estate investment at the University of North Carolina. So i am not a complete beginner as i do have some prior knowledge on property. I am shying away from investing in Baltimore due to the amount of crime, but Phoenix is looking attractive to me. The houses that i am seeing on willow around the $30,000 mark are actually really nice. Obviously i would have to visit the properties before making a final decision. But i have been to Phoenix many times and it is one of my favorite US cities and as far as I'm aware crime isn't a major problem in Phoenix relative to most other major US cities. 

Another option i was thinking about was buying a home, living in one of the bedrooms and renting out the other bedrooms through Airbnb. Is this something anyone has had experience in doing?

Hi there,

I am a 29 year old Australian looking to move over to the US to invest in residential properties. The aim is to buy properties under $30,000 with cash and lease out the properties for a positive cash-flow. 

My business partner and I should have around $100,000 between us to invest with. So we are hoping to purchase 3-4 properties to lease out. 

I have seen online many decent properties for sale under $30,000 in cities like Baltimore and Phoenix. 

Any advice on which cities to invest in?

I know in countries like New Zealand and the UK that it is common to rent out individual rooms within houses to gain the maximum amount of rent. Is this a renting culture that Americans also adopt? Perhaps around Colleges for students?

Any advice would be grateful