All Forum Posts by: Sam Van Horebeek

@Eugene S. Good to hear that you have success while being out of the country. As our team is based in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we are doing exactly the same as you so happy to share notes!

I am wondering whether your team in Nevada has "skin in the game" when you do buy and flips? For example, is your team only getting paid when they generate the ROI that you are looking for?

Also, have you considered Indianapolis or other markets in mid-west/south yet - good buy and flips there. Feel free to PM me if you like to get in touch.

Sam

@James Park Interesting data - thank you for sharing - what is the source?

@Douglas Skipworth and @Tina Sandoval Thank you for sharing the turnkey providers in Memphis. Would you have a list of property management firms in that city as well? (some investors prefer to find the property themselves and then engage a property management firm)

@Alain Perez-Majul We have dozens of Asian clients asking for cash flow properties and Indianapolis has been on our radar. Please PM me if you can assist.

We are working with small commercial investors (deal value 50 -100 mm USD) here in Asia so we are looking for interesting deals in the US that produce high yields.

Below is one of my posts that provides some more information around one of our requests:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/32/topics/272...

Feel free to contact me if you have anything that could help us.

@Chris Isaacson

I can understand your frustration about the California real estate market and your interest in moving.

While I believe that this is more a personal decision that you have to make, I do like to add an international perspective on this issue.  

As we are based in China, we see a high amount of interest for California homes. The number of inquiries from Asian buyers for California real estate continues to go up and we expect that will continue to be the case for many years to come.  Their main reasons remain immigration (and living in an area with good climate and fresh air), education for their child (as a good range of great schools) and diversification of their assets (better value for their money compared to many cities in China). California houses are for these Asian investors ideal (compared to other markets).  As such, you should feel good about the location where you are based now. Of course, the interest of Asian buyers for California houses also could create problems which I am not going to go into here.

If you are looking for better investments generating higher cash flows, then locations such as Memphis and Orlando might indeed be more suitable.  I am not sure though whether this would be a good reason for you to move there versus purely investing in those cities (and staying where you are in California). Interesting enough, we have Asian investors who first bought houses in California to live in and they are now asking us to help them to purchase houses in Memphis, Orlando and other cities for investment reasons. 

Good luck!

@Lane KawaokaYou are correct that China has controls in place around money transfers done by Chinese citizens. Every Chinese citizen can only transfer a maximum of 50,000 USD per year out of China.  Over the last few months, these controls are being monitored much more closely than before. However, we do still see quite a bit of interest from our clients in China to continue buy real estate in the US - a trend that actually has increased even knowing that the controls are more strict...

@Jason NatelleI would mention that there is another option - you can invest in non-turnkey options in different cities outside of your local area.

99% of our clients (which are all international clients) follow that approach: they do not buy turnkey solutions often and they do not buy locally (as they are keen on investing in the US). For them (and for you), you might consider identifying the right team members in each city that you are interested in and have them find deals for you. Often you will increase your return this way as you are in control about the property that you purchase, the property management that can be engaged, etc. Obviously, the key is to identify the right team members in the city of your interest whom you can trust.  

As a result, I do not believe that you should invest locally if the numbers locally are not meeting your risk/reward profile. You should look at other places that are expected to provide you a better return (whether it is cash flow or long term appreciation) and do your due diligence.

Hope this helps

We are working with several Asian investors (real estate funds) that are actively looking to buy US real estate assets in the next few months. They are looking for operationally mature properties providing stabilized income. No developments.

Type of Asset: commercial (by preference office buildings, retail, mixed used buildings,…) (no hotels)

Location: second-tier cities (e.g. Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Austin, …). Generally located at the major business and/or tourist locations

Budget per deal: minimum 50 million USD (cash)

Requirement: Minimum investment cash yields (cash return on equity) of around 8.0% (post tax and leverage).

Please let me know if you have any suitable properties.

We have seen a mix of Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong investors buying in Texas.  Most of those investors are looking to generate rental income and long term appreciation.

Welcome @Kevin L.

We have seen quite a bit of interest from Chinese who are interested in buying Houston properties.  I am sure that the experts on the ground in Houston can address questions on how the low oil price is impacting the energy sector and its implications on the Houston real estate market.  

Depending on what you are looking for, other cities in Texas that you might consider are Austin and Dallas.  

Good luck!

@Ana Marie B.

Probably some local experts can comment on the market in Seattle and see whether it is a good investment in the long term. 

From a China perspective, I can tell you that the volatility might have more positive than negative.  Many Chinese are keen to get the money out of China in line with their diversification strategy.  Based on a study that our team did in China following the stock market decline last summer, many respondents indicated that they will invest more in the overseas property market. See also the news on CNBC. Of course, as someone mentioned already, this fear might be contagious and create issues in the US/Europe markets. 

Good luck!