Hi everybody,

With our dollar goes to parity, I wonder if buying a property in US could be a good idea?

I am a Permanent Resident of Australia, (not Aussie citizen, studying at the moment) and have some money in NAB bank which I brought from my home country.

I can afford to buy a 40k property in US without getting any loan/finance. It seems great investment. But I am not sure if it is possible? Are there any reputable real state agents doing this in Australia? Do I have to go to US myself ( whether now or when I want to sell my property)? If I rent the property will I have to deal with both ATO and IRS ( US TAX OFFICE )?

Is it a wise idea at all?


Thanks fellas,

Why not? I wouldn't be putting all of my money into this but a small part of it..... There is the hassle of renting it out from the other side of the world, but the US is going to recover one day and you will probably make money. I was looking at Condos in Las Vegas and Florida that are on the market for $25k and they are perfectly habitable. I said to my wife that we should buy one for the hell of it. I bet there are investors in the US right now buying cheap properties up by the bucket load.

Speculate to accumulate.

Thanks for the input.

The matter is there should be a lot of real states in both here and US who can do it for us, but only a few of them should be trustworthy.

The question is how to find them?

Speculation also pushes up prices so why are they still so cheap? I do agree though, the price must be near the bottom of the cycle by now

Since I am not an Aussie citizen I need a visa to travel to US. I wonder if anyone who wants to buy a property in USA have to travel to US? (either when buying or selling).

Saw this guy on TV a while ago:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/as...0305-powo.html

Might be worth asking in the US forum

Be careful. State laws can be different: for example, in Florida they passed a law a few years ago which capped homesteaders' local tax increases to IIRC 4%. If you weren't a homesteader (your house wasn't your prime dwelling) the increases weren't capped - the result was that year on year you would pay not only your own increase but also, effectively, that of the locals' minus 4%.

Very good time to by in Boston, New york or San Fran.

But jump in quick........

Manhattan suburbs see bump in prices
October 13, 2010
Suburban communities near Manhattan have seen prices rise as city dwellers are looking for housing bargains, and the stabilization of the economy is helping to drive sales and boost prices in these neighborhoods, the Wall Street Journal reported..


The price increase in the suburbs also reflects the rising prices of sales in Manhattan during the past few quarters. In the towns in Westchester nearest to New York City, median prices are up 14 percent this year, and are only 3 percent below the market peak in 2006,

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...bump-in-prices

What do you honestly think you're going to get in the US for $40k? A double-wide?

I'd be very careful about investing in property here. The really cheap places in Las Vegas, SoCal Inland Empire, Detroit etc. are cheap for a reason. They are usually in very bad neighborhoods and/or have no proximity to decent employment centres.

There are enough empty houses in this country to last for a generation of population growth.

So what is the solution? Is there any way to find out what the real worth of a particular property is? any website, etc. ? ( for example something like this >> http://www.myhousevalue.com.au )

Thanks for the heads up by the way!

http://www.zillow.com

With respect, you don't appear to have enough knowledge about the subject to even be *thinking* of throwing $40k into the shark infested waters of US property.

I'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to help you offload the cash - the best advice I can offer is to do a *lot* of research with an open mind and really think whether you want to stick hard-earned cash the other side of the world and effectively out of your control.

And $40k might be OK as a down payment but it won't buy much worth having, as someone else pointed out!