vikingsail

I can sell you this bridge for only $10 million, no terms , no interest and not a lease. Bridge is in place and is set up for toll charges. Situated in a beautiful part of the US.

md95065

How about if I send you that check for $13M that I am expecting to arrive from Nigeria any day now and you give me the bridge and $3M?

tinman0

In the last year we have picked up more than a few properties in this area that are all in the 20-30% ROI. We close on a property next week that will net around 33%.

The lowest priced property we've picked up is $10.5k. After costs and a small refurb, it's standing at $18.5k invested, pulling around $7000 per year net.

Couldn't care less whether you believe me or not. PM me and I'll send you the property appraisers link to a recent sale, and then conclude yourself what we're making. It's all public records.

nun

You can certainly get good returns from RE, but you can also loose your shirt. In my opnion it's best to buy close to where you live so you can control all of the variables. I don't doubt the returns you are getting given the FL RE market, but I would not advise the OP to get into that market. I own a rental property and manage it myself. I bought in a strong market that has stayed strong through the RE crash so the property value is twice what I paid for it 10 years ago and I have used the rental income to pay off two mortgages. Combining capital appreciation with rental income and costs I estimate about 10% annual return with very little risk. Being mortage free and getting rental income is nice. I would advise the OP to use the low mortgage rates to buy a quality rental property where they live and avoid the volatility and hassle of speculating in FL. Divide the rental income between paying off the principal and investing in a range of low cost mutual funds....how much you put to each wuill depend on the mortgage rate and your tolerance for risk.

Flabound oneday

have to concur that it is more than possible. we are in a different are of Fl to tinman but there are still 'bargains'

nun

I'm sure this is the case, but I would still not recommend that an individual Canadian sink money into FL real estate.

tinman0

The key is knowing the areas. Last year I could have picked up sub $30k properties nearly every other day but they are all in the areas that I wouldn't want to collect rent, and there would be a high turnover of tenants.

Instead we focus on 3 subdivisions. And again, we're not short on candidates, just trying to maximise our investments.

No idea why someone in Canada wouldn't invest, we already handle properties here for family in the UK.

tinman0

Lol, I always get that one wrong.

nun

The OP can make up his/her own mind. Either invest money remotely in a volatile FL RE market with companies that show 20 to 30% ROI or follow the most basic rule of RE investing and buy locally so they can monitor their investment and be actively involved in it's management. Both have good potential returns, but I think that investing locally minimizes risk and is just easier.

tinman0

I'm really sorry, I have no idea where you are coming from. I'm assuming you know nothing about the Florida market and are making up the concept of high risk to support your argument.

md95065

The risk is precisely that most of us do not know the Florida real estate market.

You, yourself, said:
Therefore, someone from outside of Florida who does not know the local market had to trust someone local who does - that is a big risk. I am going to assume here that you are being completely honest and ethical about this, but I am sure that there are many people out there who are not - how does someone from Canada who does not know the local area make sure that they are dealing with someone honest and ethical and not a scam artist?

vikingsail

No need for such complicated arrangements. If you already have connections in Nigeria how about we swap. This prestigious Nigerian bridge looks similar in price to the one I presented earlier. Since you are a knowledgeable and skillful negotiator I can let you have it in part exchange with $1 million cash only.

nun

Knowing little of the market and being thousands of miles from the real estate sounds risky to me. Of course the market has risen and fallen dramatically over the past few years and if you are buying into a recovering market there is probably impressive money to be made. But applying the truism that high returns usually come with high risk and FL RE investing is not for me. I might be wrong and 30% ROI could well be possible with very little risk, but it won't kill me to miss out on it and I'll stick with my 10% annual return from property that I see every day. FL might be just the thing for some people in Canada or the UK, but not for me. I'd rather invest locally in a market that I know and not need to rely on an intermediary.

Yorkieabroad

I'd tend to go along with nun and md on this - long distance landlording can be a royal pain, bottom end landlording ditto - combine the 2, and theres a good chance of trouble. I acknowledge that I may be making a bad assumption that the cheap property in Fla is bottom end, but I know little about the Florida property market, and have no interest in learning as its a long way from Texas!

Back in the 80's I was investing in cheap stuff in Manchester - terraced houses (15k, +/-) that in a good year could show 25-30% net, then the next year turn a loss when the scumball tenants trashed them and flitted. Those high % returns look good, but when they are high % on a low price property, there isn't enough physical dollar margin to cover many problems/repairs/downtime. I was in London at the time, and that was too far away to keep an eye on effectively, so I backed out of those.

Then I got into London property that was 'only' 10-12% in a good year, but was still 8-10% in a bad year. Being local, I could handle it pretty well on my own, and that was a lot more profitable over the longer run than the headline rates from the Manchester properties would have suggested. When I moved to Singapore I had to put them with agents, and it was OK for a while but then we started getting agent problems, switched a few times, but after 5 or 6 years I basically sold up and got out.

We've got into it here again, but the low end stuff here is just not worth the paper high % returns, so we aim at the corporate market and again pull in a consistent 10-12%, managing ourselves. Given the quality of the agents I've come across here, I wouldn't want to manage them from afar.

Bob

Especially when one doesn't have a right to live in the country and the US being what it is with the VWP, even though Canadians can stay without a visa for 6 months, doesn't mean that'll always be the case.