Run. Run away as fast as you can. It will be years before the US housing market looks anything like it did in 2006.

It is a terrible idea. If she intends to be an absentee landlord from AUSTRALIA for properties in FLORIDA, she is going to lose her shirt. I can almost guarantee that. There are areas that may take decades to recover, and the process of collecting rent, paying taxes, and managing property without a thorough knowledge of the area in question will end in disaster.

The US housing market isn't coming back anytime soon, so be very careful. Florida especially because those homes could easily be destroyed by tornados or hurricanes. Best to invest in a less weather-dangerous state. The risks won't be as high, but neither will be the profits. But housing markets are inching up in other parts of the country, but out west and down south they're gonna stay down for a while.

And people simply don't have the money to invest in them, that is mostly the case. But I agree with Newmunich. Stay away, because in Florida, it could be a decade before it really recovers. Also, you have to worry about being a landowner and maintaining the properties while living in Australia. Just sounds too risky

What's wrong with you people? You should encourage them to INVEST! A gloruous future awats in the off-world colonies!

Bleed those aussie retards dry. The US economy needs their money.

lol. I have a bad feeling about this investment for my girlfriend's friend. Denise always has been one to get into wacko theories. Her obsession over the past few years has been alternative medicine but now she has been bitten by the US real estate bug.

My advice is to say "sure, a great idea, but let me handle the money for you".

Send me their info; I have a great investment scheme regarding bridges.

It seams she already has an investment property, so she know a little of how this works. I think her investment horizon would be on the long term (10-15 years) and she would need to work with a local property manager, other wise there may be some problems.

"Sell for $30k, but still attract around $1K a month in rental"

That's one hell of a return if it's true. Makes you wonder why the wealthy people in the US (of which there are many) haven't already snapped them up.

I love when people talk about the housing market "recovering" to the point it was before the bubble. As if those prices weren't hilariously over-the-top.

@Octavious:
That's the question I asked her. Her response was that it is really hard to get a loan in the USA at the moment. But that doesn't explain the people with money - it would be the best investment around if those sorts of returns were typical. This story, Australian's investing in the US, has been getting quite a bit of press here lately. It is all going to end in tears. Australian's are falling for it because our housing market is the opposite of America's. Prices are close to an all time high. There is no such thing a $30K house here. And no such thing as over supply (presently). This makes Aussie investors more gullible.

She is going to get conned either way, you might as well get in on the action and snatch some cash up for yourself. Tell her you have great connections in the US, and as for $1000.

@ spyman

Don't let her do it. It is just a bad decision for a variety of reasons. Real estate is a very risky investment to begin with, especially in an economic recession. If she wants, she can sell that 800k house in Melbourne and buy 300k house in America, and simply move to America. That would be an easy way to make money.

This is such a great idea, but don’t just stop with Florida! Aim your investment sights at Flint, Michigan, where your girlfriend could buy whole neighborhoods for a pittance- and that’s not all! These houses even come with washing machines, refrigerators, and any other stuff their former owners couldn’t haul away and had to dump on the sidewalk! Sure, they’re a little gutted, maybe a few are condemned, but so what? When American corporations wake up and realize that cheap overseas labor just isn’t doing it for them, all those jobs will come rushing back, and demand will be so high that you can knock down the houses and sell the property for a thousand times what you paid for it! Forget 30k-300k, these houses are going to go from ten bucks and some pocket change to MILLIONS!

(P.S. Just in case you didn’t catch the sarcasm, don’t do this. Not even in Florida. Just don’t.)

Hey, can you give me Denise's e-mail? My friend is a Nigerian prince and needs help getting his money out of the country.

A 30k home is a home in distress and will need serious repairs before being rentable. Then she will need to keep up with the maintenance as the US has laws protecting the renters from slum lords.

@yourad. I don't think the prices before the bubble were over the top. that would be a pre-bubble bubble haha. When we, or at least I, say "recover", I mean to about the 2003 price level, not the 2006-07 level that was the peak of the bubble

"Hey, can you give me Denise's e-mail? My friend is a Nigerian prince and needs help getting his money out of the country."
I found that particularly hilarious, I must admit.

But anyway, if your friend somehow managed to get accomodation in Australia AND own an investment property here, I think she should stay in Australia and keep those house(s). Our prices are still on the rise and they won't be going down anytime soon, especially in Melbourne. Landlording in inner suburbs around Melbourne is a reliable goldmine (the houses are shit, but the location reels in massive returns).

Nobody should stay in Australia, it's a shithole. Not that moving to the US is much of an improvement, but still.

I would like to talk her out of investing, but she would be really offended if I said too much. We don't usually agree on much (she doesn't appreciate my logical/rational take on most things). Hopefully she will come to her senses of her own accord, or I'll get my girlfriend to forward her a few links to some sites warning Australian investors.

@dD_ShockTrooper, do you really think Melbourne house prices will continue to rise? I think they are absurdly over-priced. I don't think we'll have the kind of crash that America experienced, but surely the time has come for prices to plateau for a few years or ten (our Banks were much more conservative than American and European Banks, which is one of the reasons we were hardly affected by the GFC). Let see what happens with next couple of interest rate rises that are coming soon. A lot of people with mortgages are really starting to feel the squeeze.

In a way I can see the logic. Sell real estate in a market which has peaked or is close to peaking, and buy in a market which has crashed. It could work. But alas I fear it won't work for Denise.

"Nobody should stay in Australia, it's a shithole. "

lol. manganese have you been to Australia? If so where did you go?

Northern Territory, Western Australia or Tasmania, obviously.

The poorest state (territory), the emptiest state and the inbred state. Good thing you didn't go to Canberra.

No, it's prety much shit all over. Wherever you go, there are Australians. And if no Australians, desert. And if not desert, wasteland. Or all of the above.

Obviously you've never been to Melbourne... I'd hardly call it's inhabitants "Australian", theres no deserts or wastelands anywhere in Victoria either, let alone Melbourne.

I'm guessing you think Egypt looks like Mos Eisley from Star Wars too?

Victoria is an _utter_ shithole. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/hundreds-slapped-with-fines-in-swearing-offensive-20110531-1fea1.html?rand=1306825620375

As for the inhabitants of Melbourne, you may be right that they should not be called "Australian". I doubt they should even be called "human".

Um... what? How is a somewhat dodgy law that the police are trialing that nobody in Victoria supports make it a shithole? And how are they not human exactly? By not "Australian" I was refering to the fact that almost everyone either immigrated there or both their parents were immigrants.

By the way, most people in Melbourne don't swear or behave disorderly, especially around police officers, so I don't know why someone even thought of giving that law a go.

I take it you are a Melburnian dD_ShockTrooper? Which part? I am in St Kilda.

Yeah, I'm from Melbourne. Preston, Northern suburbs. I might as well say I go to Melbourne High to show off, now that I know there's somebody who might actually know what it is here.

Well, I guess "slightly over half the population" can be called "almost everyone" if you like.

I can only amaze at the level of desperation that would drive somebody to immigrate to Australia, let alone to Melbourne.

Preston hey. I used to live Nortcote, I am aware of Melbourne High. That's a school for bright kids, I believe. Do catch the 246 to school? I used to take the 246 to work, and there were always Melbourne high kids on the bus. I have played webdiplomacy on that bus many times (on my iPhone or iPad). I live near work now, so I walk these days.

typo... Do *you catch the 246 to school?

Hey, I'm from Mount Waverley! I used to live in Preston years ago, 1995 or 1996. What year are you in Shock Trooper?

Manganese, where do you live?

Do you think that the australian real estates are overpriced because of the negative geering tax policy ?

@ Aurevir

It's pretty sad about Flint, Michigan. I have skimmed Detroit real estate sites. There are nice houses for less than 10,000 dollars. America has completely abandoned the city that basically won WWII.

she'd be better to jump in with friends and make a real estate company that buys the properties and hires a staff of inspectors (to make sure the property repairs won't cost more than the value they thought they were getting), landlords, and groundskeepers/handymen. Because being a foreign landlord will just be murder on her.

I love me some Melbourne, I had a couple hot Melbourne friends. They always went to the anti-Scientology protests haha I am convinced they went just to dress up in sexy costumes. Plus it was easier to have a philosophical conversation than with friends here in America. Not that the American friends can't, just less inclined.

I see a flaw in her plan.

"when the US economy makes a full recovery "

@draugnar

We are talking about Florida, after all. There's really no rights that a renter can assert in court successfully. The problem is that most of Florida has higher unemployment than Flint and Detroit.

Buy a house in Portugal :D

There's a house that's been on the market, and is in functional order, in Detroit for one dollar that can't sell.

@spyman: I actually take the 112 tram into the city then switch to train to get to MHS. Somehow, it is slightly slower than the bus-train combo, but it is very consistant and rarely cancelled. (It's perpertually delayed, but the frequency is always 5min so it doesn't matter)

And largeham, I'm in Yr11.