I'm sick of this!

I live in NH. It doesn’t have sales tax but a quick google search says it’s nearly the most expensive state in US to live in. If it had sales tax yet nobody would be here lol.

 

How many have you bought? You have piqued my interest, a couple of those would be a great investment and the taxes are cheap according to my research. Thanks for this info.

 

I haven't bought any in Japan, but did buy 5 in China.

 

How many real estate investments do you have in the US? How much experience do you have with contractors? Do you understand what 'non-rebuildable' means? Do you speak Japanese?

Property markets are usually pretty efficient in regards to market prices. There are reasons these properties are so cheap. Without significant 'sweat equity', you'll never turn a profit.

 

Don't have to deal with all that in Japan & China. Word of mouth and honor system works. Can get a job done efficiently and quickly and high quality without dealing with all the paperwork.
Of course, major projects are a different game; building shopping malls, etc.
Don't need all that for fixer-upper projects.

 

China, sure, maybe at a price. Japan - no friggin way are you getting things done without paperwork.

But you miss my point. Investing in real estate isn't as easy as the influencers make it out to be. Can it be done profitably? Yes, but only with significant knowledge and effort. Regardless of how ethical a contractor is, trying to make renovations from 5,000 miles away is going to be problematic even without a language barrier. Just like in the US, property management eats up the lions share of profit - either through the time you spend or by paying someone else. A real estate novice trying to invest in abandoned property in a country that he doesn't speak the language is a recipe for disaster. A REIT would probably provide greater returns with less effort and risk.

 

Nice! I've never been to China. Do you have renters? Or were they for family? What kind of appreciation have you seen?
They seem to have excellent property rights there, I've seen pictures of freeways built around a single home, stuff like that. I'm assuming the pictures were real.

 

Yeah, renters, except one I put my in-laws in for free. It's a 4 bedroom/2 bath, ground floor condo.
Best appreciation of them all, is one I paid $84G USD and now worth, and have been offered, over a $Million$. It's not for sale though.

 

We should probably start here: Have you been to Japan? I have.

 

No, I haven't. But I have heard about the 'abandoned properties for cheap' in Japan long before this thread.

I have never done an L/P, and I fully acknowledge that L/P is a viable way to build wealth, but at every opportunity I will point out the pitfalls and the low success rate. I have invested in real estate, but not in distressed properties because the people I know who have advised that the input to reward ratio was more than I was willing to pay.

The fact that you took umbrage at my post instead of making an informed reply speaks volumes.