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Mark Rooney
Having just purchased my 19th US property in just under 4 years, I've learnt a few things about the US real estate market. I first found out about the investment opportunities in the US real estate market in February of 2002 whilst in the US and Canada on a work trip, whilst up in the North Western part of New York State. From that time onwards, I formed a further interest in the US real estate as time went on and as I researched more of the potential it had. The first 4 or 5 years of research I lost interest and then became interested again probably due to the frustration behind the level of involvement required to get an understanding of it. The US real estate market during that time (2001-2006) was booming and the traditional places to find information at that time such as the internet and emails to real estate agents in the US cities I was focusing on really made things difficult as they were not really available to provide a lot of information to an interested buyer who was half way across the world. I found at times that I would see a property on a website that had just been placed on there, and then make an inquiry then next thing the property was sold. Many real estate agents were simply not able to provide some of the key aspects of the investment that I needed such as trust, relationship and integrity from them. Obviously at that time as properties were selling almost the same day they were put online it was difficult to build any of those key requirements with the real estate agents over there. Unfortunately for the Americans the global financial crisis hit and hit them hard, within the US real estate industry I actually noticed a change probably about mid to late 2006 where the real estate agents would actually email me back and I would have a number of agents emailing me and providing me some further information. This was the biggest change in the learning curve because as an onlooker over the years trying to gain momentum, suddenly I was able to extract deeper information and the initial commencements of relationship building with them. My focus has been quite different to most foreign investors into the US market and that is I have focused on building the infrastructure over there first. That being, the teams of people, developers, property managers, real estate agents, attorneys and accountants. I even try and find others who have been successful and work with them to gain further experience. It is this infrastructure that I have focused on and developed first prior to investing in the area of choice. My goal is to assist foreign investors to invest in the US real estate with confidence gained through relevant, up to date factual information about the property its location and it’s potential. The management of the property is the main concern for me to determine whether or not the investment will be successful or not. The focus here has been deep and real culminating into a property management program that delivers a better streamlined approach to managing the investment. The approach is definitely a preventative problem one; basically the concept is to maintain the property to be fresh and inviting for tenants. This way it allows for timely raises to the rents because the property has been looked after and the tenants are happy.
