Asia is leading the way out of the recession and the economies in Brazil, Russia, and India are humming. Why not invest in commercial property, REITs, and real estate projects overseas? Why invest in American real estate? Why invest in American real estate is because the market is down and likely to come back. The rules of property and the enforceability of contracts in the USA beats the heck out of what an American doing business overseas will encounter in Russia, China, or on the edge of the Amazon rain forest in South America. How does real estate investing work if you are going to try it overseas? You will virtually always need to have a local partner who will call the shots. You will have a minority interest in the investment and, often, no say as to how a project progresses, if it progresses at all. You will be a minority shareholder whose capital allows a project to proceed and who may see an eventual profit. Individuals who go into overseas projects need strong connections and a lot of clout in order to protect their interests. For most folks this is why invest in American real estate.
An investor in the USA or Canada can rely upon hundreds years of civil law to protect his property rights. Contracts are enforceable in court, which allows mortgages to work. There are a large number of ways to make money in real estate in America and Canada from direct investing in property to construction to working as a realtor. Property management is a viable means of making a profit in real estate. Once the investor leaves his home country he typically says goodbye to most of the opportunity to profit in real estate as he will not have the right, or will have a reduced right, to do business offshore. There are lots of profitable real estate investing products in the USA or Canada. Some of these will exist in other nations too. However, the structure of local law and custom will typically exclude one from profiting from these, where they actually exist. We did not mention language, did we? Why invest in American real estate is because you speak the language of the realtor, the buyer, the seller, the construction company, the property manager, etc. Accents may vary but folks from Maine and folks from Georgia understand each other and function under the same customs and societal rules. The same cannot be said for a person from Missouri and a realtor in Shanghai, China, Bombay, India, or Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Why invest in American real estate is to make money. The same applies wherever you want to invest. The current depressed state of real estate in the USA offers great deals for those able and willing to enter the market and hold property while the economy recovers. The old saying that the best time to buy stocks is when there is blood in the streets also applies to buying depressed property. Recessions come and recessions go. Investing where the rule of civil law protects your investment and where profits beckon is always a good idea. Why invest in American real estate? Because doing so will be profitable. How to start investing in real estate today is to look for deals on shore and not overseas.
