“I can’t run a house I’ve never seen.”
I hear that on nearly every call. It’s a fair worry. It’s also wrong.
I’ve never stood in a single house I own. Not one. I’ve never been to the towns they’re in, and I haven’t been to the US in about 20 years. My houses still get bought, inspected, filled and paid for every month.
Distance is an infrastructure problem, not a presence problem. Here’s the infrastructure.
What changed
“Invest where you can drive past it” was good advice in 1995. Two things changed since.
The internet put property records, tax records, banking and communication online. Then COVID in 2020 pushed the rest of it online too, including the legal side. Today I can do things from overseas that would have needed a plane ticket ten years ago.
Signing and closing remotely
I sign purchase agreements, settlement statements and deeds with a remote online notary. I show my Australian passport on a video call and sign digitally.
The money goes by wire to the title company’s escrow account. The title company handles the closing and records the deed with the county.
I’ve never had to post an original document overseas.
Eyes on the ground
This is the part people underestimate. You need local people you trust.
In every market we buy in, we work with independent contractors who walk houses for us. Before we buy, they send photos and video of the roof, the bathroom, the kitchen, the furnace, the basement. Then we get them on the phone. What about the gutters? Can you film the ceiling in that back room?
These are people we work with every week, and who’ve already been paid on plenty of jobs. That trust takes time to build. It’s one of the most valuable things I’ve got.
Filling the house
Once a house is bought, it needs a family. I use a third-party filling team that advertises the house, shows it and agrees the basic terms I’ve set.
Then I do the final check myself. Can they afford the payment? I ask for recent pay slips or bank statements, because I don’t want to set anyone up to fail. And why do they want to own a home instead of renting the one down the street? The families who answer that one well tend to stay.
Collecting the payments
Payments go through property management software or a loan servicing company that collects them and keeps the records. Property tax and insurance are built into the monthly payment, held in escrow and paid when the bills arrive.
I also stay in touch with my buyers. If someone’s going to be late, they usually text me first. That relationship is worth more than any late fee.
When something goes wrong
It does, sometimes. Here’s what that has looked like for me.
When a family falls behind, we talk. Most of the time it gets sorted. If it can’t, a lot of families hand the keys back, and sometimes I’ll offer cash for keys to make it quick. The down payment they paid at the start is held aside to cover these costs.
I’ve had to go through one formal eviction in the last 3 years. It cost about $1,300 and took about three months. The local attorney asked me to attend the hearing in case the family turned up to appeal, so I joined the US courtroom on Zoom. They didn’t show.
It was annoying, not a disaster. It’s a cost of doing business, and the house went to the next family.
Insurance
Every house has a dwelling policy that covers the big things like fire and storm damage. The family can take out their own cover for their belongings. The premium is built into their monthly payment.
It isn’t hands-off, but it isn’t a second job
I won’t pretend this is fully passive. Setting it up and buying the first houses takes real work. Once a house is sold on terms and the payments are flowing, it takes very little. You keep an eye on it because it’s your income.
See the whole operation
In the free training I share my screen and show you how it runs: the contractors’ photos, the closing statements, the CRM my team works from.
These are results from my own portfolio. They aren’t typical or guaranteed, and your results will depend on your capital, decisions and the market. Real estate carries risk, including loss of money. Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice.
