I was 16 when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. It gave me a plan I carried for most of my adult life. Own things that pay you, so you can stop trading time for money.
Then I looked at Australian property prices and the plan went on the shelf.
Around half a million dollars for a poor house in the middle of nowhere. Save a big deposit for years, then sign a 30-year mortgage on a house that doesn’t even pay for itself. “One day” never came.
What changed it was a three-bedroom house in America that cost me $24,000. A family lives in it. They’re buying it from me. It pays me every month.
I now own 12 of these houses. I’ve never stood in a single one of them.
Can a foreigner legally own property in the US?
Yes. You don’t need to be a US citizen, you don’t need a visa and you don’t need to go there. There’s no federal rule stopping an Australian, a Kiwi or a Brit from owning a house in America through their own company.
I haven’t been to the US in about 20 years.
What you do take on is paperwork. Your US company has filing obligations, and you pay US tax on the income. All of it gets done remotely, and once it’s set up it runs the same way every year.
Why America, and why the Midwest
There are two Americas. The one in the films is the coasts: New York, Florida, California. Expensive.
The other one is the Midwest. It used to be the manufacturing heart of the country. When the factory jobs moved out in the 90s, house prices in a lot of these towns flatlined and never came back.
Rents kept going up. House prices didn’t.
That gap is the whole opportunity. These are working towns with good people in them, and you can still buy a decent family home for around $30,000. Some are cheaper.
The US also happens to be the biggest property market in the world, it speaks English and it’s priced in US dollars. If you’re going to plant a flag in real estate overseas, that’s the place to do it.
Buy real estate where the numbers work, not where you live.
What the numbers look like
On my own installment-sale houses:
- Purchase price around $30,000, some cheaper
- Net in my pocket about $750 a month per house on average
- A return of 20%+ net on the purchase price
My own numbers, not a promise of yours. Not financial advice.
Compare that with what you’re used to hearing about Aussie property or the UK, Europe or wherever you live… and you’ll see why I stopped waiting.
The three things that stop most people
When I talk to Australians, Brits or Europeans about this, the doubts always land in the same three places.
1. Money
“I don’t have $30,000 sitting around.” I didn’t either when I started. I built my portfolio with other people’s money: private lenders, ordinary people, secured by a first mortgage on the house.
If you do have capital, start with it. Cash, equity in your own home, even credit cards work at these prices. Some people look at their super or pension, which is a conversation for your own adviser because the rules are specific.
What I recommend is buying your first one or two with your own money to prove the model to yourself. Then bring in private lenders to scale.
2. Market
Good deals aren’t found, they’re produced. Nobody lists a cheap, cash-flowing house on a public website and waits for a stranger in Sydney or London to notice.
My team goes direct to homeowners who want to sell: tired landlords, people who inherited a house, owners who need out. We’ve closed 186 deals in three years doing exactly that.
3. Distance
Distance is an infrastructure problem, not a presence problem.
I sign with a remote online notary. Money goes by wire to the title company. My US bank accounts were all opened online. Local contractors walk every house and send me photos and video before I buy.
I’ve even sat in on a US court hearing over Zoom.
The exit that makes it work
I don’t rent these houses out. I sell them on an installment sale.
A family who can’t get a bank loan pays a down payment and then a fixed monthly payment to own the house, usually over 30 years. I become their bank.
Because it’s their house, they look after it. When the water heater dies, they fix it. I don’t get the maintenance calls, and they get a home nobody can sell out from under them.
It gives me cash flow. It gives them a home to call their own.
What it isn’t
It isn’t passive at the start, and it isn’t quick. Setting up the structure and buying the first house takes real work. Anyone who tells you real estate is fully passive is telling you a lie.
Once a house is sold on terms and the payments are coming in, it takes very little of your time.
Where to start
I recorded a full training where I share my screen and walk through all of it: the settlement statements, the legal setup, the deals my team is working on right now.
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.
