It’s the first question everyone interested in investing from overseas asks me. Can a foreigner actually own a house in America?
Yes. Outright. You don’t need to be a US citizen, you don’t need a green card or a visa, and you don’t need to visit. There’s no federal rule stopping you.
I own 12 houses in the US and I haven’t been there in about 20 years. Every deed is recorded with the county, and every one was signed remotely.
Owning isn’t the hard part. Setting it up properly is. When I started, almost everything I could find was written for Americans. It took me a lot of time, money and headaches to work out how a foreigner does it.
Here are the pieces, in the order they go together.
1. A US company (the LLC)
You don’t buy in your own name. You set up a US limited liability company, an LLC, in the right state, with an operating agreement that suits a foreign owner.
If it’s a single-member LLC, it’s generally treated as a pass-through for US tax. The income flows to you, and you file and pay US tax on it.
2. A land trust to hold the title
My houses aren’t held in the LLC’s name directly. Each one sits in a land trust. My LLC is the trustee, and the beneficial interest sits with my company.
Why bother? Privacy and asset protection. Look up the property records and you see the trust, not me.
Once an attorney has drafted the trust documents, each new trust is a matter of filling in the details.
3. Tax ID numbers
You don’t need a Social Security number. You need two numbers instead:
- An EIN for your company. Think of it as the US version of an Australian ABN or a UK company’s tax reference.
- An ITIN for you personally, so you can file and pay your US tax.
Both can be applied for from overseas.
4. US bank accounts
I have accounts with three different US banks, all opened online. I keep more than one just in case.
They’re where the monthly payments land and where local contractors get paid from. A US account makes paying people over there far simpler than wiring from home every time.
Moving money in and out
To buy a house, the money goes to the title company’s escrow account at closing. I use Wise to move my money into US dollars cheaply, then send exactly the amount the title company needs.
Coming home works the same way in reverse. I pay myself from the US account to a multi-currency account, then spend it or move it to a bank back home.
What it all costs
Less than people expect. An LLC costs a few hundred dollars to set up. The tax IDs and the bank accounts cost nothing. Trust documents cost very little once you have templates.
It isn’t expensive. It’s complicated. But you only have to do it once.
People on the ground
The paperwork lets you own a house. The people let you run it.
- A title company that knows how to close with a foreign buyer
- A remote online notary, so you can sign deeds and settlement statements from your kitchen table
- Local contractors who walk houses before you buy and send photos and video
- A loan servicing company, if you’d rather not collect payments yourself
What about tax back home?
You pay US tax on income from US property. Australia, the UK, New Zealand and most European countries have a tax treaty with the US, designed so the same income isn’t taxed twice. However that is a question for your own accountant, and it’s worth asking before you buy. I’m not an accountant, and this isn’t advice for your situation.
Do I need to do this alone?
No. In the Overseas Investor program we set this up with you, step by step: the entity, the trust, the tax IDs and the banking. Done with you, not done for you. It’s your company and your portfolio.
If you want to see how it all fits together first, I walk through the whole thing in the free training, including the recorded deed on one of my houses.
This is general education about my own setup, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules differ by state and by country, and change over time. Every investor should engage their own US attorney and CPA and their own adviser at home. These are results from my own portfolio; they aren’t typical or guaranteed, and real estate carries risk, including loss of money.
