Financing of American Homes, While in SIngapore

[drakower]

Hello All,

I was wondering of the supply of American citizens that are currently based, stationed, living, or working in Singapore, that still maintain properties in the United States.

My interest is based on the fact that I will be in Singapore at the end of May to offer financial planning/services to Americans that either maintain, or are looking to acquire, American properties. My question is whether such a supply of Americans exist in Singapore, so that I can make an educated assumption of the professional value of this trip that I will be making.

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for the assistance and I can't wait to get to Singapore as it is one of my favorite countries to visit.

Thanks again...

David Rakower

[Strong Eagle]

Well, there is a supply of expats with foreign holdings but there is also an endless supply of financial 'advisors' who want to tap that market. As a matter of fact there is a hot black market in obtaining the business cards of expats so these advisors can find new leads. I must have had 10 calls within about 4 weeks of arrival.

I think your problem will be that for most Americans over here they already have advisors, property managers, etc. Possibly you could offer a service for property buying but

a) I would not buy sight unseen
b) I would not buy in the US given the fact that the dollar continues to depreciate against the Sing dollar and other currencies.
c) I would not buy in the US given the current slump... which looks like it will be extended.

What might be useful is the ability to provide foreign financing for American properties at interest rates lower than that of the US and which would allow me to take advantage of the depreciating dollar. Of course, earning Sing dollars and transferring them to the US to make property payments already takes advantage of currency depreciation... I get more US dollars each time I wire money.

[huggybear]

SE is pretty much right.

but you know there are a ton of other foriegn investors from korea, singapore, indonesia etc that will buy property sight unseen.

Korea just lifted the cap on the amount of $ you can invest overseas so now there is a flood of korean money investing in US real estate.

I know you're an american in florida, but if you broaden your perspective outside of the Jeb/George Bush doctrine (i.e. the world outside of the gated community you live in?) and learn how to conduct business with the asian community you could have a very rich and rewarding career. there's a few US property shops i know of in Korea that specialize in investing in the US real estate market.

and everything SE says is right. a lot of the asian banks offer low interest loans (lower then US rates) and u can create structured products to "arb" the interest rate, fund your US mortgage in Japanese yen at 0% or in singapore at maybe 2.5% and then manage the FX risk.

And SE...regarding point C: there are markets that are healthy and aactually booming (i.e. NYC and San Francisco...i also think idaho is a good investment).

i once met a private investor who was really shrewd. he would just look up where home depot would plan new stores...then he would buy property in the areas near the planned home depots. pretty brillant actually. he figured home depot did the best analysis on which markets would experience the best growth for real estate.