So who is the Israeli investor? As an Israeli who learned and grew up on the values in the country, I knew and thought that Israelis are not suckers .. so I thought ..
I want to tell you a story, as the owners of a property management company quite a few of our clients are Israelis living in Israel, private investors who bought a property or two and this is not their center of business and we as a management company that provides service from a thousand to a character are just the glove they need.
About 4 years ago, a large and well-known Israeli company approached me. This company sold thousands of properties to Israelis across the US, I met the owner of the company in a luxury hotel in South Beach. Their method is a pretty familiar method. This company advertised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the country, they organized conferences with thousands of participants and persuaded people to send them money. They have properties in several major US cities and in particular South Florida. They showed them the value of the ZILLOW assets and promised them an annual return Promised Of 9% for 3 to 5 years. The company was supposed to lease and maintain the properties to maintain their value. At the end of the period the property goes on sale and they share with the landlord 50% sounds good, right ?? So dreams apart and reality apart.
In practice the assets were neglected, untreated, commission payments and taxes were not paid. Some were abandoned, broken and completely destroyed, some of the properties were condo apartments that had accumulated debts to the House Committee, to the Association. At first I was still innocent, I thought the previous management companies had failed in their work and we started a arduous journey of trips between properties, understanding the situation and building a work plan that included debt payments, assessments of renovations and cleaning, tenant expenses - Tenant Eviction and more.
3 years of hard work, talks, and arguments just to spend a dollar so we can sort out the properties and populate them with new tenants. In the end we did what we could, of course some of them did not pay taxes or a house committee but at least we rented the properties. The rental amounts and security funds were transferred to the company as agreed throughout the management period with us. It turned out that after a while we saw that the company we worked with actually started to collapse, the company sold properties twice their true value and that they needed a massive renovation that was not actually carried out. It is important to note that the potential was there. With proper management the property could have produced the guaranteed percentages but of course the prolonged neglect caused almost irreversible damage.
Then the customers found out everything. The houses they bought in those areas, the debts accumulated on each property and the poor condition of each property. All the assets were in the name of the company and subsidiaries and it was not easy to know who the real owners were. They understood the severity of the situation and some approached us directly, we had to try and explain the whole situation which completely confused them and made them realize that they were actually buying a "cat in a sack". Some have sold and some have stayed with us and are maintaining a normal and healthy relationship with monthly reports and full transparency.
Apparently this story is not foreign to you because you have heard of such and such and perhaps you yourself have fallen victim. So what's the conclusion ?? Investors will wake up! Make sure that what you buy is registered in your name, make sure that you have direct access to a system where you can receive black-on-white information and that the decision is yours alone! Come see the property.
The United States is a very convenient country where everything appears in PUBLIC RECORDS and everything can be tracked in municipal records with free access to everyone.
There is no such thing as a safe return !!! Whoever gives it to you especially in high percentages is probably hiding something. If it feels too good then it's probably fake. This property is a headache. It's repairs it's expenses it problems like any other business. Yes there is potential here to make good money. And it is true that you can buy an apartment here for a tenth of the price in Israel. But you're in trouble if you do not have a management company that you trust very much and she is the one who will take care of all the headaches of owning a property.
As a local management company we get a lot of "injured" or "cheated", customers who thought the dream came true and they bought a dairy cow without any problems. Despite the toughness of the Israeli customer, the temptation for easy money outweighs the understanding and logic.
The one who sells you the apartment is the "matchmaker" who holds the property here with him "the wedding" so it is important to find a good management company and meet the owner. A management company is local and knows the micro, at the street level, will give you the real and correct information about the property.
It is important to note that many companies make great deals for Israelis and not everyone builds a recipe that is doomed to failure, the poet did not always intend to lead to failure.
Without the company name it's just a nice story. Such stories are indeed common but not in large companies with thousands of assets