Investing in the US and Australia: What’s the difference?

“In the US, when the tenants rent the property, they rent the property with washer, drier, fridge, stove, dishwasher. That’s what comes with every single home, that’s how you rent the property,” Ms Hona shared.

“There’s that, plus there’s also, when we’re buying properties, you’ve got heating and cooling devices, but some heating devices, that can be $5,000 to $8,000 to replace, so if you’re looking at a property, and it has a really old furnace, what we found is you have to budget … [as] there’s a good chance that that furnace is going to possibly break down in the next few years, because they only really have a 10- to 15-year life cycle.

“It’s important to factor all of that in and knowing, ‘Right, do I have new appliances?’ Or if I don’t, how much is it going to cost to replace, and is it worth my while to replace it now? That way, it’s good for another few years.

In comparison, as Australian investors are aware, Ms Hona said the bulk of necessary assets include hot water systems, oven and stoves, and occasionally split system air conditioners.

As well as appliances, roofs are another point of difference that US and Australian investors have to deal with.

“[The US does] their [roofing] different to us, they don’t have tiles. So, looking at that and going, ‘Okay, how long have I got until I’m actually going to replace that roof?’ which is quite common, you have to replace it every 15 to 20 years,” she explained.

“If it hasn’t been replaced in a long time, there’s a good chance that you may end up having that experience, so again, just factoring all of those things in.”