Buying U.S. Real Estate Book Review

Buying U.S. Real Estate: The Proven and Reliable Guide for Canadians by Richard Dolan, Don R. Campbell, and David Franklin is considered the ‘bible’ for any Canadians wanting to invest in US real estate. It was published in 2012 so it’s a little dated, but the concepts are still valid. The idea of US real estate had always appealed to me but not simply as an investment but more to serve as a dual purpose vacation home that we can rent out when we are not using it.

We haven’t actually bought anything yet but I thought I should do a little research on the taxation aspect of it to see what we might actually be getting ourselves into. Where did this inspiration come from? We really enjoy going to Hawaii (well my husband moreso than me) and we were seriously considering buying a unit in Honolulu, renting it out as a short term rental when we are not there, and using it for 1-2 weeks a year when we visit or sharing it with family. Hotel prices have skyrocketed in Hawaii (well I guess every where after COVID) and having to travel hack each time can get pretty difficult. In addition, there are not many condo-hotels that are designated as short term rentals in Waikiki. That timeshare saleswoman a few years ago was indeed right about “oooooohhhhtellll inffffflaaation” with her thick Russian accent.

Here’s my Buying U.S. Real Estate book review. It is one of the five books I told myself I would read this year in my 2025 personal finance resolutions.

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Buying U.S. Real Estate Book Review

Buying U.S. Real Estate: The Proven and Reliable Guide for Canadians goes through the whole process of buying real estate in the United States.

Part I: This part goes through the decision to invest in the United States and looks at three states that are especially popular for Canadians, Florida, Arizona, and Texas.

Part II: These chapters talk about identifying distressed property, evaluating neighbourhoods, and looking at the real estate cycle. It also looks at the importance of being able to analyze the cash flow and evaluating whether it is a good deal or not.

Part III: This part of the book looks at renovations ad management, and which renovations will give you the most bang for your buck. This information was a bit redundant as this advice is applicable for Canadian rental units or real estate in general. Also, it talks about hiring the right property manager and how communication is the most important.

Part IV is about cross border tax planning. You have to file a US tax return on your US real estate profits.

Part V talks about legal protection and how having an asset protection plan is very important.

Part VI goes over cross border financing and banking. You will need a US bank account if you have US real estate. Also, getting financing in the United States is much more difficult as a Canadian.

Finally the last part of the book discusses about insurance, not only for the real estate property, but for yourself as well.

What I LIked About Buying U.S. Real Estate

The book goes through the process of buying real estate in the United States, including finding distressed property, looking at the neighbourhood, and having a plan. Just buying property in the United States and then leaving it isn’t enough of a plan. The authors advise you to have an exit strategy before making a deal, and more importantly, make sure that the exit strategy is profitable.

I also liked that the authors emphasize the importance of having a good property management team. You will heavily rely on them as your eyes and ears (and hands). As a Canadian owner and non-US resident you are not allowed to do any work whatsover on your property because you are not allowed to ‘work’ in the United States. Therefore even if you are handy, you will have to hire contractors and tradespeople to do the work if you are planning on updating the property. This was a good pearl of wisdom I extracted from the book.

The chapter about taxes was helpful though I don’t feel like it went in enough depth. I am still a little confused about how to best structure it as a Canadian thinking of buying US real estate.

What I Didn’t Like About Buying U.S. Real Estate

Most of the book was about having due diligence when buying US real estate, and being able to recognize a bad area in the United States is very different from a bad area elsewhere (meaning it is really really bad if it is a bad area in the United States).

Some of it felt like common sense- like dialing down the emotions when buying your investment property and utilizing your rational thinking instead. The last part of the book where they talk about cross-border tax planning, US tax laws, and making sure you are protected against lawsuits (the authors site examples multiple times about how US people are the most litigious worldwide) were the most useful, in my opinion.

Have you read Buying U.S. Real Estate? What did you think about it?