BM - I think what you're referring to is sometimes known as 'jingle mail' which is where owners of US property under water, ie. in negative equity, post the keys back to the bank and the bank has no recourse. As I understand, that applies to only some loan companies and in some states. But of course, that's not going to help you here as you state you don't have a mortgage on the property.

I'd personally look carefully into the costs, any personal liabilities and implications of using an LLC. It might be that setting up an LLC to take ownership of a property in the expectation that you can then walk away might not be legal. I'm not sure, but I didn't think you can set up a LTD company here in the UK to do this. Sounds like you need some advice on this, I'm a member on wealthprotectionreport and you could register for 1 month and ask the questions in the forums, they might be able to give you some pointers.

It's sad to hear this kind of story. I too am looking at US property. I've seen the ads for property in Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester etc saying 20-30% yields are possible. What worried me is what kind of tenants are going to be renting places that are only costing a few tens of thousands of dollars. Florida I looked at too, but running costs for a Florida villa can be very expensive (air con, pool maintenance, bug control etc).

Hope you find some way out this...

You bought a property in a foreign country, unseen and unsurveyed!
In one of the poorest parts of that country!
You expected to make money!
You have been parted from whatever it cost you. (I'm surprised it took six months)

Just found this:

http://motorcitymuckrake...of-global-ponzi-scheme/

There is a class action law suit going on with Metro Property appearing to be main culprits.

Hello BM,

It looks like you have been dragged into a very nasty situation with an extremely unpleasant organisation. Nil return on your "investment" would be a result. Read this to find out who you are really dealing with:

http://www.debbieschluss...com/tag/sameer-beydoun/

But really, what were you thinking when you made the decision to get into this?? Oh, that's right, you didn't think. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

Ian

Barrie, a bit harsh!

Yes he may have been naive, as he admits, but he may well have thought helping to refurbish and gentrify old properties (and bring them back to life) was a worthwhile thing to do. Every buyer of property buys it from a seller and these sellers are not individuals being thrown out on their ear - they long left and moved on. The current sellers are just corporations of dubious ethics. These are white elephant properties and very high risk - not unlike those derelict terraced houses in Liverpool and Salford that were once sold for a £1 as long as you did them up, etc.

The real culprits can be traced back to politicians and bankers/hedge funds. Clinton introduced legislation to force lenders to lend to virtually anyone, and they did! Property bubble and mortgage backed securities - sub-prime - etc that's how the financial crisis started. That led to low interest rates and in turn makes some individuals too keen to search for higher yields etc.