Where do you want to live in the states and why?
How many days/weeks would you spend in the states each year?
In the US, you do not buy an apartment, you rent it. Condos aka condominiums are apartments that you own. Condos seem to go through booms and bust cycles and I would think that given the current economy in the US, it would be a good time to buy. However, condos have monthly fees that need to be watched. If the condo was on the oceans, beach erosion could cost a fortune to fix which is passed on to the condo owners. In some cases, the building just disappears and so does your money. Condos are infamous for having "Condo Commandos" who can be a real pain in the rear. These people make up new rules and can be very petty enforcing these rules. You just have to be careful with condos.
Then there are timeshares. I am skeptical of timeshares but we ended up buying into one. A time share is fractional ownership of a property which most people do to be able to use on vacation. One has to be REAL careful with timeshares. The fees can be costly like in a condo. Some timeshares limit which times and room you can use. So one has to be careful.
You mentioned Orlando and there are a bunch of Timeshares in Orlando.
We knew when we had kids that eventually we would want to take them to Walk Disney World. Disney has a timeshare called Disney Vacation ClubDVC), THAT FOR US, saved us a bunch of money. DVC, like other timeshares, is sold on a point bases. You pay X dollars and you get Y points. The number of points you need to buy depends on the time of year you wish to stay, how many rooms you want to use, and which resort you stay. DVC resorts have one room up to suites that are over 2,000 square feet that include full kitchen, multiple baths, etc. The suites take many points to rent though. You buy into a resort but you can use the points at ANY DVC resort. There are DVC resorts at Walt Disney World and Disney Land but they also have one at Hilton Head, SC, Vero Beach, FL, and one in Hawaii. We just stayed at Vero Beach and it was a very nice resort. If we had paid cash to stay at the resort, it would have cost us over $2,500 for six nights but we figured it cost us as DVC members, about $600.
You can use the DVC points to go on Disney cruises, Disney vacations, and NON Disney resorts. I have not run the numbers to see if it makes money sense to use the DVC points on the Disney cruises and vacations but I suspect it might make sense to go to non Disney resorts though we never have. Disney vacations are guided tours by Disney employees in other countries and in the US. They sound expensive but I have only heard excellent experiences on these Adventures by Disney.
DVC membership has a yearly fee like a condo. At this point, DVC has saved us more money than it cost. The yearly fee is about $850, which depending on the resort, time of year and how large of a "room" we rent can buy has a single hotel room for at least 9-10 days at a high end Disney resort. Our resort has higher fees because it has African animals that are on savannas surrounding the resort. You can sit on your balcony and watch Giraffes, Ostriches, Zebras, etc. It is like having a room at the zoo but we have to pay for the care of the animals so we have a higher fee compared to other resorts. A 9-10 day stay is roughly $100 a night to stay in a deluxe resort. A decent US hotel chain is Hampton Inn and its rooms are usually around $100 a night along a highway. If the hotel is in a city, the price is $150 or higher. The Disney resorts we are staying at, are much nicer than a Hampton Inn and the rooms go for $400-550 a night but we are paying around $100.
If you do not use DVC points you can save them for up to three years and you can borrow points up to three years in advance as well. You can also sell these points for cash. There is a decent market selling the DVC timeshares which is likely the best way to buy points. My impression from the sales, is that people either loose their jobs or get divorced and have to sell their DVC ownership.
I mention DVC because it sounds like you might want to see different parts of the US and a timeshare might be a better approach to property ownership. I mentioned how DVC work because it is much more flexible than other timeshares I have heard about. I have family that has a timeshare on the Gulf Coast and they have to go to the same resort, at the same time of year, for the same number of days. There time share is very restrictive while DVC is not. One has to be real careful with timeshares. From a property investment perspective, I don't know that buying into DVC would make money sense for you. It made money sense for us though, since the cost of DVC has been recouped by saving money for our trips to Disney. We could sell today and get much of our money back, but we could not sell for more money than we paid. We SAVED money with DVC vs paying a cash price for rooms.
On the other hand, I have heard there are developments near Disney World in Orlando that rent out houses. In some states, some people buy a second home at the beach, let a management company rent out the house, and the owners schedule visits between rentals. Florida's real estate market was in a big bubble a few years ago and property prices really crashed. I have heard the market has come back a bit in Orlando but I don't know how much it has recovered. I would think it would be a good time to buy though. You have to be VERY VERY VERY careful in buying real estate in the states. The joking about Detroit is a good example. I am from Florida and my family used to live in Orlando. There are places in Orlando that are almost as bad as Detroit. If you want to rent out the property, yet have freedom to visit when you wish, I think you need to be looking to buy in an area that would generate vacation rentals. This would mean being near Disney, Kissimmee or Celebration are close by, or buying on the beach. Beach property is expensive and you have to be concerned with beach erosion, storms, and hurricanes. We went to the NC beach earlier this year for a school trip and the condo we rented has a building that has waves going UNDER the building. These building are built on pilings and there is just storage and parking UNDER the building to limit over wash damage during storms. This building will eventually be destroyed in a strong storm. A big expense in FLA is property taxes and house insurance. Getting hurricane coverage can be difficult and expensive.
Later,
Dan
