hungryhorace

What was your thinking behind fixing on a higher rate for a longer period of time when you're on a temporary work visa out of interest?

Did the mortgage company not throw any objections up about the short term visa's?

IlAlfie

The GC process is in train and although not guaranteed etc, we thought it wise. If we don't stay, we'll sell and go or rent it out in the short term. Interest rates are bound to go up on the next year or two so I liked the idea of fixing at these relatively low rates for a lifetime (given our ages >40 - small rises in interest rates can be pretty punishing).

Mortgage company did not bat an eyelid about L-1/L-2. I hadn't even realised we would be eligible for a mortgage until I bumped into an estate agent in the street where we were renting and I spoke to her. She put us in touch with a very knowledgeable broker and that was that. The worst part was all the underwriting stuff. I think I must have uploaded around 100 files in the end. Tortuous!

GeoffM

I asked this to our mortgage company. They said legally they cannot object to even a 100-year old getting a 30 year mortgage if everything else passes their tests.

Which is a complete farce as - in our case - all they needed was a letter from my mother indicating that the funds were hers, no matter where she got the funds from. In addition to a statement that in fact the UK does indeed use a different currency, and that indeed the rate is different to the US, and indeed the transfer arrival date may well differ from the transfer origination date.

In other words, they needed to pretend that they understood international transfers, but labelled it as "money laundering laws" in an attempt to cover up their sheer incompetence.

Cynical, moi?

IlAlfie

Our funds were already transferred. We had no option. That was the only annoying aspect. Everything else was bearable.

bewildering

I just refinanced into a 4% 30 year rate with minimal PMI. We were in a 4.625% 30 year with big PMI. (I hate appraisers by the way, the only reason i have any PMI is that the appraiser used a local fixer-upper as a comparison, and also gave no extra value to our new bathroom).

I could have got 3.875% 30 year, but would have had to give the bank an extra $2-3000 for closing.

The interest rates are roughly correlated with the 10-year treasury yield, which is about 2.5 at the moment. Financial 'experts' have predicted the 10 year rate to rise but it has not really budged...

No one can predict rates in half a year nevermind 5 years. Interest rates are at historic lows, but they said the same thing about Japan in 1990s and in Japan the low interest rates became the new normal.

IlAlfie

Yeah, we have no PMI. Makes a difference.

bewildering

Oh and 3.5% rates for 30 year fixed were available in 2012-13 when the 10-year treasury yield was at 1.6 or so.

With great credit, 15-20% down I think you can get 4% at the moment. Check out internet lenders directly, and not a broker. Although if it is your first purchase then using your realtor's personal broker can have advantages.

kodokan

Ha, we completely had this too! Our downpayment consisted of monies pooled from previously living in the UK and Switzerland in GBP and CHF, as well as USD, all held in a three-part multi-currency account in Jersey; the GBP and CHF funds were FXed into dollars within that account, and then it was all on-shored to the US.

You can imagine the fun... I was expecting to have to explain how this worked, but not down to the level of 'that sum of money there *circles on statement* is actually the same funds as transferred and shown there *underlines on statement*... you're right, the numbers ARE different, aren't they - that's because in the first one, the money is in GBP and in the second it's been turned into dollars... no, not all countries use dollars, no... no, sterling isn't just the same as dollars but just using a different word...'

Bob

But they can if you're only here on a temporary basis, which being on a visa status is and that wasn't what the question was, which was about the ability of being on a L1 visa and not ones age :/

Hotscot

Off topic: I heard that it's getting very tough to get a mortgage back home if you're over 40 or so..

Pulaski

Presumably based on not expecting that you would have paid off a 25 year mortgage before you hit retirement age. ...... I foresee the return of endowment mortgages, or at least a hybrid of repayment and endowment mortgages, with the endowment piece being designed to accumulate enough to pay off the balance of the mortgage at your expected retirement age.

GeoffM

You missed the point then.