Blip

We have just moved to the states, myself being English and my wife being American. Sold house in UK (phew) so have money for deposit for a mortgage and my wife has a well paid job. We went to a certain bank and are being asked more questions than the visa process :curse:, any advice???

fatbrit

Tell them to stuff it and walk. You're unconventional so use a broker instead since they will have a much wider variety of mortgage products to work with. Tell them to pull your history ASAP and then hopefully you'll only get one credit ding.

chartreuse

I agree with FB re telling them to stuff it. I would suggest one thing, though. Ask around in the community about local (as opposed to national) banks. You may well find that there's one with experience of working with expats. If there are any large employers in your area who hire a lot of expats (round our way it's the oil company) give HR a call and pick their brains.

Barring the need to get an "international credit report" you may not be as unconventional as you think. We ended up getting an FHA mortgage from our little local bank.

MsElui

we completed our mortgage in November. It was the most hassle we have had since being here. much much worse than a UK mortgage. There were a billion questions - so you may just have to suck it up.

Michael

I suspect that anyone that has taken out a mortgage since August would have jumped though hoops. Everything has tightened up considerably since then due to the credit crisis.

chartreuse

Oddly enough, that wasn't our experience - though it was the experience we were expecting. Because of the oil companies, our local bank is very used to arranging mortgages for expats (mainly engineers on assignment) and the whole mortgage side of things was very straightforward. Applied in October, closed in December.

Of course, our realtor screwed up the closing, a bit, but that was a separate issue.

Tarkak9

Even if you get approved etc, protect your earnest money right until the end....
I am hearing nightmare stories where the bank changes their mind and decides not to do the loan when people are at the table (even though the buyer had fico's in the 800's). Banks are (plead the 5th) these days.

franc111s

The problem here and THIS IS VERY important. The skill set of the people that work in Branches is pretty shoddy to say the least. Don't go into a Branch - it's waste of time.

Apply on-line.. Lots of banks... good time to borrow. Don't let them screw you on banks. WHo is your UK bank with? Maybe they partner. Mine did went Suntrust / Barclays were linked - but that was 12 years ago !!

chartreuse

I beg to differ. My experience of on-line and telephone banking has been most unsatisfactory. Whereas my experience of speaking with a senior member of staff in my local bank (local, not a national chain) yielded results beyond my wildest dreams.

You seem to shout a lot. Are you mental?

NC Penguin

I don't think the relationship between SunTrust and Barclays exists any more. I do believe there is a relationship between Bank of America and Barclays though.

ChocolateBabz

We jumped through so many hoops I am now a member of a travelling circus

We went with the bank who we opened our bank accounts with thinking that they already knew us (a bit) and at least appreciated that we were from a foreign land. 3 weeks before closing they changed their 'rules' and were no longer offering loans to anyone without a credit score (which we did not have at the time).

We then went to 2 others who both promised the earth and then dissapointed us at every turn. On one day alone we faxed (yes the u s of a is very much into 80's technology) 86 pages of paperwork to them of which they lost or misplaced every other page it seemed.

We did finally close on time but not without headaches, stress and many many arguements (with each other and the bank!!).

To add our point of view 'GOOD GOD MAN DON'T DO IT ONLINE' at least if you go to a branch you have a somewhat human person to shout at

P.S. I worked for a Building Society in the UK and we were used to arranging 'unconventional' loans to expats, bankrupts, self-employed etc. and could appreciate the differing paperwork from folk but over here you will have to explain everything in baby-talk as they just don't get it.

MsElui

seems like you used the same mortgage company as us lol. They kept coming out with all these 'conditions' that we had to provide evidence for or explanation of. We would scurry around and get whatever they needed, they would go back into a huddle for a few days and then send out the next set of requirements. Some were impossible to get - like they wanted a copy of an EAD for my L1A husband so we had to explain how the immigration system worked lol! We ended up closing a week late! I was almost 8 months pregnant at the time and it was stressful beyond belief. At one point they told us so late in the day that we wouldnt be completing the following day as expected (and this wasnt the original completion date - it had already slipped 4 or 5 days) that we couldnt cancel the removal firm - so they came the next day and packed us up and me and Dh and the 2 kids had to sit on boxes for 2 days while we waited for the mortage company to fanny about some more.

ChocolateBabz

hee hee - the Bank of America banner at the bottom of the page is almost prophetic