Cynnaminrye

So my husband and I are looking into moving our family to the USA. I'm American and he's English. It appears our hard earned credit strength is going to be wiped away when we make the move and rental prices are high (Boise,Idaho). So rather than throw money away on rent for several years while we rebuild our credit we are wondering if it would be possible to buy a house over there (starting the process while we're still in the UK) with the intention of using some of our profit from the sale of our current UK home as the down payment, like you can when selling and buying properties solely in the UK? Has anyone done this before? If so, what were your experiences?

Noorah101

I think it will be tricky, because although yes, you can use the cash from the UK sale as a down payment, you won't actually have the cash until the house sells....and that's what the US mortgage lender will want to see. Plus, to carry the remaining balance on mortgage will mean you need US credit history. I suppose not that it can't be done, but you probably won't get a good interest rate, might have trouble finding a lender, etc.

I assume you would make at least one trip to the USA to visit properties? You wouldn't want to buy a house sight unseen.

Best course of action is to rent a place for at least a year while you built credit history and take that time to look around the areas to decide where you want to actually buy property.

Rene

Rete

On top of that you have to take into account that neither you nor your husband have employment in the US at the time you wish to purchase property. Why would a mortgage lender lend money to someone who does not show the means to repay the loan?

IMHO, better to throw money away on rent then to throw thousands of dollars away on a property in the wrong area or on property with issues?

Cynnaminrye

Actually it's likely that my husband could take his job with him as most of his work is online. I appreciate there's definitely a risk to the idea and one or both of us would have to go out there to see areas and look at houses.

Pulaski

If PetiteFrancais comes along maybe she can help as she has a contact with Wells Fargo's international unit that is apparently willing to give mortgages to new immigrants subject to them having a job/income and (I think) documentation of your UK/non-US credit history.

That said, unless you know the area very well and/or have family in the area, I would still recommend renting for at least a few months before buying.

petitefrancaise

I'll pm you the details of a contact at Wells Fargo mortgages who has been very helpful.

Thanks Pulaski for giving me the headsup.

Cynnaminrye

Thank you, I reallyappreciate the help!

Cynnaminrye

Thank you, I really appreciate the help!

petitefrancaise

They'll need salary/bank statements/mortgage statements/tax documents for the last 2 or maybe 3 years. All the money used to finance the deposit will have to have a complete papertrail. It's worth it though, they gave us and some others really good deals - the sort that excellent credit in the US would get. So, I hope it helps you.

I also think you should rent for at least a couple of months, but you know that! I've also heard back from at least 1, maybe 2 people who bought prior to moving and it went well. Let us know how you get on.

lansbury

We purchased our US house while living in the UK. Wells Fargo gave us a US mortgage based on my wife's (USC) UK salary. Now that was a little while ago, but it was all done online and over the phone with Wells Fargo.

I was not part of the purchase as Wells Fargo would not except any of my salary as I didn't have a SS number. However they did agree that our UK mortgage was covered by my UK salary so they excluded that from Mrs Ls financial details.

Cynnaminrye

Thank you!

petitefrancaise

lansbury, they're all in some big office in the midwest , everything gets done with email and even phone calls were restricted to a few things that were tricky or taking longer than I thought they should.

They know what they need from you and in my case, could even handle the documentation in French. So,it's mostly a case of providing them with what they ask for, then giving them more info as they go through it all. They're looking for an excellent, continuous history of being paid and paying all your bills on time. They will need all the documents showing the sale of the previous house, the amount being paid to clear any existing mortgage, then the bank trail of the money to your current bank accounts in the US. Not difficult stuff but it does seem to go on and on.

Cook_County

Hopefully you do not own the current house and it is all your NRA husband's name; otherwise because of the fall in Sterling you'd have to recognise a huge currency gain on repaying any Sterling mortgage on sale.

Cynnaminrye

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying. What does NRA mean? Both my husband and I own our house here. I know it's likely we won't profit from the exchange between currencies thanks to the sizeable drop in GBP value but I can't follow what you're trying to explain.

Cook_County

Your husband is (currently) a non-resident alien (or NRA). If you repay a mortgage borrowed of - say - £100,000 and the loan started when the pound was 1.60 and it is repaid when the pound is 1.10 you'll have a cost of $160,000 and proceeds of $110,000 - so will need to include an amount of US$50,000 as taxable income on your US tax return. Standard advice has always been for the NRA spouse to own non-US real property for precisely this reason.