Robindoha

Hi,

Appologies if this is in the wrong section, i'm struggling to find how to post a new thread.

My questions is:

I'm a UK Citizen with a American wife, currently working in Qatar.
We would like to invest in property in some property in the States, for rental purposes.

Is it possible to get a mortgage in the US, bearing in mind i have no US credit rating?

I understand a higher deposit may be needed, to secure a mortgage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

bakedbean

Hi Robin and welcome to the forum. You've successfully posted your own thread but, as the question needs to be answered by those in the US, I'll shift your thread over to the USA section. Hopefully someone will be able to help.

scrubbedexpat099

Has to be possible.

Sensible is another issue.

Noorah101

Might be difficult for you, alone, since you have zero credit in the USA. However, jointly with your USC wife might be possible, or just your USC wife alone should be possible.

Rene

Awesome Welles

Semantics maybe, but getting a mortgage is usually described as 'borrowing', rather than 'investing'.

Pulaski

Personally, I would only buy rental property in an area that I know very well and could visit regularly. Much of your gross margin (rent over mortgage, insurance and property taxes) is going to be taken up by management fees, repairs and maintenance.

Giantaxe

Or you're relying on capital appreciation... something that can hardly be taken for granted in many areas of the US.

TimNiceBut

As already mentioned, getting a mortgage is going to be the biggest issue - it will definitely require a large downpayment (30%-40% or more) if you can even find a lender to work with you. *If* your wife has maintain US credit, you might be able to get a mortgage via her but a lot of normal lenders want to see US income, so keep that mind.

The other thing to consider is that with the bulk buying of distressed property by investment companies, you end up with two problems in the current market - first, the large-scale investors can pay cash and that is preferred at the moment as the deals are unlikely to fall through. Second, in a lot of markets the flood of rental properties has lead to lower rents, so rental yields are pretty depressed even when you take into account the pretty spectacular mortgage rates you can get over here with the appropriate credit history.

Oh, and another problem is that in quite a few parts of the country there isn't much inventory - a lot of the REO properties that aren't abandoned foreclosures (ie the ones where the bank actually went through with the foreclosure rather than not taking title; the latter seems to happen a fair number of times in areas with really depressed markets) are only coming on the market in a trickle and there isn't that much inventory overall. IIRC "normal" inventory is about 6 months, at the moment in a lot of the markets where it's worth buying a house (ie not downtown Detroit ) the inventory is hovering around 2-3 months and that makes it really hard for someone to buy who isn't local and ready to pounce on a property with a moment's notice.

There are a few other things you need to keep in mind - as already mentioned, you need a management company over here to look after the property and the tenants. Property taxes also tend to be higher for investment properties so that adds another cost you need to keep in mind.

Robindoha

I'll examine the mortgage avenue under my wifes name, as she has a reasonable credit rating. The location will be in an area where her family live and recommend renting.

I was hoping for capital appreciation as house prices appear relatively low, but I know this is an uncertain area.

Thanks you all for your speedy replies and recommendations

lndn2nbca

You can get around the lack of credit issue by working with a lender who will consider a "non-traditional credit rating", they will accept things like credit printouts from Experian/Equifax in other countries, plus a credit rating from your mortgage lender in another country. I successfully went down this route; there are limitations, including only borrowing up to 'jumbo' threshold etc, but you can also get a 'home equity line of credit' that when issued at the same time as the mortgage also has interest payment tax offsets (same as first mortgage interest payments).

However I've not tried to do it without a local income, and based on the wringer I went through I'd be pretty certain my lender would not have entertained a foreign income only.......

tinman0

If you are intending on buying distressed properties (eg foreclosure, short sales) it's more or less a cash only game. The banks are very uninterested in financing out a new deal when another bank just lost $$ on the previous deal. The banks seem to like a clean break to the property.

As for the rental market - it really is a game where you have to know the neighborhoods intimately. We're following 3 subdivisions here that give strong rental incomes, but there are properties maybe a mile away that I wouldn't pay the price (and we're talking $20k at times). Don't care how nice the house is in those areas, we don't invest in them nor recommend them.

Money can be made though if you get it right. Watching another short sale today execute at $25k for a 3/1. House needs $5k of work, and will rent for $750pm. Insurance and taxes are maybe $1500 for the year. That one was a bit of a fluke though, I'd really expect it to play in the low 40s as a rent ready house.

soccer20

Sorry to jump in this forum. not sure which other to post in.

Im currently having a dispute with my rental property. I paid all of my bills online, received payment confirmation via email for every payment. One of the payments didn't actually come out of my account, but they noticed their mistake three months down the line.

With the receipts in hand, what are my rights?

Thanks

Bob

You don't say where and can't be bothered to search your past posts.

Safe to say, on the general level, you generally have no rights. Then it's a matter of looking at your state level and possibly county level for renters rights and disputes and any dispute will probably go through small claims type court.

soccer20

Im sorry. We are located in Georgia.Gwinnett County. Not sure where to look. They just dropped a last notice to pay, or eviction notice will be served. Even though, they haven't sent anything else prior to this. And as I said, I have receipts of payments

md95065

Sounds like you attempted to make all of the payments but for some reason one of the payments didn't really happen, right?

In which case, even though you may have a "receipt", you still have the money for that payment and the property owner doesn't. If that is what happened then why don't you just pay them their money and everyone will be happy.

Or, perhaps I misunderstood you in which case please explain what actually did happen ...