ok, a little background. i came over to the US last december, with my wife and 5 month old baby. i was relocated by my company on the 3 year "global assignment" contract, and came over here on an L1 visa, my wife and child on L2s. we've been in rented accomodation since we arrived.

in the 10 months we've been here, we've LOVED nearly every aspect of life here (northern/central NJ). the separation from family & friends has been tough, but many have been to visit, and besides, we are more than adequately established socially out here. since moving, the job's gone amazingly well, ive been promoted, and even more importantly my wife has had a second baby, now 5 weeks old.

anyway, just when there was a danger of getting somewhat settled, ive now decided to shake my family up (yet again) by considering moving out of rented accomodation into a property we would buy.

and here's the rub. my company plan to "localise" me in the US effective from 1st Jan 09 (this wasnt originally the plan, as i was supposed to be on a 3 year assignment then returning to the UK, but theyve made it so appealing its going to be difficult to say no). My currently L1 visa expires at the end of 2010. I'll receive assistance from the company's immigration lawyers with the whole green card process, but from what i understand that is likely to take at LEAST 6 months from the time of starting the process (which i havent, yet). i was hoping to buy much sooner than that (like in the next few months).

so does that mean since i am currently an L1 visa holder (due to expire dec 2010), im unlikely to be offered a mortgage? would evidence from my company that they are transfering me to a permanent US contract be likely to placate a lender? am i mad to even be considering purchasing right now given the economic climate? (im looking in somerset/morris counties, NJ, and ive seen some dramatic falls in price, and now seems to be a pretty good time to snap up a [relative] bargain).

any other general advice welcomed

Being on an L-1 should not be a problem, there are people on here who have bought on one. However things are going to be tougher now. So the one thing I would ask is if you have been working on your credit at all since arriving? If you haven't then things have just got harder still.

You can get a mortgage but the bigger issue is probably your credit. I'm not sure how that is scored just yet, so there may be some issues you want to investigate.

As for when to buy--that's just such an unknown. I'd take a look at the median home prices in your area and see if you can add a simple moving average to the rise and decline. As someone said of the current economy, now is the time to look at some very basic statistical fundamentals (like a simple moving average) rather than the complex formulas that are now out the window. See if things have 'bottomed' yet in your area before jumping in with both feet.

Good luck

with the possible exception of mortgages, and probably like quite a few other brits, i really dont like buying things on credit, and have tried to avoid doing so since arriving in the US. that said, i did one of those free online US credit score things recently, and came out with a point score of around 720 (i think it was on the boundary between good & excellent)...at the moment, i dont really know what the implications of this are, but it may help to know that if we do buy (and there is a property i am really quite interested in), we would be making a downpayment of somewhere between 30-40% of the property price. perhaps i should consider taking the plunge into the darkside and getting a credit card, to hopefully boost my score some more?

im not convinced that property prices have bottomed out in the area we are interested in...i know that they have fallen a lot, and that properties are, in general, hanging around on the market for a lot longer than usual, but we would factor this into consideration with any offer we would make...and obviously im trying to lead with my head, and not jump at the first place we like.

So have you not got any credit cards? What about any loans since being here. That seems an unlikely score so soon if you don't have any credit. I got a score a little less then that once I had a credit card for 6 months.

Do you know which site you got the score from? I know there are some that you can register with and then cancel within a certain amount of days, but not aware of any that are actually free.

The deposit will certainly help your situation though.

I am here on an L1 visa and purchased a property last year with a mortgage from Bank of America. There was a bit of a panic just before closing as it turned out they mistakenly had us down as being permanent residents (due to misunderstanding the fact that we are resident for tax purposes) but they managed to get it all sorted out in time.

Having said that, although the bank allowed it, in some ways I wish we had waited for our green card first (especially with prices continuing to fall). The company I work for went through a bit of a bad spell last year with some redundancies and knowing that if I lost my job we would also have to try to sell up in a falling market was a scary prospect and if you are planning to put down a big deposit, walking away if you had to leave the country is not a good option either.

Also, I would check on the timescales for the green card and make sure you know what is involved before taking on the commitment of a house. 6 months sounds very optimistic - I know some L1As have been processed in as little as 3 months, but I have been waiting well over a year for mine and still don't have it yet. From L1B it would likely be a lot longer.

As far as timing of the market is concerned, it is less critical if you plan to be living somewhere for the long term, but without the green card it is difficult to be certain that that will be the case.

i dont remember the site, although i do have an electronic copy of the report saved at home...from memory, it was either experian or equifax. i do know that i had to phone up and cancel my membership immediately after getting the report (and, of course, they take this opportunity to give you the hard sell) otherwise they would start to charge a monthly fee after 30 days.

i dont have any personal credit cards here. i have a corporate amex (in my name) and a visa debit card. i have all the usual utilities, and 2 mobile phones, the bills for all of which have been paid on or ahead of time (by electronic bill pay). im guessing the largest factor in my favour is that i have leased 2 expensive vehicles (by expensive, the total payment is >$2000 per month) since feb this year (on a 24 month lease), so im guessing that must have had a fairly large positive impact on my credit rating (which i didnt expect).

ive been lurking and reading in this forum more or less since i arrived in the US, and read a number of times about the requirement to build a credit history, so was rather surprised about the score myself, but im not complaining!

I imagine the corporate credit card is the bulk of your score - not sure about the car leases.

Sounds like you at least have a credit score. This will help a lot. They will still have reservations though due to the length of your credit history.

Combine that with the deposit I imagine you should be OK.

Timing is really a personal thing, if you feel that you are totally secure in your job and think you are likely to be in the US for a long time then I would go for it. House prices are not likely to shoot up anytime soon, so take your time and make sure you are 100% happy with the area and the house.

We moved here on L1 & L2 visas and were able to get a mortgage from day 1 of arrival (yes, we actually found a house in one day!). However, we did put down a 20% deposit.

My friend has to move back to Australia urgently and has just dropped her beautiful renovated 5/6 bedroomed Victorian house in Maplewood, NJ by $90,000 in the hope that she can find a buyer or renter....

That is definitely the one thing to consider. It's not just the score, it's the length of credit history. It was a near thing for us to get a mortgage, even though we had a good score and I had 10 yrs of credit history (my OH only had 3 having only been in the US for that long).

However, a down payment that large may outweigh the issue. I know of at least one other ex-pat that allowed the mortgage company in the US to call the UK companies they had bills with (electric, gas, water, etc), in order to establish the payment history. That's one thing you could suggest if the mortgage company seems reluctant.

my husband had a credit check done after just a few months of a car lease and it came out in the 700's too.

we are L1a and got a mortgage earlier this year (within 6 months of arriving).
we had to jump through a lot of hoops however to get it - far more than a similar colleague who wanted a mortgage well over double what we wanted 6 months prior.

so it can be done but the current climate is changing and making it harder for everyone.

MsElui, would you mind telling me which lender you went through? (feel free to msg me, if you prefer).

i still find the US obsession with credit somewhat bizarre...that a mortgage lender would partially base a decision on lending a six figure sum to an applicant on an assurance from BT/Sky/British Gas etc that the applicant has a history of paying bills on time, somewhat beggars belief. but anyway, if thats whats going to make them happy, they are more than welcome to do so.

As my local realtor keeps telling me "Now is the best time possible to buy a house!"

He told me that about 18 months ago when we were looking to downsize our house due to debt... He told us that about 12 months ago when we got talking at Thanksgiving... He told us that 6 months ago when we had a chat at Easter...

All this time, I am sitting there watching the house market peak, watching the number of house reposessions go through the roof, seeing peoples pensions and savings dropping through the floor and watching the dangerous ski-slope that is the Dow...

Oh yes, now is the best time to buy a house!*



*My advise would be to keep renting until the financial and property markets stabilise.

*Translation: "Now is the best time to generate a realtor's commission".

I was in a similar position last year and managed to arrange a mortgage through HSBC - no problems at all and at a favourable rate. It was arranged within two months of arriving here with a 30% down payment. Also on an L1 visa.