warkski

Hi - we currently live in the UK, but my husband has just been offered a job in Texas with his current employer so we are looking to relocate to their office in Texas. We are looking to sell our property here and buy over there. Does anyone have any contacts for brokers or direct to lenders so that we can get a mortgage preferably with a 20% deposit??
Appreciate any help anyone can give!!
Thanks
Alex

fatbrit

Fresh off the boat with no credit score, and 20% down! Never say never and all that.....but I think you're a tad optimistic in today's market.

There was a post a month or so back with someone fresh off the boat being refused a loan in the Northeast with 50% of a $600k property down.

chartreuse

True. OTOH, I pitched up and had no trouble getting credit, once I stopped dealing with brokers. So I think that there are a number of factors in play, geography being one of them.

Where in TX are you moving to, warkski? Also, has your husband got a SSN yet? What about a visa?

Bob

Aye, that's generally what's happening, but location is important...I know locally with one bank for instance, corporate has cut down on loan processing people, so it's one tub of lard processing loans for the whole state and a couple of the neighbouring ones, so there's about 7K loans on the persons desk at time and about 99% automatically are getting denied, only dead certs are getting it, for instance, one bloke was only looking for $200K and had $500K to put down and he was offered $65K...he told them to stuff it

Mummy in the foothills

I'd rent first then you can pick and choose the best area and buy a house. There are always pretty houses in naff neighborhoods. Rents means you can get to know where not to buy. By the time you get arond to buying you'll have a credit rating.

Sue

I agree, renting to start means you will get a feel for the area, and you can take your time and look around for the best place to buy.

ukintexas

Hi Warkski
If you are intent on buying to start off with, my advice woudl be to contact whomever you bank with in the UK - they may have an affiliation in the US, or an INternational arm that can help you.
HSBC is one that I know has an International arm, as does Citibank. If you are looking to approach a US based institution, Wells Fargo was great when I moved over. It was easier to get a mortgage with them than it was to get a Target store card!!!
Other posters have made some valid points re rental - if you've not been to the location you're moving to sufficient times to get to grips with it, purchasing off the bat might mean you end up in a location you're not 100% happy with. Just a thought.
Hope this helps.

warkski

The office is in Arlington and we were looking around the Cedar Hill area - anyone know if that area is actually good??
His company are sorting visa's etc out, I just got the job of trying to find someone's advice on mortgages!
I'm not sure about the SSN.
We currently own a villa in Florida (not on credit) and have a US bank account (but any finer details - not sure!)

celticgrid

Does not the current employer offer any help in this? I was lucky (?) to be provided with some relocation assistance which included passing my details to a couple of 'tame' banks who were quite ready to provide mortgages when no credit history existed. Worth asking the employer?

Agree with other comments re. brokers - deal direct if at all possible to get a better response.