stonesa

I am goint to US in August on L1 visa and was originally planning to rent an apartment. But the real estate agent (that a friend introduced me to) arranged for me to buy a house and get a mortgage. This all in 3 months. I am not in the US yet, but went there to see properties. I can not tell you how happy I am (however, a lot of stress and worry in the process as a lot of paperwork needed to be given), and am really indebted to all the people involved, the agent, the broker, the mortgage person....I have no credit history in the US (in fact this was the first time ever I went to US when I was house hunting) and as doing most of the transactions via emails. But those are local people from the area in PA where I am moving to, so I don't know if they can help for other areas, but if you think you could benefit from those contacts let me know.

I still don't have my SSN so don't even have a bank account yet.

This is the next thing I have to do.

Just thought it may be useful for someone.

broma25

That is very interesting, which part of PA will you be in?

ScotsmanInTexas

Not sure I'd be completely comfortable with that arrangement or recommend that approach to anyone actually. I only know this through having come to the US to live. I strongly believe you have to live in the place and get some FIRST-HAND local knowledge before you commit to buying a property and a mortgage. I live in Houston but there are many places in Houston I just wouldn't want to live. Sure the property can appear cheap and good value, but the area might be a bad one. There some rather dodgy places that I wouldn't want to drive through never mind live. Hope you did all the necessary homework, but I still wouldn't agree this is the best approach. Still depends on the city, state etc...

Ray

Don't worry ..they all done very nicely out of you ....

bored-silly

RENT!!! I loved a particular area when we came to look around and was adamant that I was going to live there. Thank god I didn't - it's a crappy place with crappy weather. We rented for 18 months and don't regret a second of it. We have ended up in the right city for us and it could have gone so horribly wrong.
You may hate the idea of renting but just do a short term lease. Of course these people are trying to get you a mortgage, they get 3% of the total sale price of the property. It's absolutely in their interest for you to buy.
Try www.craigslist.org for rental property.
If you really want to go through with a purchase, Washington Mutual were very good with us.
So a search on this site, there are lots of other pearls of wisdom from some very knowledgeable people.
Good luck!

AdobePinon

Month-to-month lease. Best thing since unsliced bread. Just read the small print - month-to-month does not mean lack of termination clause.

Don't buy until you really know what's going on. You're at their mercy.

stonesa

I am going to be in Bucks County. Low crime rate, great schools, close to NY, to Philly, to skiing and to the Shores. So I am happy.
By the way, the company I got the mortgage from is large bank, but thanks to the broker and the realtor who were very good in advicing me what to do, I got it. The system is very different there and so without a good advice I wouldn't know where to start. Also I couldn't wait till I get there as I have a small child with me who needs to start school end on August and this real estate agent sorted it all out for me. We went to his house, meet his family it was really great.

It is different in small rural communities than in big towns. Everyone seems to know everyone else and I was offered help from all sides. So far, my contact with the US was great.

woodsey

We found out we were coming to the US in January, came out for 2 weeks in April and did nothing but search for houses, where we were looking month to month rentals were non existant and thanks to some advice from people in my husbands company we already had plenty of info about the areas we were looking for so buying was always the thing we wanted to do, we were totally unprepared for the competition for housing but fortunately 2 days before we flew back to the UK we found our house. Fortunately we had been pre-approved a morgage by Wells Fargo, this too was sorted out by my husbands company. Everything was done by email and Fed Ex from the UK and it all went pretty smoothly, even the lack of Social security numbers was not an issue. We arrived in the US on 28.06.04 and we were in the Escrow office on the 29.06.04, we picked the keys up 1 year ago today and have absolutely no regrets, especially as our house has gone up in value by $200,000, nice.

Pimpbot

$200,000 dollars in a year. Nice indeed.

Englishmum

You don't need to have a credit rating, have a Social Security number or to even be a US resident to buy property in the USA. In most cases a 20% deposit is required, but even if you can't put 20% down you get PMI - an insurance which is for the benefit of the lender only - if you default on your mortgage.

It's easy to get a mortgage (if you can prove you have a regular income to pay for it) as the house won't be going anywhere if you don't pay for the mortgage - the lender will take possession of the house....

redlobster

Gaining a mortgage as a foreign national is not a problem. All you need is employment history, banking history, a UK credit report from Experian and a paper trail to show transfer of funds from the UK to the US. History requirement is 2 years normally. You do not need a US score.

Getting a mortgage with a strong credit score coupled with a weak or non-existent one again is no problem. You just do the loan on the strong score to keep rates low. It will be a mortgage in a single name but the property deeds can still be in joint name

There are loans available for any score. You just pay more the lower you go.

When a broker rolls the closing into the mortgage, you pay for the loan of that money. The broker makes more, the lender makes more and you pay more. The advantage is that you do not have to find the money up front and you get into the house cheaper in the first instance. But long term it is more expensive. With property loans, if you think you are getting a bargain look again, it’s hidden somewhere and you can bet you are paying more in the long run. Be very careful with brokers who say this will cost you nothing. There is usually a credibility gap there.
Redlobster

stonesa

Yes our mortgage was also through Wells Fargo.

lifeisgreat

Hi there

Did you have employment lined up beforehand, or would one be able to use employment in the UK for the mortgage? My husband and I are considering a move to the USA (US AND UKC) and would like to buy before moving. Neither of us have jobs over there yet, but a substantial savings, so 20% would not be a problem. I guess this question is for anyone who would know. Could we say get a mortgage using our UK income, credit history, etc to secure a house? Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

L

Ray

Well here in Florida its actually easier to get a mortgage while you still living and working in the UK ... thousands do it every year ..you may have to put a larger deposit ... but if your here with no jobs it will be virtually impossible..

Bob

Probably better to start your own thread as this one is a bit old, also check out the faq as it has a few links....

and the OP is using an L1, which is a company transfer, so yeah, they would have had employment lined up already.