texasnatt

hey,
we have just moved to texas and are looking for a house,
has anyone got a mortgage shortly after moving to the states????
and if so, how easy was it?????
we are waiting till we get our ssn (another week or so) before applying,
we have had an american bank account for a couple of years so are hoping this will help,
thanks for any info,
natt

BritGuyTN

rent for a year. this will save you thousands of dollars over the term of your mortgage.

your bank account will be of very limited value unless you have serious reserves - $100k + and have some kind of premier relationship with the bank.

texasnatt

thanks a lot for the info,
is this what you did?????

natt

BritGuyTN

Yes. The reason is to give yourself time to get a good credit history.

Also from a TCO perspective having a decent downpayment is good to have.

MaureenC

We arrived in Texas on June 10th from Scotland. Had our mortgage approved and moved into our brand new home in Round Rock on July 11th. We found it pretty easy to get a mortgage and the interest rate isn't too bad either.

Celsius

Look at the FAQ at the top of the forum. There's stuff on credit in the US.

Pony

The only mortgage your likely to get is a No Doc (No documentation), often referred to as a NINA (no income no assets) mortgage. The rates are higher, but with the right mortgage broker not that much higher considering the risk the lender takes.

I have no real credit history (not been here long enough to build one), my wife is still at school. We found a great foreclosure home a few weeks back. It was $120,000 below market value. Our mortgage broker (planned for when my wife graduates in May) arranged us a $340,000 mortgage, with no down payment, and the ability to refinance after 6 months without penalty, all for 6.875%. He had us pre-approved (pending my wife's graduation and acceptance of a job offer she already has in place) to switch to a better rate after 6 months, without penalty.
6.875% may seem a lot, and it is. But with no evidence of income, no deposit, etc. its as good as it gets.

We looked at taking the mortgage solely because we could get an amazing house at a great price. The house sold before we could make an offer, so we didn't take the mortgage.

I am a conditional permanent resident, and I'm not sure if this rate is available to someone here on a H1B.

PM me if you want his contact details, he is based in Texas.


Anyone can get credit, they love to give you credit. The rate depends on how safe a bet they consider you.

BritGuyTN

340k loan

2233 a month 6.875%

1995 a month 5.875%


getting a great house at that kind of discount under fair market value would definitely mitigate the high rate, but in a more normal situation the amount of interest difference would be a car payment on a nice family car.

aside from anything else, it seems that most markets are in some kind of price decline so renting for a year is probably not a bad thing.

Pony

6 months at 1% above the normal rate would have cost us $1,428, but meant we got a house for $120,000 less than market value. The area we were looking in is one of the few area's seeing growth.

My point being 6.875% is certainly applicable for some markets and situations.
We didn't realize such a thing a a No Doc/NINA mortgage existed, and its good to be informed.

texas_ranger

Hi,
I moved from Scotland to Texas 6 months ago.
My employer engaged the services of a relocation agent in the US, who helped us through the mortgage issue.

Our agent pointed us at 2 institutions - Wells Fargo and Countrywide.

It seemed to me that the (lack of) US credit history was not an issue, but I'm sure it was a factor in the eventual outcome.
Also, IIRC, the SSN was not a firm requirement, but did help. A TIN (Tax Ident) is just as good.

We ended up with Wells Fargo on a 30 yr mortgage on a new build house in Keller, Texas.
Just to echo BritGuyTN, we put down 20% of the purchase price as deposit, and this did help significantly with TCO.
We ended up with a loan at 5.875%, which (I felt) was extremely hard to negotiate to.

One thing I would mention is to check the effect that points have on the mortgage. It was one thing I did not understand then, but undertand more about now.
There is a happy medium between a deposit, points taken and the final monthly payment, and you need to find the right balance that works for your situation.

Also, it seemed to me that my employer had vouched for me in some way to help get a mortgage, but after further investigation I do not believe that to be the case. On reflection, I'm sure we were in the NoDoc bucket that Texas_Dave mentioned.

I'm not a permanent resident, but I have an SSN. My wife wanted to be on the deeds, but does not have a SSN. We had to file for a TIN (patriot act homeland security initiative), which was a real pain to go through, but we emerged with a sucessful closing at a monthly payment that was right for us. I know our friends pay the same per month to rent a much smaller home in the same neighbourhood.


C

texasnatt

thanks for all this info,
it's just what we need (real experiences) to get started in the right direction,
keep it coming,
thanks,
natt

BritGuyTN

Points are typically worthwhile if you have the intention of staying in the property a longer time - 6-8 years or longer.

no points and no origination is a nice way to get a level playing field to compare mortgage costs.

AmerLisa

Did you come over with a job already lined up?

We rented for a year and then bought a house - without having established major credit, i.e. auto loans, credit cards.

dbj1000

You're getting great advice from all us Texans, aren't you?

We moved here and rented for just under a year. During that time we built up a respectable credit score thanks to joining a Credit Union that gave us an unsecured credit card from day one. By the time we were ready to buy a house, our score was ~675, which isn't great but is certainly better than nothing.

Based on a recommendation from our Credit Union, we were introduced to an independent Mortgage broker who found us what I regard as a great deal. 0.25% above prime at the time, on a 80-10-10 mortgage. Because we didn't have a 20% down-payment, we financed an additional 10% at 1% above prime in order to avoid paying Private Mortgage Insurance. The other advantage is that, while PMI is not tax deductible, the interest on the 10% portion is.

Like others here have offered, PM me if you want our broker's details. He charged us no direct fee for his work (he works on commission from the mortgage companies) and, given the good deal he got us, he was worth whatever they paid him.

By the way, were were on my H1-B visa back then, and it didn't matter to our mortgage lender that we weren't permanent residents.

Giantaxe

Not only are prices static or declining in many areas, but renting for a year gives you a chance to get a better handle on what neighbourhoods you really want to live in. I bought when I first moved to the US (well, actually, a little before) but it's one thing I probably would do differently if I was doing it again.