Connecticut2014

Hi all,

Can you help me please?

We're moving to Connecticut and are looking to buy. I'll be on an L1A visa.

I'm an HSBC Premier account holder and thought that they would give me a mortgage although (very) early indications are that they won't do it for L1 holders. Does that sound right? Anyone else got a mortgage from them with an L1?

Away from HSBC, does anyone have any contacts that could help me get my mortgage?

We'll have 10% - 15% deposit until our house sells here (then more). Our visas will be with us in a couple of weeks and then we'll look to get our SS numbers. We have no credit history in the US.

Really need help and advice. Thanks so much in advance.

Jay

Funstuie

Why would you buy a house with no guarantee of long term residency?

Connecticut2014

Oh, I was hoping for advice rather than questions about my motives. Can you help?

mikelincs

The probable reason that they won't lend is that your visa is only temporary, this would, of course change if you were aable to move to a green card, then you would be a perm resident and the banks much more likely to lend you the money.

Connecticut2014

I understand that. I was really hoping someone would be able to tell me what the options are and if anyone had gone through the same process?

ChocolateBabz

We are in Texas, but we got our mortgage on L1/L2 visas through Bank of America. To be honest they seemed less bothered about our visa status and more concerned with our credit history. We had none here as we had only been here 6 months but gave them screeds of UK bills, electric, gas, visa, council tax, tv license everything we could think of. This was 6 years ago, things may have changed and we were putting down a 65% deposit. I know several other people who have bought before their green cards were through, we knew the risks involved.

Macca67

I had the same visa when I arrived 10 years ago and enough cash for a 25% deposit. Getting a mortgage was not a problem though I was stuffed if I wanted to take out a Store credit card. The logic is the banks know where your house is if you decide to do a runner and you can't take it with you.

Given the visa I'm guessing your move is work related. If your employer is a large corporate and providing relocation assistance they are also likely to have a lender who can help, in my case it was GMAC. Perhaps this is an option?

Of course this was all before the meltdown so things will have likely changed but the larger the deposit you have the more willing the lender will be.

Good luck

FatFrank

We originally moved on L1/L2 and our company actively encouraged us not to buy in the US, because in both their eyes and in the eyes of immigration it is not a permanent move. This is why they gave us help maintaining our property in the UK while on assignment, and only offered to "sponsor" us with help obtain a mortgage once we switch to PR status. I suspect that this is the norm with "big" L1 type relocations.

That said, we are in MI and I know of a few people who have successfully obtained US mortgages not long after they arrived with L1 status, and know of no one that has been unsuccessful after percerviering. The most recent of which was only a year ago. I remember them being turned down for a mortgage from the traditional big bank routes, but in the end they were able to obtain a very good mortgage from a smaller, Michigan, bank after a one on one with the manager and showing detailed history from the UK.

Personnally, I would test the water first with renting, make sure that it was the right thing for me and the family, and then buy a house once I knew more of the intricacies and realities of owning and living in the US. For example, I wish someone had told me that houses here are made from shredded wheat and cardboard, and that when you buy a house it comes with a social responsibility to keep local contractors employed.....I miss the days of renting and having the landlord fix everything at the drop of a hat .

Connecticut2014

Thank you, Frank.

Is it normal / more effective to go through a mortgage broker or to work through a list of banks oneself?

Sally Redux

FatFrank

When we eventually decided to buy a house we used a broker to get a mortgage, but our credit was well established by then. I'm sure it helped because he knew the best way to/what to/not to declare regarding our interests abroad. I.e. He was answering the questions from the mortgage companies for us - I would likely have put my foot on my mouth.

The one person I mention above did not use a broker, as I said he just worked through a local bank that understood the international relocation thing. I have another friend at work that bought a house soon after moving - I will ask him what he did when I see him tomorrow.

kodokan

We got a mortgage on L visas last year (our GCs actually arrived halfway through the process, but the visa status was of no interest to anyone). We had about a year's credit history via a credit card, and got a fab interest rate of 3% on a 15 yr term. This was through a broker recommended by our realtor; it was one of those firms that then bundles your mortgage up and sells it to someone else, so now it's through a company called Pennymac, who've been very efficient and helpful so far about extra principal payments.

We were borrowing a sum that equated to a little over a year's salary for hubby, and putting down a deposit of well over 50%, so that maybe helped. Mostly, though, I think the visa is a non-issue as you can't take your house with you even if you end up leaving the country.

Hubby's company is a large corporate multinational and couldn't have given a hoot if we rented or bought. We're here on a local hire contract anyway, not an expat one, so it's not like they were paying our rent here or the mortgage on a (non-existent) house back in the UK. That said, I still think renting for a year is an excellent idea, to really get to know an area and what's available. We ended up in a very different type of house than we previously would have considered if we'd bought straight away (rented in a long-established fairly rural neighborhood but kids had no local friends as everyone else bought there in the 1980s and was now semi-retired; bought in a newish gated community with a HOA because doing so provided excellent socializing for the kids. 'New build' and 'gated' were completely off my radar at first).

Bob

Plenty of threads on the subject.

Going via a local broker, credit union and having a much larger deposit helps.

That said, as others have already said, it's a pretty terrible idea if you haven't already lived in the area a while and/or have greencards.

Brat1

We live in Connecticut and moved here in 2010. We had no credit history either, so decided to rent for the first 1-2 years, only because we had no clue what the neighborhoods or anything were like here, and wanted to test the water. Where in Connecticut are you looking to move to, because the house prices vary considerably by area.

We then decided to take a huge risk and buy after just under 2 years here. We went through a mortgage broker who was awesome, and helped us every step of the way. My husband at the time was still on an H1-B, so we new how big the risk was of buying. Needless to say, our permanent residency application has been a disaster, and now over 4 years in, we're back to H visas. Very stressful, so just something to be wary of.

I think the biggest thing they looked in to was the credit history. They were looking for two years tax returns, which we were short of by around 3-4 months, but the mortgage broker managed to sort all that out for us and the process was pretty straightforward.

Good luck with the move, it's a stressful time and if you need any help on location or anything else here in CT, feel free to ask

audi4t

10% of what - Ct real estate tends to be priced higher than the nation average.

Million dollar homes are common.

Expect to pay over $350,000 for a 2500 sq ft home in a nice town.

If you are close to New York you can double that.