Buying property in the US , not being american citizen and living abroad

[Fiador]

Does anybody know if foreigners are allowed to buy real estate in the US

I am spanish and seeing the good rental returns in the US realestate , I would be interested in buying a house to be rented.
I currently own property in mexico but the return in rental is far below from the US rent as I see in the forum

Your help will be highly appreicated

Cheers

[arebelspy]

Yes indeed.  You'll just have to know your country's laws around the taxes and stuff, but it's quite common for foreign investors to invest here.  I've known and worked with several foreign investors.  Most commonly foreign nationals from Canada, Australian, Great Britain, and China.

[SwordGuy]

If you have a bunch of money to invest...

http://www.voanews.com/content/foreign-investors-buy-their-way-to-us-citizenship/1737041.html

[daverobev]

Does anybody know if foreigners are allowed to buy real estate in the US

I am spanish and seeing the good rental returns in the US realestate , I would be interested in buying a house to be rented.
I currently own property in mexico but the return in rental is far below from the US rent as I see in the forum

Your help will be highly appreicated

Cheers

Interesting as I was just looking at stuff for sale in Spain, wondering if they would work as rentals. I guess not?

Buying in the US is fairly easy, I bought my first place last year. Not sure who would open a bank account for you (I'm in Canada and there are easy options) but I'm sure it can be done, perhaps not remotely. US tax return is ok. Harder to get a mortgage (I'd love someone to tell me who'd do mortgages for non residents!)

Obviously you need to do lots of research!

[arebelspy]

Not sure who would open a bank account for you (I'm in Canada and there are easy options) but I'm sure it can be done, perhaps not remotely.

Not sure what you need the bank account for, since I assume you'd have a property manager who would collect the rents and then pass them to you however you wanted.

Harder to get a mortgage (I'd love someone to tell me who'd do mortgages for non residents!)

Mortgages for non-residents can be done, but they're non-recourse, so you'll have much worse terms (a few extra percent interest rate and a much lower LTV, I've typically seen 50%).

[daverobev]

Not sure who would open a bank account for you (I'm in Canada and there are easy options) but I'm sure it can be done, perhaps not remotely.

Not sure what you need the bank account for, since I assume you'd have a property manager who would collect the rents and then pass them to you however you wanted.

Harder to get a mortgage (I'd love someone to tell me who'd do mortgages for non residents!)

Mortgages for non-residents can be done, but they're non-recourse, so you'll have much worse terms (a few extra percent interest rate and a much lower LTV, I've typically seen 50%).

Having a bank account makes it easier to pay taxes, utilities where necessary, rehab costs, closing, etc etc. Some property managers will mail a check... if they were wiring funds every month it'd be pretty expensive, and with a poor exchange rate to Euros no doubt.

I've spoken to RBC Bank (US arm of RBC - Royal Bank of Canada), and they *do* mortgages for Canadians, but 60% LTV max and min. $75k for rentals. Much better terms for second homes. Who do you know that will do mortgages - I'd love to get even a 5.5% mortgage if it could be done for a loan amount under $75k and not be prohibitive with fees!