Expats Finnacing Options

[Giovanna Rodriguez]

Hi ! I have couple of friends outside United States  (Non US citizen) that have never declare taxes here, that are interest in acquiring properties for investment in Houston area , what options of financing would an expat have here in Texas ?

Thanks in advance for your reply

Gio.

[David Fernandez]

Hi Giovanna, 

I am from Spain, but I am a resident in Miami, FL, where this question is very present in most transactions due to the large number of international buyers interested in our market.

What do you mean by unconventional financing? What type of property are they interested in buying? Price range?

There are several options, from getting loans for foreigners from a US bank (they will probably be required to come up with a down payment ~40%) to forming an LLC and everything in between and more.

For a bank loan, they requirements will be very similar than what is requested to a legal resident in the US: Income verification (W-2 equivalent), tax returns, etc. (banks may make an adjustment for an exchange rate provision) Usually, other real estate assets would not be considered as collateral, but the liabilities will be part of the equation. 

It seems more complicated than it really is, here in Miami there are plenty of banks, mortgage brokers, and CPAs that work with foreigners transactions on a daily basis.

One last comment since I may not have understood it well. You mention that they are expats, are they? By expat, I understand they are non-US xitizanes (from what you aid), but they are LPR (legal permanent residents), which means that they will have to eventually pay taxes here (they may have not filed them yet if this is their first year in the US). Regardless of what I just wrote, it will be smart for them to start getting a Tax ID since they will most likely have to file taxes in the US once they start investing here (there is a treaty to avoid double taxation with Spain, but still they will need to file their taxes here first).