I am an American living in Prague, CZ. We want to buy a house here, but we won’t get a mortgage here for a few reasons. The main one being that I need to show one-year’s work for a foreign company before a bank here will use my salary in the equation.
I am about to sign a contract with a US company as a consultant for work here in Prague. So in one year, sure, we can get a loan. But we want to buy sooner. In the US I was told that you only need 3 to 6 months work history to be eligible for a loan. So…
Could I get a loan in the US to buy an apartment here? Other benefits are that the interest rates are lower in the US than here. I think a home loan here is over 10%.
It is possible that with enough searching you might find someone willing to do so, but when I bought my house in Canada, my mortgage broker, who is particularly skilled and a credit to her profession, told me that she could only lend in the US, and that finding someone to write a mortgage for out of the country might be difficult. I can only imagine that lending to someone buying in Europe would be even more difficult. I cannot state unequivocally that it can’t be done, but it would be, at best, a long uphill struggle. Good luck.
Oh, I actually would want the loan to be in US$…The dollar is going to tank over the next few years, so getting it out and repaying it with a stronger currency is all good for me. I would be looking for around $200k - $250k
Yes, I know you want the funds in USDs (for the same reason I did, as it happens). I was a little unclear; my mortgage broker could only loan against properties in the US. A mortgage is a fairly safe loan for a bank to make, because if you default, they get the house. A house outside of the US is problematic for a bank, ergo they write loans only for homes located within the US. Make sense?
Unless you have sufficient assets in the US to secure the loan, I strongly suspect you’re not going to be able to this. For a lender, one relatively small loan isn’t worth establishing a relationship with a czech law firm, learning the peculiarities of czech mortgage law, and so on. Further, mortgages are typically bought and sold; the originator doesn’t often keep them. In this case, the bank would have a very hard time getting rid of this loan for the same reasons.
I think you’re best bet is to call the really big banks and find out. Or, talk to the company you contracted with. If they’re an international, they’ve probably got plenty of Americans living abroad, and might have dealt with this situation before.