First Financed Property in the US

Sigh….I thought I had all my forms sent off and everything was going well, then this morning I received a letter from Capital Bank with about 12 more requests from me, more things I have to provide. A lot of it really makes no sense – 

* Please provide proof of funds in your Commonwealth Bank account for closing…..even though I have more than adequate funds in my Capital Bank account to close! That is what the money is there for in the first place.

* Please provide tax and insurance for your place of residence – I told them this at the start that I do not own where I live, I asked to have it removed from my loan application when they had it there as part of my assets but they never did. Very frustrating.

And there is another 10 more requests which are mostly just clerical errors on their behalf, oh well. Hopefully soon I can close…..fingers crossed

It is obvious now the banks were ridiculously greedy in 2006-2008 with outrageous loans to people who could obviously not afford them. But what they have done now is just taken a massive backwards step and have now just become too conservative it is no doubt hurting their own hip pocket. Last time I checked a bank makes a bit of money out of having a home loan, so they should be happy to give them out, providing they give it to someone who can reliably pay off the loan.

Now not saying I am a good candidate for a loan, but seeing as I already have 2 houses in the US which they can use for collateral if they wanted, not to mention my bank account has enough money to actually buy out the loan should it need to, and also considering my annual salary is 3 times the loan amount, you think they would be pretty confident that I should have no problem paying off the loan. Oh and did I forget to mention the rent the house will receive will be double the loan repayment? 

Anyway….fingers crossed I will get there soon, maybe the next one will be easier.

To answer your questions regarding borrowing funds in Australia to purchase property in the US, I had 2 main reasons for choosing not to do this – 

* Interest rates are a lot lower in the US and I wanted to take advantage of this, with me being able to get an interest rate of 3.75% that is a lot more beneficial then in Australia where I do not think I would get much below 6% for a loan of this size (it is only for $55,000)

* I also wanted to make sure I got the loan in US Dollars, I am not positive how an Australian loan would work, but I just want to be able to have it all in the same currency, with the rent paying off the loan. If I had to transfer the rent back to Australia every month to pay off the loan it would be annoying.

* I also think going through the pain now to get a US Loan is worth it in the long run, it has been difficult and frustrating but I think I am almost there, and hopefully now that I have one under my belt it will be a lot easier the subsequent loans I do get. That is the plan anyway.