You are Canadian. You want to buy, refinance or rescue a property in the United States, or you have been told no by a bank. This page points you at the right answer in about ninety seconds.
Find the sentence that sounds like you.
"I want a place in Florida for the winters."
You are buying a second home. The programs are built for exactly this: Canadian credit, Canadian income documents, a passport, no U.S. Social Security Number. Expect 20 to 30 percent down.
Read: Snowbird mortgages in Florida
"I want to buy a rental, not a home for myself."
You may be a fit for a DSCR loan. It generally qualifies on the property's rental income rather than your personal income, so personal tax returns are often not part of the qualification. Expect 25 to 30 percent down.
Read: DSCR loans for Canadian investors
"We are moving to the US for work, in a year or two."
Start now, not later. Most of what makes this easy or painful is decided before you apply, and several of the useful moves have six to twelve months of lead time.
Read: Moving to the US in a year or two: what to do now
"A US bank turned me down."
Almost always this means you asked a lender that does not make this kind of loan, not that your purchase is unfinanceable. A domestic U.S. lender generally has no field to enter a Canadian credit file into.
Read: Declined for a US mortgage: what it actually means
"I have no US credit and I think that stops me."
It does not. Foreign national programs exist because you arrive with a strong position and an empty U.S. file. Building U.S. credit changes which programs you get and what they cost. It does not decide whether you can buy.
Read: Should I get a US credit card?
"I already own, on a hard money or private loan, and the rate is killing me."
This is a refinance into conventional financing. It is one of the most common files we run and the savings are usually the largest.
Read: Refinancing out of hard money
"My money is in my corporation and my tax return looks small."
Normal, and solvable. It is a documentation problem, not an affordability problem, and it has its own set of programs.
Read: Self-employed Canadians buying in the US
Not sure which one you are?
Then read First things first, which walks through the four questions that decide every one of these files. It takes five minutes and it will tell you which of the paths above is yours.
What to have ready when you call
Nothing, for a first conversation. For a real assessment: two years of tax returns and notices of assessment, recent pay or business income documents, sixty to ninety days of bank statements, and a rough idea of the price range and the state.
David Nataf is personally licensed in Florida (NMLS #2613311) and Quebec (AMF #3001986744). U.S. files are placed through Orbis Mortgage, NMLS #2583431. For a purchase in a state where he is not personally licensed, he runs the Canadian side of the file, the cross-border structuring and the lender matching, coordinated with an originator licensed in that state.
This page is for information. Program terms, rates and requirements vary by lender and change without notice.
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