What You Should Know Before You Buy in the US

Most of the bad outcomes we see are not caused by weak finances. They are caused by a handful of beliefs that are widely held, sound reasonable, and are wrong.

"If a US bank said no, the purchase is not financeable."

This is the most expensive one on the list.

A branch lender's software in Florida is generally set up to sell mortgages to U.S. borrowers. It expects a Social Security Number, a U.S. credit score, W-2s and U.S. tax returns. You have none of those and a strong Canadian financial position. In that situation, the decline is usually a product mismatch, not a credit judgment.

People take that no as a verdict, then either pay all cash or abandon the purchase. Both are decisions made on bad information.

"I need US credit first."

You do not. Foreign national programs are built for buyers with an empty U.S. credit file. They read a Canadian credit report instead.

U.S. credit is worth building because it widens your options and lowers your cost. It is not a gate you must pass through.

"My US dollar card from my Canadian bank is building US credit."

It is not. That card is issued in Canada and generally reports within the Canadian credit system, not the U.S. bureaus a U.S. mortgage lender is pulling.

It is a currency product. It saves you conversion costs. It does not build a U.S. credit history. We meet buyers who spent three years on this believing they were preparing.

"Paying cash avoids the whole problem."

It avoids the mortgage. It creates others.

Liquidating an RRSP or other registered account triggers Canadian tax on the withdrawal immediately, and a large withdrawal can push you into your highest marginal bracket. You also convert the entire purchase price at one exchange rate on one day, and you tie up capital in a second illiquid property.

Cash sometimes still wins. It should be the conclusion of a comparison, not a reaction to a decline.

"A mortgage broker is a mortgage broker."

Cross-border is a different trade. A domestic broker, however good, usually has lender relationships built primarily for domestic files. A Canadian cross-border file may therefore be placed through a narrower set of foreign national products or referred to someone who handles that market.

The question worth asking anyone you speak to is simple: how many Canadian buyers did you close in the United States last year, and with which lenders.

"Foreign national means punitive rates."

It means a different underwriting basis, not a penalty rate. The gap to a domestic borrower is real but usually smaller than people expect, and it narrows with a larger down payment and a stronger file. Quotes that look punitive are often hard money being sold as the only option.

"I will sort out the tax side after closing."

The tax and immigration consequences of how you hold U.S. property, how long you stay, and whose name is on title are decided at purchase and are expensive to unwind. How you take title interacts with estate exposure, rental income treatment and eventual sale.

This is not our advice to give. It is our job to tell you to get it before you sign, from a cross-border accountant, not after.

"The rate is the thing to shop."

The rate is the last thing to shop. A rate you cannot qualify for is not a rate. Program selection, down payment structure and how your income gets documented move the outcome far more than a quarter point.

"Condos are simple."

Many Florida condos are non-warrantable, because of litigation, low reserves, high investor concentration or commercial space in the building. That changes which lenders can finance the unit, and buyers routinely discover it after their offer is accepted.

Ask about the building before you fall in love with the unit.

The pattern

Every item here has the same shape: a reasonable assumption from a Canadian context that does not survive the border. That is the whole job of a cross-border broker, and it is why the first conversation is worth having early rather than late.

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. Nothing here is tax or immigration advice.