Buying a home in the US

Hi.

I would like to inquire what the procedures are to buy a house in the US.I am a Canadian citizen working in the UAE (united arab Emirates) and ideally would like to buy a place in BC.but it's too expensive.so for the purpose of investment would like to purchase in the US. What is involved? Also, I would possibly be paying cash down (inheritance).what is the situation/procedure for that? If I decide to get a mortgage, what then? Thanks and sorry for the million questions!

If you don't need a mortgage it's dead simple, you pay for it, they transfer title to you, end of story. If you need a mortgage then you'd have difficulty, I wouldn't even bother with the way the mortgage market is at the moment in the US. You're better off getting a simple bank loan for whatever you can't afford, from a bank in Dubai or Canada.

Thanks.I didnt really think about it from that point!
Much appreciated.

Hi there,

I live right on the US Border, and was curious if anyone knows if one can purchase a home in the US, live there yet work in Canada.

Is there such an option?

Thanks in advance!

Not unless you have some sort of status in the US. You can't just live there becaus you decide to live there. You'd have to endure the paperwork of immigration.

It's a good question though, lot of people in BC are thinking about it because house prices in Washington are so low at the moment. If you lived in Point Roberts or further inland than I-5 then the border wait is pretty short as well.

How it works though is that any part of a day you spend in the US is considered a full day, and then you run into the 183-day rule. It might be that CBP doesn't care about it, but on the other hand they may, going by a strict interpretation of the regulation.

With retirees they can get away with it more easily, because although they're only supposed to spend 183 days total in the US, they cross the border so infrequently it's unlikely to be an issue. Crossing the border every single day though is more risky because sooner or later some CBP officer is going to look into their computer and ask the question why you are crossing so often.

I suppose you could lie and say you live in BC and have a girlfriend in Washington you visit every day, but even then you're not supposed to be there for more than 183 days.

Forgetting that problem, you cannot get Washington State ID because you are technically just a visitor, and if you keep an address in BC for your ID and register your car there, CRA will consider you resident for tax purposes and most of the advantage of living in Washington vanishes.

It's one of those situations where you might be able to get away with it, but you're really buggered if they ever do refuse you entry, because then you will be listed as "refused entry" and that means you have to pull over every time you cross, and stand in line to be interrogated at the office.

Personally I wouldn't try it unless I had the money to buy a house in Washington and a little condo in BC. Stay in the house at the weekend and stay in the condo during the week. That's legal. And you have a nice juicy real estate investment.

Thanks so much for the responses! I didn't think it would be that simple, but a great idea nonetheless. I personally feel that the little seaside town of Blaine, just on the other side of the Peace Arch border from me here in White Rock is just ripe for a boom. It seems to be an undiscovered gem to me.

The fact that houses are seemingly half the cost of what they are here in White Rock is the natural appeal. I wouldn't mind crossing the border, believe me! With Nexus it would be even easier.

If only there were a way.

Yeah, my friend's mom lives in Burnaby and her boyfriend bought a house in Blaine, and they just basically shuttle backwards and forwards across the border. I don't know if they keep strictly to this 183-day thing, but they can always stay in BC if they get hassled at the border.

The problem as I see it (hmm, I haven't spent ages thinking about this at all.) is if you have your car registered in the US and you roll up to the border crossing in a US-registered car and pull out a Canadian passport. That's going to set off all kinds of warning bells. But maintaining a Canadian registered car, DL, etc. is such a hassle too. Plus you still have to pay tax in Canada.

Dunno how old you are, but my thinking currently is the best way to do it is to buy property there and maintain property in Canada, then when you retire you could just have a PO box in Canada, because you won't be crossing so often.

Technically you could still be stuffed but I knew so many people in Florida who did it I'm not convinced it's that big of a problem.

Everyone seems to be buggering off to Belize though now, largely because of this problem, I reckon.

There are some really nice places in Oregon just over the state line on the coastal highway too, btw.

There is a I believe a big difference between retiring and spending the winter in Florida, to de-facto residing in Blaine and commuting to Vancouver every day.

Well the difference is that they're more likely to notice, that's the risk.

Correct me if I'm wrong but prior to 1986 it was actually legal for Canadians to do this, they could get a "Canadian resident permit" or somesuch. I dimly recall lots of complaints when the law was changed, and the INS promised to tread lightly when it came to Canadians, which is what USCIS still appears to do, but of course 1986 is a long time ago now and memories are fading.

I remember back then the INS were actually a bunch of reasonably helpful bureaucrats, now the "CIS of the DHS" appear to be a bunch of facist automatons, they appear to have been given specialist training in being extremely unhelpful.

I have a great deal of experience with facist automatons (the police in the UK), but I'm afraid even my bullshitting abilities may not match up to CIS, which is why I don't risk buying a property in the US until I've got the cash to maintain one here.

When you roll up to the border, you can't just say: "Oh, I've got a house down there, I'm just going down to defrost for awhile."

You have to say something like:

"No, Mr. Facist Automaton, I have no intention of residing in the US at all, in fact I will spend every moment I am in the US sitting in my temporary abode, scratching my nuts and dreaming of the day I can return to the socialist paradise that is Canada, in order to be sure that my igloo has not melted, my health is in order via our wonderful healthcare system and to sustain myself on chocolate bars that do not taste like reconstituted vomit. Oh, and by the way, thank you for being our closest ally and not trusting us to live in your country."