Canadian resident- How to buy a home in USA?

[Steven]

Hmm, I tried two places in the US and neither one was interested. Useful to know I guess but the thing that always worried me was the exchange rate. Might be good at the moment, but when you're several years into mortgage repayments, who knows?

[keisha1103]

I spoke with a mortgage company referred by a builder and they were quite willing to lend us the money. Needed 30% down but like you, with the dollar going up and down is risky. Best to get your money from Canada and pay when the dollar is at/close to par as far as I see it.

Thoughts?

[Steven]

How I would do it is to get the loan in Canada, change the money into US dollars now, and then repay the loan. Then you know exactly how much money you have to repay, adjustable rates notwithstanding.

[keisha1103]

That is exactly what would be the best thing to do to be sure to take advantage of the dollar right now. Thanks for corresponding with me.

[alexiworld]

Guys,

Where do you exchanging your Canadian dollars? The banks here and in US sucks . Even thought the Canadian dollar is higher than the US dollars, for $1 CAD they will give you less than $1 US. Bearing in mind exchanging the loan taken here in Canadian dollars, you might loose $2000-3000 in exchange.

[Steven]

DO NOT USE A BANK! Never ever, ever, EVER use a bank to exchange large amounts of currency. The banks themselves use currency brokers, the simplest thing to do is to use one yourself. Customs House Currency Exchange that run the website www.xe.com are a large currency broker and they're based in Canada. Another one posted in the general discussion section a few months ago. And there's blurb about fourex on here.

The only problem you'll face is that a house will cost x hundred thousand dollars and as a new customer they will usually place a limit on the trade of $100,000 or so, and you'll have to wait a few weeks before they'll do another one for you. So it can take a couple of months maybe before you get all the money converted. But you will save heaps over using a bank.

[keisha1103]

I have 2 friends that are buying in the US. One is building and the house is nearly finished. I will find out how they did their money conversion as I know they paid cash and the other was a move to the US, so they must have converted all their funds also. Will get back to this forum as soon as I find out. Neither one mentioned any problems with exchanging and they both know I am interested in a property in the US.

[Jonathan_Chan]

Oh wow, This forum is amazing! I shouldn't have posted my topic if I knew there was one already started

Where would we get details of all the taxes involved when we sell property and the house incurs a capital gain?

thanks!