Great Loan Program for Foreign Buyers - from A Day in the Life

To make a long story short - a continuation from my earlier blog

A Day in the Life....Ended on the 50th Floor in San Francisco

In order to have final preapproval for a loan to purchase that 50th floor 2BR, my clients needed to finalize their discussions with Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank - now known as HSBC. The meeting went fairly well, but in the end my clients were reluctant to provide certain personal information required. They also didn't have the blank checks from another local account they had opened last October, so had no way to provide the 5% deposit required. It was also getting on to 4pm - we were running out of time to get back to the sales office to actually make the offer.  And they want to go to Yosemite on Wednesday, and they leave for the east coast on Thursday AM. The offer may yet be able to be accomplished through email and docusign, but I am doubtful.....so this is likely end of story. Aside from the financial consequences to ME, I regret that I didn't take pictures - it was a Spectacular view!

However, I have more info on an excellent loan program especially for buyers from China (and other foriegners as well). As you probably know, China limits the amount of $$$ that can be transferred out of country every day by private individuals. I think it is something like $50,000. So even for an all cash buyer there needs to be a lot of forethought in getting that cash to the US in the first place. Considering how difficult that may be, there is an option.

The long and short: HSBC has a program with the following requirements:

1.            Buyer opens savings account and deposits $100,000 for minimum one year.

2.            Buyer pays a 40% downpayment upon ratification of contract..

3.            Buyer provides a Letter of intent / verification from foreign bank where money is kept, 2 months bank statements, and profit & loss statements or proof of source of income.

4.            Buyer gets mortgage at 3.5%.  

And, Oh Yeah, the next time my clients come back to the US, I'll require bank statements, and all cash in a Hong Kong or US bank. Only then can we go look again....