Financing Vacation Homes For Foreign Nationals - Not Just Canadians

A few months ago, I was working with a buyer that lives in Israel that was looking to buy a vacation home in the Phoenix area. He had managed to save up and was going to be paying cash for this vacation. But, with all the changes in the market over the past year, he quickly learned that he had significantly underestimated the amount he might need to spend to get the vacation home that he wanted.

I asked him if he had looked into financing the vacation home. He replied that when he first started looking to buy a vacation home, he had been told only Canadians could qualify for mortgages on second homes. This was not the first time I had heard this tidbit of information about financing a vacation home as a foreign national. I let him know that the information he had been given was incorrect as I work with a lender that regularly provides financing on vacation homes to foreign nationals residing all over the world, not just to Canadians.

Granted, the qualifying process can be more involved and a little longer compared with your normal everyday buyer, but it is possible. There are documents that the lender needs to start with including:

• Completed Mortgage Application
• International Credit Report
• Proof of Income
• Two Months of Bank Statements
• Two Years of Tax Returns
• Copy of Buyer's Passport

As with any loan, there may be additional documents required along the way once the initial documentation is fully reviewed. And there can be quirks. Since all the required documentation needs to be in English, my buyer had to use an approved translation service along the way to translate and format some of the information needed, such as the foreign bank statements.

I am happy to say that, in the end, the lender was able to get him qualified for a conventional loan with a 30% down payment and we were able to find the perfect vacation home that he wanted. The lender and I are now working with several of his associates to assist them through the qualifying process so that they can obtain financing on vacation homes as foreign nationals as well.