Is my Chinese friend who is on a temporary student visa eligible to be a homeowner in Newton, MA?

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by RockJock1729

And that has been my experience, too, but the problem is the same. A foreigner on a student visa just plunks down $100,000 or so in a money order out of nowhere to buy a house. The bank is required by AML regulations to figure out where the person got the money. Did they save up for it in an account back home? Did they get a life insurance payout or a court award? In each case, there's a paper trail that explains how they got the lump sum they are depositing.

Her parents are successful and have money and will wire transfer from their overseas account to her account opened in Boston, MA.

The amount for purchasing her home is more like around $500K (instead of $100K).

[Bruins_Fan]

I was in Argentina a couple of years ago. A distant relative of my wife lives there and he had just bought a house outside of Buenos Aires. He was telling us how it is done in cold, hard cash down there. And ever since the Argentine bank/currency failure a number of years ago, many people hide all their cash at home etc! Yikes...kinda scary!

[RockJock1729]

Originally Posted by LoveAlbuquerque

Her parents are successful and have money and will wire transfer from their overseas account to her account opened in Boston, MA.

The amount for purchasing her home is more like around $500K (instead of $100K).

Then get ready for some questions, especially if she's from the PRC. $500K is a whopping big pile of cash for an individual to move at once.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by LoveAlbuquerque

Her parents are successful and have money and will wire transfer from their overseas account to her account opened in Boston, MA.

The amount for purchasing her home is more like around $500K (instead of $100K).

Are her parents looking for another child? I'll put myself up for adoption right now.

ETA: Hmmm. I may actually be older than her parents. Eh... details shmetails.

[tikaram]

Originally Posted by LoveAlbuquerque

Her parents are successful and have money and will wire transfer from their overseas account to her account opened in Boston, MA.

The amount for purchasing her home is more like around $500K (instead of $100K).

OK, here's how it works (it worked for me):

First, find out if Bank of America has working relations with a big bank in China. BofA usually does, and most likely it'll be a "bank of China" or other big institution (I have no idea about Asia, but know which banks in East European countries work with BofA, for example)
Your friend has to open an account with Bank of America (unless she already has one)

Once you found the bank, you can then transfer the money from China to USA. Bank of America charges a flat fee per transaction, not per amount of money transferred (though 500K is quite a lot, and they may have higher fee for that amount. ).

Make sure you can prove that money came from a legal source, gather as many papers as you can and translate them professionally into English, with notary verification. Papers may include (and are not limited to): actual source of the money (savings, sale of real estate, inheritance etc), birth certificate of your friend (that would state names of her parents who are offering money) etc.

When money is here in the US, it can be used for purchase of real estate within 48 hrs of the deposit into US account.
When writing an offer, proof of funds is required, and if you have all cash, you do this:

- Get a statement for the account with the funds. It can be printed up from your online account, gotten from your bank branch or financial institution, or one of the statements they mail out periodically.
(make sure you take a sharpie or magic marker and black out your account number!!!). Photocopy the document.
Give the copied document to your agent so they submit it with your offer.
If above steps won't suffice for some unfathomable reason, a letter from your personal banker, CPA or attorney stating that you have the funds in liquid form will do. This is frankly, more work, but it will suffice.


To others: please don't think of "all cash deals from foreigners" as red flags and money laundering. There are lots of scenarios when law abiding citizens from other countries want to buy US real estate. There are perfectly legal ways to do it. I know it because I'm a real estate agent. Of course there are other scenarios, but frankly I never encountered them. I decided from the first day in my career I will not get involved in any sketchy deals, maybe that's the reason.


To LoveAlbuquerque : I don't know your friend's situation and long term plan, so here's a word of caution: sure, it's nice to buy property in US, especially with all cash. But since she is on a visa, she is somewhat limited in her options. What if her visa is not renewed, selling the property in a couple of years might not yield a return (and what if there is a loss? - we all hope for the best, but who knows...) Being an absentee landlord (or landlady) is tough. Owning a property in the US does not grant you a visa extension.
Just a few things to think about.

Feel free to pm me if you have more questions.

[tikaram]

Wanted to add: I'm in no way affiliated with Bank of America, it's just so happened that it was a successful path to take when handling international money transfers in a real estate transaction. There might be other options with other banks. If someone knows more about it I would love to hear that, too.

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by tikaram

To LoveAlbuquerque : I don't know your friend's situation and long term plan, so here's a word of caution: sure, it's nice to buy property in US, especially with all cash. But since she is on a visa, she is somewhat limited in her options. What if her visa is not renewed, selling the property in a couple of years might not yield a return (and what if there is a loss? - we all hope for the best, but who knows...) Being an absentee landlord (or landlady) is tough. Owning a property in the US does not grant you a visa extension.

Tikaram,

Thanks for the thoughtful message! FYI, she does have a personal account with Bank of America.

You're right in that in case she cannot get her visa renewed, she'll become an absentee landlord.

However, I think she will be here as long as she wants to, because her parents will pay for her tuition to get her enrolled in a school. Therefore, she will be able to renew her visa, I think, because her parents have the resources to support her education.

I will send you a private message if I need your advice when they decide to move ahead with the purchase.

[JohnyDrew]

I just lost a bid on a house to an all cash buyer in newton. I don't know if the other party are exchange students or not, but they whipped out 650k out of nowhere. Now that I see it is done, it has to be really easy. From what little I remember about AML practices, high value clients go through even less scrutiny than you and me. It has to be real easy for them to move money around. They doubtlessly already have a domestic account.

US is open for foreign investment. Even though I am depressed over the loss, I am glad there is an influx of capital. The opposite would be much worse.