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jayne

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Hi, my husband and I are very interested in purchasing a turnkey B&B, we hope for it to be sustainable and have lots of ideas and plans. However this is a new adventure for us and will involve a move of countries, we currently live in the UK. We will have to sell our house here to finance our purchase and the move and could use any advice on how to buy a property in the US, can we get a regular mortgage for a B&B or do we need a business loan? Where do we start for that? Is it easy enough to do your self or would you recommend using a financial adviser (do you use those in US?) Are there hidden costs involved in buying a property? The property we have looked at is for sale by owner, is that easier or are there things we need to know about that?
Also what are there any good questions you can think of that I should be asking, things you wished you'd known when you were buying?
I should add that I am a US citizen so not asking for relocation or visa advice, that's in hand.
Any advice appreciated.
Thank you.
 
First thing I have to ask, How do you intend to run a business in the US? Do you have a green card or whatever so you can stay here and actually run the place? In our town recently we had people from France think they could do it? Nope..they had to leave the country, didn't pay their mortgage and skipped out on the bank and all their bills!
Do you have experience? Have you stayed in B & B's? Have you taken an aspiring innkeeper course at least to know if it is for you? There have been lots of postings here recently about others wanting to start a B & B, do a search and read those threads. All of your questions have been answered here before. So do some reading first and then come back and ask some more questions?
 
Are you asking about relocating countries and buying an inn here via a work visa or resident alien? Have you already applied for the latter?
Re financing, it is very difficult to get business loans at the moment, for US Citizens and Residents. So you would need a big chunka-change to put down and proven track record at the B&B you purchase to cover the payments. Typically moving country, changing vocations etc is not going to make it easy.
All the best! Keep searching and the answers will come! :)
 
EmptyNest said:
First thing I have to ask, How do you intend to run a business in the US? Do you have a green card or whatever so you can stay here and actually run the place? In our town recently we had people from France think they could do it? Nope..they had to leave the country, didn't pay their mortgage and skipped out on the bank and all their bills!
Do you have experience? Have you stayed in B & B's? Have you taken an aspiring innkeeper course at least to know if it is for you? There have been lots of postings here recently about others wanting to start a B & B, do a search and read those threads. All of your questions have been answered here before. So do some reading first and then come back and ask some more questions?.
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for replying. I am a US citizen although I've never bought a property there so was looking for advice about how to go about purchasing property there. I will get busy trawling other postings!
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Are you asking about relocating countries and buying an inn here via a work visa or resident alien? Have you already applied for the latter?
Re financing, it is very difficult to get business loans at the moment, for US Citizens and Residents. So you would need a big chunka-change to put down and proven track record at the B&B you purchase to cover the payments. Typically moving country, changing vocations etc is not going to make it easy.
All the best! Keep searching and the answers will come! :).
Click to expand...
I am just at the very beginning of this journey and don't expect it to be easy, I have a lot to learn! Thanks for replying
 
The immigration issue is a big deal. Like EmptyNest, I know of an innkeeper from the UK who purchased a turnkey in my state. The husband was able to stay in the US, but eventually because of the immigration regulations, the wife had to return to the UK. Husband had to hire full time innkeepers, he had to get an outside job here and eventually the business failed and it was foreclosed on, the bank took it back and sold it as a private residence.
What part of the US are you wanting to relocate to? Would you have enough money to pay cash for a smaller property? At least $500,000 or $600,000? Depending on your location a 'sustainable' b&b could be doable. That would be a property that can pay it's own way...we're not talking about a profit, just paying it's own expenses.
Banks still are not lending unless the b&b is really profitable. You would need to get a commercial loan to purchase an existing b&b.
As the others have said, do searches on this forum (search box in upper right of the screen) and read, read, read. It is very difficult for us to help when questions are very generic. The more information you get, the more pointed questions you can ask of us. That's when we can be the most helpful.
Welcome to the forum!
So, a big question I have is WHY do you want to relocate to the US?
 
jayne said:
EmptyNest said:
First thing I have to ask, How do you intend to run a business in the US? Do you have a green card or whatever so you can stay here and actually run the place? In our town recently we had people from France think they could do it? Nope..they had to leave the country, didn't pay their mortgage and skipped out on the bank and all their bills!
Do you have experience? Have you stayed in B & B's? Have you taken an aspiring innkeeper course at least to know if it is for you? There have been lots of postings here recently about others wanting to start a B & B, do a search and read those threads. All of your questions have been answered here before. So do some reading first and then come back and ask some more questions?.
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for replying. I am a US citizen although I've never bought a property there so was looking for advice about how to go about purchasing property there. I will get busy trawling other postings!
.
Click to expand...
jayne said:
Hi, thanks for replying. I am a US citizen although I've never bought a property there so was looking for advice about how to go about purchasing property there. I will get busy trawling other postings!
Click to expand...
Is your husband a US citizen?
 
I think you should check the visa situation for your spouse first thing. That's going to be very important. It doesn't seem like it would be given how many spouses are here with their US partners but, for some reason, if you own a business it seems to be different.
Do you have a state/area you are interested in? If you do, research taking a class (online if possible) from someone in the B&B biz in that state. There are a lot of state innkeeping organizations that could put you in touch with someone who runs a class. They might be able to set you up thru email to take classes or YouTube videos, etc.
You really do want a broker who is working for you. An estate agent if that's a more familiar term. But someone who deals in business property sales exclusively. That way the person, hopefully, knows the ins and outs of the area where you are looking.
Finding out the visa requirements is first, tho. You don't want to sell up, get here and find out your husband can't stay!
You will also need to understand how his resident alien status will impact his ability to get health care. I'm guessing you're seeing the news about health care here and I'm not starting a political topic, but it's very important for you coming from a place where health care is covered to find out his status here.
 
shame you are doing it the other way round - its much easier in the UK! at least you always have the NHS to fall back on if anything happens!
 
Breakfast Diva said:
The immigration issue is a big deal. Like EmptyNest, I know of an innkeeper from the UK who purchased a turnkey in my state. The husband was able to stay in the US, but eventually because of the immigration regulations, the wife had to return to the UK. Husband had to hire full time innkeepers, he had to get an outside job here and eventually the business failed and it was foreclosed on, the bank took it back and sold it as a private residence.
What part of the US are you wanting to relocate to? Would you have enough money to pay cash for a smaller property? At least $500,000 or $600,000? Depending on your location a 'sustainable' b&b could be doable. That would be a property that can pay it's own way...we're not talking about a profit, just paying it's own expenses.
Banks still are not lending unless the b&b is really profitable. You would need to get a commercial loan to purchase an existing b&b.
As the others have said, do searches on this forum (search box in upper right of the screen) and read, read, read. It is very difficult for us to help when questions are very generic. The more information you get, the more pointed questions you can ask of us. That's when we can be the most helpful.
Welcome to the forum!
So, a big question I have is WHY do you want to relocate to the US?.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice, US is and always will be home to me!
 

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