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Canadian immigrant building US credit - mortgage when?

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Anonymous
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Canadian immigrant building US credit - mortgage when?

 

Looking for advice on how long I should wait before looking to buy a home in the US. I have recently moved to Seattle for employment, from Canada. Just starting to build up my US credit history, my credit file is only three months old at this point. I have managed to acqurie some credit cards, a total of three each with a $10k limit. Thanks to RBC bank (Canadian bank that operates here), Amex, and the bank my employer uses for that. 

 

I have excellent credit in Canada, where I own a home. The mortgage on that home will be paid off in less than a year and a half, at that point I will own the property outright with no mortgage. I plan to continue to own it -- it is rented out and generating income, and I will move back into it one day if I ever return to live in Canada.

 

Obviously I have very limited credit history in the US. I will file a minimal tax return for 2014 showing only 2 months of US income, and then obviously a full tax return for 2015. I guess it's my idea to look to buy a home early in 2016, once I have two tax returns and a year of credit history. At that point my credit applications for the 3 new cards I have will have rolled off my credit history and I will have a good utilization ratio (less than 10% of the $30k credit I have). I will also own my Canadian home outright at that time. Still my credit history will only be about a year and half at that point and my 2014 US return won't show much income (I do have a Canadian return that shows 2014 income but doubt preapproval process cares.)

 

Any thoughts? 

 

I could continue renting for another year but I really see owning real estate as the way to build up savings and hoping to stop paying rent here at some point.

 

How long should I wait before going to look for a mortgage and a home? Any sense in me even trying before 2016?

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