USA buyer non USA seller

[ScarSimone]

I was looking at a listing and it noted that the seller resides outside of the US. (I reside in the US)
How does this change the resale process?

TIA

 

[FSUSammy]

From what I've read in here it usually will pass ROFR for one lol

 

[MICKIMINI]

We've bought several from Canadian sellers. The process is similar to a US seller, but the foreign sellers have to pay FIRPTA taxes. The broker will need your social security numbers to provide the IRS just in case the seller does not pay the taxes on the sale. I've had many US sellers that are much slower than the Canadian sellers!

There is the heart stopping letter from the IRS, but then you should get a confirmation FIRPTA was paid from the broker/attorney. The first one nearly gave me a heart attack!

 

[jscottnc]

Our first BLT resale came from a foreign seller (we did not know at the time). We had some miscommunication with our broker and an offer was made and accepted that was $3pp LOWER than what we intended. We were expecting Disney to snatch away the contract. Had we known about the extremely low ROFR exercise rate on foreign sellers we would have slept better. Paperwork takes longer; foreign sellers have some extra hoops to jump through.

 

[Jaydee51]

i purchased 2 of my contracts from international sellers and the above post from mickimini is spot on - especially the "heart stopping letter from the IRS"
Both sales were smooth and i didn't have to worry about my contracts being taken during ROFR, however still had to wait the same length of time. In both cases i did not send the wire for closing until the title company confirmed that the seller executed all the documents - i'd rather have money on my side.

 

[sndral]

Depending on the country there may be issues w/ the sellers finding a notary when it comes time to sign their closing documents. From what I’ve read Canada isn’t a problem, my international sellers were in the UK & they signed their notarized documents fast, so I assume it’s not a problem w/ UK sellers either. It did take a few extra days for the doc.s to reach the title co. since the sellers used regular international mail.

 

[Ssplashhmtn]

Depending on the country there may be issues w/ the sellers finding a notary when it comes time to sign their closing documents. From what I’ve read Canada isn’t a problem, my international sellers were in the UK & they signed their notarized documents fast, so I assume it’s not a problem w/ UK sellers either. It did take a few extra days for the doc.s to reach the title co. since the sellers used regular international mail.

We indeed had major issues with the seller finding a local notary (international). Notarycam is a great solution that I wish was known earlier in our process. Once we found it, things moved fast. www.notarycam.com

 

[AdamsMum]

Canadian seller here. The broker withheld the FIRTPA tax, so it was never in my hands to "not" pay it. I've used the same lawyer for home buying and selling over the years, he charged me $30 to notarize. My only issue was with Canada Post. They lost my notarized documents that were sent Priority Post, and found them 5 days later still in the post office. I'm not sure how the buyer felt about that but things happen, sometimes beyond your control. Otherwise the sale was smooth, I did get a nice letter from the IRS though a few months later telling me that I could claim back some of my FIRTPA. It involved getting an ITIN number and filing a U.S. income tax I think. Too much for me to digest at the time.

 

[ScarSimone]

We've bought several from Canadian sellers. The process is similar to a US seller, but the foreign sellers have to pay FIRPTA taxes. The broker will need your social security numbers to provide the IRS just in case the seller does not pay the taxes on the sale. I've had many US sellers that are much slower than the Canadian sellers!

There is the heart stopping letter from the IRS, but then you should get a confirmation FIRPTA was paid from the broker/attorney. The first one nearly gave me a heart attack!

As a buyer do you have to worry about the seller NOT paying FIRRPTA taxes?

Canadian seller here. The broker withheld the FIRTPA tax, so it was never in my hands to "not" pay it. I've used the same lawyer for home buying and selling over the years, he charged me $30 to notarize. My only issue was with Canada Post. They lost my notarized documents that were sent Priority Post, and found them 5 days later still in the post office. I'm not sure how the buyer felt about that but things happen, sometimes beyond your control. Otherwise the sale was smooth, I did get a nice letter from the IRS though a few months later telling me that I could claim back some of my FIRTPA. It involved getting an ITIN number and filing a U.S. income tax I think. Too much for me to digest at the time.

Your issue with Canada Post does not really pertain to an international sale, even for a sale within the US, if you use the US Post Office you are gambling the same way! You could have just blamed it on us.

Thank you for the input. Found a nice contract that's on the low side (not horribly) so if it ups the chances of it passing ROFR and there are no other real major concerns.....

 

[sndral]

As a buyer do you have to worry about the seller NOT paying FIRRPTA taxes?
…

The title company usually handles the paperwork & sends the 15% to the IRS, although I did read of one title company that gave the buyer the option of handling the paperwork recently https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...ling-with-firpta-and-tax-withholding.3826662/
From what I understand usually the title/escrow company sends the FIRPTA $ to the IRS & the foreign sellers apply for an ITN number & file the forms to get their $ back from the IRS if they didn’t make enough profit on the sale to owe the tax https://www.disboards.com/threads/firpta.3817447/#post-62442155

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Costs more with title agency