Selling your property in America?

The USA has long been a favourite for Brits buying holiday homes overseas and also remains popular as a foreign property investment option. The coasts are always appealing, but in particular the east coast and Florida have long been hotspots for Brits seeking sun and relaxation in a culture not too different to our own. The fact we speak largely the same language also makes it an attractive choice for many.

But under the turbulent Trump presidency and with wildly fluctuating exchange rates, lots of us are now looking to offload our American property and repatriate our money to the UK. If you do decide to sell, there are some important factors to take into account when bringing your proceeds back to Britain.

Did you know, for example, that the US has a different set of banking rules and uses different account identifiers (what you likely know as your IBAN and Swift/BIC codes) for cross-border transactions that can cause confusion if not explained properly?

Then there’s the Patriot’s Act, introduced after the 9/11 attacks, part of which was designed to counter the money laundering that funds a great deal of terrorism. And while that may sound a million miles away from you selling a property, it brought about some major changes to US banking law that makes it hard to transfer funds internationally without being physically present to authorise it.

Even if you’re at the start of your sale and don’t yet have a buyer, we can offer advice on what to look out for – potential pitfalls, an explanation of how the sales process works, from identifying the title company that handles the US money side of the sale to the best way to get your money into your UK account. Here’s how we can help:

1. Open a Clear Currency account – it’s free, comes with no obligations and takes about two minutes.
2. Once your sale is agreed, we’ll provide you with your Clear Currency account details for you to share with the title company that’s handling the sale so they know where to send the proceeds – this is important as sending it direct to your UK bank account will be expensive and sending it to a US bank account can make it hard to get your money remotely.
3. The US uses a different set of bank details to the UK for international transactions, so making sure you have everything in place and being clear that they have to send the money to your Clear account and not a US or UK account is vital. You may get some resistance from the title company, but we’ll help make sure it goes to the right place.
4. When you pass on these payment details to the title company it should take between three and five days from when they receive the money to send it to your Clear account – we’ll let you know when it arrives.
5. We’ll exchange your money at the best possible rate immediately and have it ready to transfer to your UK bank the same day or the next – or if you’re in no rush, we can keep you up to date on currency movements and agree a forward rate that could get you more pounds from your dollars.

We’ve helped thousands of people and businesses move their money back to the UK from property sales overseas. With our detailed knowledge of the processes for buying and selling in the US we can make the whole experience as painless and quick as possible – and with market-leading rates we can save you money along the way.