When we bought a home

• Bank Account:    To Open a bank account is very easy, it takes 10 minutes, you need two forms of ID, passport and driving licence and they issue a cheque book at opening of the account.  They give you information on internet banking and within 10 days, they send you in the UK the necessary passwords to access the internet, cheque books and bank card.  Very efficient!
• Mortgage:   Depending upon the size of the loan, the process of arranging the mortgage can be very easy.  With 25% deposit you can simply obtain a mortgage by seeing a broker, providing a copy of your passport and a letter of credit worthiness from your bank (you can send this on later).  When closing on the home and starting the mortgage you will require the first 6 months mortgage payments to be in your bank account.  The broker will go through with you all of the closing costs and monthly mortgage payments.  Between 10-20% down, the mortgage company will need in addition tax returns, proof of income, references and 3 items of credit.
• Management Company:   Our priorities for the management company is a balanced view, fairly good at both booking lettings and also managing the company.  Invariably, a lot of companies are either very good at management but not so good at making bookings or vice versa.  A meeting with the management company dealt with the myriad of questions we had such as levels of rent, number of weeks booked for the year, frequency of pool cleans.  They will also help with the initial hook ups for electricity, etc and walk throughs with the building company.  They are our representative and will do whatever we ask, at a fee of course.
• Interior Furnishings:   Arranged to meet the interior designer at the model show home to discuss the furniture package.  They literally cover every aspect from the king size bed down to the can opener in the kitchen.  There are three packages usually to choose from, silver, gold or platinum.  About 5% of people choose platinum and the remainder split more or less equally.  We chose Gold.  Includes large TV with playstation, DVD/video and stereo in the main family room, TV’s in all bedrooms and choice of covers and cushions for the lounge suite.  A superb service that only took about 2 to 3 hours because everything is done for us.
• Tax Adviser:   You can meet the tax adviser whilst out there or it can be done by e-mail when back in the UK.  We did it back in the UK.  There are two types of tax returns to file.  One is a tangible tax return to the county on the value of furnishings in the home and the other is Federal income tax return.  There are also tourist and sales taxes that are also due but these are usually handled by the letting agent.