Thread: Buy a Home, get a Visa

Most countries have this policy in place and have had it for quite some time. I don't know what your issue is with it.

Oh... you don't like being thought on as a "servant"

Ahhh... I see...

Originally Posted by goober

A proposed new program, foreign buyers who spend at least $500,000 on real estate and at least $250,000 of that on a home, will get resident visas for their family.
Foreign Buyers For U.S. Homes | On Point with Tom Ashbrook

Pretty good idea, have all that money that has gone overseas come back to the US, buy homes, and hire Americans as servants....

Pretty stupid idea. The USA ought to join the countries that do not allow foreign ownership of real estate.

Originally Posted by chassisman

Pretty stupid idea. The USA ought to join the countries that do not allow foreign ownership of real estate.

I must disagree...

It's not like they can take it apart and carry it home. Allow foreign ownership of real estate... look at how well it worked out for those Japanese fellows that bought Rockefeller Plaza back in the '90's.

BEHIND THE FALL OF ROCKEFELLER CENTER THE INSIDE STORY OF WHY BAD BLOOD SEPARATES THE ROCKEFELLERS AND MITSUBISHI -- AND TAINTS THE NEXT ROUND OF BITTER FIGHTING. - July 10, 1995

This is interesting.

A bipartisan (and by bipartisan I mean a big name Democrat is very much involved) bill that will allow the banks that own millions of foreclosed homes to make an end-run around the impoverished American people and recoup their losses by selling these properties to foreign investors.

Not that the banks couldn't (and aren't) already selling those homes to foreign investors, but you've got to love how they're sweetening the pot.

Those Democrats! Always looking out for the little guy.

I don't get it. Is the opposition over that those buying homes would be wealthy and you just hate wealthy people?

If tossing in a residential visa ups foreign investment and actually ties them to the community, isn't that a good thing?

We sell everything else to off shore interests. We might as well sell higher priced residential property as well.

Originally Posted by goober

A proposed new program, foreign buyers who spend at least $500,000 on real estate and at least $250,000 of that on a home, will get resident visas for their family.
Foreign Buyers For U.S. Homes | On Point with Tom Ashbrook

Pretty good idea, have all that money that has gone overseas come back to the US, buy homes, and hire Americans as servants....

ahoy Goober,

apparently this be happenin' on multiple fronts;

me father just returned from China, whar thar government paid'm to fly to that far off land to work with'm to invest in this nation. apparently, if a Chinese person spends $500,000 opening a business here and hire 10 employees fer two years (at any wage, minimum be fine), then them Chinese business owners get fast tracked to a pathway fer american citizenship.

- MeadHallPirate

Originally Posted by soot

This is interesting.

A bipartisan (and by bipartisan I mean a big name Democrat is very much involved) bill that will allow the banks that own millions of foreclosed homes to make an end-run around the impoverished American people and recoup their losses by selling these properties to foreign investors.

Not that the banks couldn't (and aren't) already selling those homes to foreign investors, but you've got to love how they're sweetening the pot.

Those Democrats! Always looking out for the little guy.

Well, frankly, there is something to be said for getting those properties out of inventory and even more to be said for getting them out at a premium.

The idea is that a foreigner who comes here and owns property is more likely to contribute more to the society than one who simply comes here, works and sends most of his pay back south to support some other country. It's part of the "free trade" thing that so many people are up in arms about even, apparently, when WE are getting a benefit.

If Americans are concerned that the Chinese are going to buy up all of the land and kick them out then I suggest that they get off their asses and do something about it instead of waiting for some political knight in shining armor to save the day for them.

I wonder if they can get a govt backed mortgage to buy the house. Then get their visa, default on the loan, and get to stay?

Originally Posted by jviehe

I wonder if they can get a govt backed mortgage to buy the house. Then get their visa, default on the loan, and get to stay?

You have to pay the entire thing upfront with no mortgages.

Originally Posted by lutherf

Well, frankly, there is something to be said for getting those properties out of inventory and even more to be said for getting them out at a premium.

Sure, if you're a bank or a property owner sitting next to a vacant home or a municipality looking to collect taxes or any other number of folks.

But if you're one of the millions of Americans who was just recently kicked out of his home and you're now watching all these homes sold off to rich, (ostensibly) educated foreigners who will then come here and take the high paying jobs that Americans are complaining there aren't enough, of this situation might not have the same silver lining.

And I'm really only interested in this situation so far as the irony of it is concerned wherein the Democrats (or at least one major Democrat, we'll see how the rest shake out on it) is complicit in screwing over a great many middle and lower class Americans.

I'm not ashamed to say that I'm much more concerned with whether or not the Best Buy near my house is going to have a copy of Battlefield 3 in stock when I stop by tonight than I am with the fate of any of those millions of Americas who were kicked out of their homes.

But I'm honest like that even if, perhaps, a bit crass.

I don't hold a plackard claiming that I support Joe Everyman in the one hand while penning legislation that provides near-zero benefit to Joe Everyman with the other and then talk sideways out of my face by blaming Republicans for the fate of Joe Everyman.

That's why I said it was interesting.

Personally I think this is a good move for a number of reasons, several of which you've mentioned.

But selling working class Americans' future prosperity to JPMorgan Chase, Haliburton, Blackwater, and/or the Chinese is "something the evil Republicans do".

When a Democrat has his fingerprints all over it, I think that's something that deserves to have attention called to it even if only for purposes of discussion here on USPOL where there have probably been three new topics started discussing the evil of the Republican party while I crafted this response.

Originally Posted by soot

Sure, if you're a bank or a property owner sitting next to a vacant home or a municipality looking to collect taxes or any other number of folks.

But if you're one of the millions of Americans who was just recently kicked out of his home and you're now watching all these homes sold off to rich, (ostensibly) educated foreigners who will then come here and take the high paying jobs that Americans are complaining there aren't enough, of this situation might not have the same silver lining.

And I'm really only interested in this situation so far as the irony of it is concerned wherein the Democrats (or at least one major Democrat, we'll see how the rest shake out on it) is complicit in screwing over a great many middle and lower class Americans.

I'm not ashamed to say that I'm much more concerned with whether or not the Best Buy near my house is going to have a copy of Battlefield 3 in stock when I stop by tonight than I am with the fate of any of those millions of Americas who were kicked out of their homes.

But I'm honest like that even if, perhaps, a bit crass.

I don't hold a plackard claiming that I support Joe Everyman in the one hand while penning legislation that provides near-zero benefit to Joe Everyman with the other and then talk sideways out of my face by blaming Republicans for the fate of Joe Everyman.

That's why I said it was interesting.

Personally I think this is a good move for a number of reasons, several of which you've mentioned.

But selling working class Americans' future prosperity to JPMorgan Chase, Haliburton, Blackwater, and/or the Chinese is "something the evil Republicans do".

When a Democrat has his fingerprints all over it, I think that's something that deserves to have attention called to it even if only for purposes of discussion here on USPOL where there have probably been three new topics started discussing the evil of the Republican party while I crafted this response.

ahoy Soot me bucko!

*checks his powder sails into battle*

i enjoyed that post, matey...every word 'o it. as often be the case, i found yer comments pretty much spot on, though i wanted to comment on the two bolded bits;

1) ye could have written the first bolded part thusly, and it woulda been just as applicable to the political environment today;

"I don't hold a plackard claiming that I support Joe Everyman in the one hand while penning legislation that provides near-zero benefit to Joe Everyman with the other and then talk sideways out of my face by blaming Democrats for the fate of Joe Everyman."

2) the fact that a Democrat hath his mitts on this bill would indicate what folk been sayin' fer a while...aye? that democrats be just as craven to thar corporate masters as folk on the other side 'o the aisle be. if money be the mother's milk 'o politics and that milk be flowin' robustly from the same source, then it behooves them who want that milk to bow and worship the teat from which that milk courses.

AYE!!!!!!

*bows courteously as to to avoid Soot's blunderbuss*

- MeadHallPirate

If they only have to spend half of the $500,000 on their own residence, then that will put the other half of their money in direct competition with people like me who buy cheaper properties, fix them up and rent them out.

Admittedly,I haven't read the bill yet, but I don't like the sound of this. I have enough competition already from mega-real estate companies who just buy houses, tear them down and sit on the property for years without the Federal government enticing foreigners to move here and underbid me at auctions.