Buying rental property after The Move

After getting the job/visa sorted, we plan on selling our house in San Francisco. We should get enough to pay off the mortgage and buy a home in Newcastle outright. We may have enough to buy our home, and a flat to rent out. We will be retiring in 10-15 years, and I want as much income then as we can, on top of our savings/401(k)/pension.
Is it difficult to own/let as a foreigner? Does anyone else have experience with this? We've never been landlords before. We were lucky to find our house cheap (for San Francisco) and it has doubled in value. We won't have this kind of cash again anytime soon, so I don't want to screw up.
Thanks everyone, this forum is brilliant.

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After getting the job/visa sorted, we plan on selling our house in San Francisco. We should get enough to pay off the mortgage and buy a home in Newcastle outright. We may have enough to buy our home, and a flat to rent out. We will be retiring in 10-15 years, and I want as much income then as we can, on top of our savings/401(k)/pension.
Is it difficult to own/let as a foreigner? Does anyone else have experience with this? We've never been landlords before. We were lucky to find our house cheap (for San Francisco) and it has doubled in value. We won't have this kind of cash again anytime soon, so I don't want to screw up.
Thanks everyone, this forum is brilliant.

The hard part of owning as a foreigner is securing a mortgage.  It sounds like you won't have that problem.  (Just remember to pay attention to what you are buying and avoid leaseholds!)

Yeah, freeholds are plentiful where we want to go, and everything would be cash. That's the best part of the move, no more mortgage. And Newcastle United season tickets.

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I have a rental.  No issue being foreign.  Tax changes are in place to make investing rentals undesirable.  But as you'll be retired, I suspect you'll be on a lower income so won't be as affected.  Soon any rental related expenses will not be tax deductible and you have to pay full tax on the full income amount.

The hard part of owning as a foreigner is securing a mortgage.  It sounds like you won't have that problem.  (Just remember to pay attention to what you are buying and avoid leaseholds!)

This was my thought exactly. If you don't need a mortgage, you are more or less okay. The hardest part, for us anyways, was definitely having me "qualify" for a mortgage as it's hard to build credit and a lot of companies will jack up the interest an obscene amount if you don't have enough history in the country and some flat out won't consider you at all (most won't). If you are cash buying, this would eliminate that problem.

best of luck!

Another thing to look into is how foreign rental income will be treated for US taxes. 

Thanks, everyone, good info.

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Also something to be aware of is the increased SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax - effectively a tax on acquiring property) on a second property if you are buying in England or Wales. You would have to pay SDLT in England or Wales on your first purchase anyway, but it would be at the normal rate for the value of that property. On owning a second property, an additional 3% would be added to whatever rate band the second property fell into. You should ask your lawyer to explain whether this affects you or not (there are some exemptions I think) once you are in the market to purchase. That is in England and Wales - not sure about the rules for Scotland.