Buying a property in US while still living in UK?

Has anyone on here done this?  We just thought yesterday maybe instead of locking away the money we make from selling our flat, into a crappy interest rate account, and waiting 2 years to be able to get a mortgage (while we build up credit history) we could buy one now.  I'm moving to the US with the kids in a couple weeks, dh is staying here and working till he gets his Green Card, probably Dec.  So I could look at properties and if he could get a mortgage in the US, or even here in the UK, and we could buy it and rent it out.  We couldn't live in it cause when he comes over he'll be looking for work and who knows how long that will take, so we will only be able to rent a room from someone in the meantime. We couldn't afford utility bills.

We'll have at least a 20% deposit on a small house.  After a quick google, it looks like it could be possible.  But it would be great if anyone on here has any experience with it!

We're looking at the same thing, but it's more difficult than it seems. Very few above-the-board lenders in the UK work with US mortgages and those that do have prohibitively high interest. Getting a mortgage in the US based on UK income is not happening, even with a decent US credit history behind us.

Hopefully there are some success stories to tell us how it's done, too!

We did manage to do it the other way round - got a mortgage in the UK based on US salary, but that was before the bank meltdown. I think you're going to find that banks are very tight on what they will lend on these days.