Selling a US property from the UK

Has anyone on here sold a property they own in the US without being there to handle the sale?

I'm guessing it's pretty complicated, but I was hoping to get some first-hand experience from people who have done it. Share your hints and tips here...

Sorry, no experience of this as yet.  Have just been to our lawyer (in US) to see if I could "sell" the house in US to my son, who will be living there.  Lawyer says that would count as a "gift".  He does not seem to get the problem in the UK of owning more than one property. 

I did this last summer.

I lucked out big time in that I found a realtor through Google and she was really good - sent e-mails daily (or multiple times/day) with updates/questions/etc, kept me in the loop with everything, and was willing/able to do all the hands-on house stuff as far as making sure that it looked in good shape, was ready for viewings, that repairs had been done, etc.

I was renting my house since I moved here, so my tenant moved out at the start of June 2012. House got listed mid-June, had an offer in early July, and we closed the first week of August.

The major hurdle I had was with the title lawyer/insurance. They'd been given advance notice that this was an international sale and that I couldn't be present physically, yet they still waited until 3 days before the closing date to send me documents and tell me they had to be notarised. I had a panicky few hours until they agreed that a UK notary would be fine, and then I spent a fair chunk of change getting the documents notarised and overnighted to the US. (Which turned out to be a waste as they then moved the closing date back 3 days, and as a bonus didn't tell my realtor so she showed up for a meeting which never happened.)

In those documents I signed a power of attorney for my realtor so that she could sign all the documents for me at closing. It was pretty straight-forward, and just specified that her POA was limited to the transaction on X date with Y house for Z price, etc. (I don't know how much protection it would have been if she'd been tempted to screw me over, but luckily it wasn't an issue!)

About a week after closing, I got a check mailed to my bank in the US with the amount leftover after legal fees, agent commission, etc.

Hope that helps.

What do you see as the problem with owning more than one property?

I did this as well - we had listed our property 4 months before we left but it sold after we moved (short sale, which is even more complicated paperwork wise). Our real estate agent took care of everything, and really the only difficult thing was the title transfer, as equestrianerd said. Different states have different requirements on what kind of international notary is acceptable so doing research early on is super important. California will only except a notary from either the US Embassy, of which the one in London has limited slots - we ended up getting an emergency appointment, or a UK notary with an Apostile, which is expensive, a hassle to get (because apparently the only place you can get it from is in Milton Keynes) and even expedited service can take a few days, which sometimes you don't have the luxury of.

Tips: be prepared with Fed Ex accounts (our escrow company gave us their # which saved us a bunch of money) and have a good online signature program (which any good real estate agent should have on hand). Plus, if you have an ipad or similar, there are great apps that allow you to e-sign pdfs and the signature is bang on. Then you can email docs instead of always fedexing. We were able to handle all our signatures this way except for the deed/title thing.

Plus, if you have an ipad or similar, there are great apps that allow you to e-sign pdfs and the signature is bang on. Then you can email docs instead of always fedexing. We were able to handle all our signatures this way except for the deed/title thing.

Yes! My realtor sent me a bunch of stuff that I was able to sign digitally (contracts, home inspection results, etc.). It was a major time/stress saver.

Fruitgum, I believe the UK tax is very high on "second" homes -- wherever.  There's been a lot of talk about "holiday" homes and I don't know if they'd differentiate between your French gite and your US home. Also it's probably a good idea to sell up and sever connections to your home state if there is state income tax.  It may not amount to much but it's one less thing to worry about at tax time. And then there's the hassle of being a long distance landlord if you rent.

Thanks Boston Diner. We're not permanently in the UK so our circumstances are a little different, but your information is useful.