Looking to build American style homes back in Switzerland

Welcome and Introductions
21
You're dating the wrong guys! Oh wait. Sorry. Wrong forum.

22

Do you hold a green card? If so, then forget about business loans from banks here. American citizens/card holders are finding it very difficult to get/keep an ordinary account never mind anything else. And as a green card holder you’d need to continue to file US tax returns and may owe them tax as well.

How adaptable are your house sizes, because America/Switzerland all use different appliance sizes. You’d need to check on the various energy saving regs in each canton.

Are there really enough finance guys looking to buy homes that you could make a viable business out of it? Sounds like a small market to me, especially given the shortage of space here compared to the US.

23
You could be right thats why I came on here to ask around.

Yes I have Green card but may give it up, and Wife is Swiss.

24
If you've been married to your Swiss wife for over 5 years, you're eligible to apply for facilitated naturalization (in case you didn't know).

25
My Swiss Wife or yours? :-)

Yeah I know we got Swiss passports for our kids

26

Well, if you do make sure you do it properly by filling in form I-407 I think it is and keeping a copy for your records in case banks, etc, want to see it.

And if you plan to hold joint accounts, even your wife being Swiss won’t save you from the IRS and it’s reporting regime unless you give up the green card. Do you plan to keep accounts open in the US?

27
luckily we have things set up correctly thus avoiding most of this,

28
To be honest the IRS is a big reason for getting out, hopefully they bring in the FairTax and abolish the IRS, without them more would invest here, but the double tax thing is getting old.

29
I love American style homes, but I think they fit best ...IN AMERICA !!

Just imagined a thread "Looking to build Swiss style homes in the US"

Just my 2 cents and good luck with your project...

30
Here you go:

http://www.dreamhomesource.com/house...use-plans.html

31
Intersting indeed, but I don't see any Swiss style there.

32
Then you should know that the 5-year wait and facilitated naturalization didn't apply to the kids, only to you.

33
Then you are not looking hard enough.

There are at least two just like that in my village. The only difference is they are super dark brown wood.

http://www.dreamhomesource.com/house...dhsw75387.html

6 years married if you live outside of Switzerland.

34
If I were going to build here, I would use a local architect, someone who knows the building rules in my village and how to get around them

I also prefer to use established firms with good reputations that you know will be around when there are problems.

35
??? Actually there are plenty of different styles and yes the Swiss or Italian styles do well here.

Wow certainly are a lot of ball busters on here.

36
yup we have been married for 14 years, thanks though

37
I hear you, but we build all over the world and have a great reputation with our clients, we built a house here for one of the family members of nestle, and his Architect came from Switzerland.

Another client of mine is from Berlin, she flew me there to look at her houses so that I would know what she wanted exactly and then flew her Architect and Engineer here. It really is a global world when it comes to the type of houses I build.

38
Usually you will have a local consulting Architect

39
Why do people leave their own countries and then want to replicate what they left behind somewhere else? How, in any way would an American style house look right in Swiss surroundings?

40
I am not sure the local architect would want to be the consultant. Then there is the issue of fees, if you need two architects that just drives the price up.

I am not sure you are really looking to build for "Herr und Frau Schweizer".