How to Transfer Money to the US for Your Closing

Of all the stages in a Florida purchase, this is the one that delays the most deals. Not loan approval, not the appraisal, not the negotiation: the arrival of the money. And it is especially frustrating because it usually fails for lack of planning, not for lack of funds.

The pattern repeats. The buyer gets approved, signs the contract, agrees to a closing date 30 days out, and only in the final week deals with how to move the money. That is when they discover their bank has per-transaction limits, that compliance wants documentation that takes days to gather, or that the wire is sitting in review. The closing date slips, and in a competitive market a slipped closing date sometimes means losing the property and the deposit.

How a US closing actually gets paid

Let's start with the basics, because there are expectations carried over from other markets that do not apply here.

The money goes to the title company, not to the seller. In Florida the closing is administered by a title company or a closing attorney acting as a neutral third party: it receives your funds, receives the lender's, verifies the title is clean, pays what needs paying, and only then releases the money and records the deed in your name. You never wire the seller directly.

Only verified funds are accepted. In practice that means a wire transfer or, for small amounts, a certified check drawn on a US bank. Cash is not accepted, nor personal checks from abroad, nor transfers from payment platforms, nor cryptocurrency converted on the spot.

The wire must come from an account in your name. If an LLC is buying the property, the cleanest approach is for the wire to leave the LLC's account. Funds arriving from a third party's account — a relative, a partner, a company that is not the buyer — trigger reviews that can stall the closing. If someone is gifting or lending you part of the money, that gets documented beforehand with a gift letter or a loan agreement, not improvised.

Why they ask you to explain where the money came from

This part makes people uncomfortable, and it helps to understand it without drama: it is not distrust of you personally.

The parties involved in the deal — the lender, the title company, the receiving bank — are required by US anti-money-laundering rules to verify where the money for a real estate purchase comes from. In South Florida the scrutiny is even higher, because it is one of the areas where the Treasury imposed enhanced reporting obligations on high-value purchases, precisely because of its history of real estate deals used to place funds of questionable origin.

The practical consequence is simple: the money needs a documented history. What is typically requested:

• Bank statements for the last two or three months of the account the money is leaving from.
• A documented explanation of any large deposit appearing in those statements. If you sold a property, the deed. If you collected dividends, the resolution. If you sold a car, the bill of sale. A significant deposit without backup is the number one cause of delays.
• A bank reference letter from your bank in your home country.
• An income certification from your accountant, which is also part of the loan file.

One piece of advice that saves weeks: leave the money still, in a single account, for the two or three months beforehand. Every transfer between your own accounts multiplies the statements you will have to produce and explain.

A warning worth making

International transfers above certain thresholds generate automatic reports from financial institutions. That is normal and has no consequence whatsoever if your funds are legitimate.

What is a federal crime in the United States is deliberately breaking a transfer into smaller amounts to avoid those reports. It is called structuring, and it is prosecuted regardless of whether the money is clean: the maneuver itself constitutes the offense. No serious professional will suggest it, and if someone does, that is the clearest signal you need a different advisor.

Where there are currency controls in the country of origin — a reality in several markets in the region — the answer is to plan ahead through the available formal channels with local accounting advice, not to look for shortcuts. A stalled closing is a problem; a federal investigation is a different category of problem.

The timeline worth following

This is the order I recommend, counting backward from closing:

90 days out (or as soon as you decide to buy). Consolidate the funds into one account and leave them there. Consult your local accountant about the formal channel for moving funds out and its real timelines.

60 days out. Open the US bank account if you will need one. With an LLC, this is rarely resolved in a single visit, and several banks require physical presence. It is not strictly required to close — the wire can originate abroad — but it is required to operate the property afterward: collecting rent, paying the HOA, taxes and utilities.

30 days out. Confirm your bank's per-transaction and daily limits, and the real time an international transfer to the United States takes. Ask explicitly whether compliance will require additional documentation.

10 days out. Have the source-of-funds package assembled: statements and backup for every relevant deposit.

5 days out. Request the wire instructions from the title company and verify them by phone, calling a number you obtained independently.

48 hours out. Send the wire. International wires can take one to three business days, and if a weekend or a US holiday falls in the middle, it stretches.

The fraud you need to know about

There is a specific and highly effective scam in US real estate closings. Fraudsters compromise one party's email account, follow the conversation silently until they identify the closing date, then send an email that appears to come from the title company with altered wire instructions. The buyer wires the money to the fraudster's account. Once sent, that money is practically unrecoverable.

How to prevent it, without exception: verify wire instructions by phone before transferring, calling a number you obtained independently — from the official website or a prior contact — never the one in the email. Be suspicious of any last-minute change in instructions; that is the classic scenario. And if someone is rushing you, that is all the more reason to verify.

In summary

Funds go by wire to the title company, from an account in your name, with a documented origin. Start planning it the day you decide to buy, not the week of closing. Leave the money still in a single account, gather backup for large deposits ahead of time, and verify wire instructions by phone.

It is the least glamorous step in the deal and the one that ruins the most closings. If you want to get it organized before making an offer, write to me and we will plan it around your specific case.