"They improved the property, so my risk dropped." Improvements support value. They don't make a payment. A new roof has never covered a mortgage. Exposure still rides on balance vs value, the payer's stability, and market liquidity.
#sellerfinancing
"Selling part of my note means losing control." A partial is a defined block of payments. The note assigns to the buyer while they collect it, you keep a residual in the back end, and it reassigns to you when they're done. Smaller discount than a full sale.
#sellerfinancing
"I know the buyer, I don't need title insurance." Knowing the buyer tells you nothing about the title. Prior liens, unpaid taxes, a wrong legal description, or a recording error that leaves your mortgage unperfected. You learn about that one the day you enforce.
#sellerfinancing
"If my borrower files bankruptcy, my note is gone." Usually not. A properly recorded lien survives. The court can discharge their personal liability while your security interest stays on the property. It slows you down and costs money. The collateral position holds.
"There's more equity than I'm owed, so I'm protected." Equity helps you recover. It doesn't make a payment arrive. And it only protects you if your lien is clean, taxes are current, and foreclosure costs don't eat the cushion.
#sellerfinancing
"If it sells at foreclosure for more than I'm owed, I get the surplus." No. First position gets paid what's owed. Surplus goes to junior liens, then the borrower. Your upside is capped at the balance. Your downside isn't capped at all.
#sellerfinancing
"I'll just take the house back if they stop paying." Foreclosure is a court process, not a repo. Months of timeline, legal fees, and at auction you keep the property only if nobody outbids you. Some states add a redemption window.
#seller-financing #carryback#notebuyer
If "I'm too small to matter" is the only reason you've never looked into it, that's a bad reason to keep collecting pmts you'd rather convert.
One of the 12 things I see note holders get wrong. Comment "send it" for the one-pager.
#sellerfinancing#mortgagenotes#ownerfinancing
Two notes I bought. $445,000 owed, payer had stopped paying, property worth ~$540,000: I paid $209,000. $30,000 owed at 10%, payer never missed: I paid $22,000. The small one priced 26 points better. Performance moves price, not size.
#sellerfinancing
"The taxes would eat it" is the most common reason note holders give for not selling. Usually a conclusion, not a calculation. A full sale, a partial, and a loan against the note each work differently. Ask your CPA to price all three.
#sellerfinancing
A note doesn't quietly pass to your heirs as a monthly check. It's an estate asset. Valued, reported, divided. One note and three heirs means somebody services it for a decade. Better to decide while you're here.
#sellerfinancing
"My balance is too small to sell." Small notes trade all the time. Sellability comes from the payment record, the rate, the collateral, and clean docs, not the size of the balance. A tidy small note often moves easier than a big messy one.
"I don't need title insurance on a seller-financed note." Risky. Without a title review you may not catch a prior lien, unpaid taxes at origination, or a recording error that quietly hurts your lien priority. Private-party deals skip the safeguards banks take for granted.
"The property's worth more than the note, so I'm covered." Maybe. A note is only as strong as the borrower's willingness to pay, clean lien position, and current taxes. Online value estimates aren't underwriting. Equity is a cushion, not a guarantee.
"The longer I hold my note, the more I make." Sometimes. Longer holds also stack up more borrower life events, property changes, and market shifts. For some notes, taking the cash now and redeploying beats riding it to maturity. It depends on the note.
A myth a lot of note holders believe: foreclosure means you automatically get the property. It's a court process that takes months, and at auction you keep the property only if nobody outbids you. Some states even give the borrower time to redeem after the sale.
Payment history is real, and it has limits. A borrower who paid for 3 years can still default in year 4, and one note puts 100% of your risk on a single borrower. Underwrite it every year.
Estate attorney with a note in the file? Client inherited payments on a property two states away. Doesn't want 14 more years of borrower contact. I can offer within 12 hours and close in 10-20 business days with all information ready to go.
Very few in the note space offers hypothecation (note lending). Borrow against your note, keep collecting payments, keep the note. No personal guarantee. TX and FL.
Community bank CRA officers: I source performing, CRA-eligible mortgage notes matched to your assessment area. LMI borrowers or LMI tracts, documented for the exam file.