Seller Financed Deals

[Sandy Uhlmann]

I would like to eventually purchase some seller financed notes.  I wanted to explore the obstacles/advantages that Realtors face in selling  homes with owner financing.  Please help me explore the pros and cons so I can try to find creative solutions to make seller financing a win-win-win solution for the seller, the buyer, and the realtor.

I understand that the actual number of people that could sell in this manner may be limited. I would guess that the number of properties that are owned free and clear that don't need the money immediately may even shrink that pool even further.

What if your seller had the ability to sell his/her note for cash at a discount after approx 6 months?  Is that an appeal to the seller?  Is it true that you can increase the price of a home that is offered with seller financing so perhaps this amount offsets the discounted payoff offered by the note buyer or at least this increase may pay all or some of the Realtor's commission?

Would Realtors ever be interested in a payoff stream?  My guess is that the Brokerage might object to this but I wonder if an escrow company might be able to collect the payments to the seller and pay the realtor on a monthly basis out of this money?  Perhaps in this case the percentage that the Realtor collects for the sale of the home might need to be increased?

Do Realtors routinely ask the seller "what are you going to do with the money?"  Seems to me that if the seller doesn't need the money they would potentially make a far better return on their investment by using seller financing vs putting it in the bank or investing it in mutual funds or stocks.