Pumped about finding an Owner Financed deal....with a twist.

[Ethan H.]

My brother and I are pretty excited, we closed on a Duplex in Nampa that was being offered as an Owner Finance. This makes 12 units in the last 11 months that we have been able to close on! But this one had an interesting story behind it.

A few months ago, I received a call out of the blue from the State of Oregon saying that a distant cousin of mine (a 3-year-old girl) had been taken into the Foster Care system, and they were looking for blood relatives to place the girl with, with the understanding that it was leading to adoption. The Case Worker wanted to know if my wife and I would be interested. We both immediately said yes. However, we had one problem. We live in a 900 sqft 1 bedroom duplex that we are house hacking. Because of how many properties we had purchased in the last year, I wasn't sure I could get financing to get a bigger place in which (a) would be decent and in my price range and (b) I could have a good exit strategy. 

So I began to search for Owner Finance deals on Craigslist. Those deals are rare in my neck of the woods. I ended up finding one that had been posted just hours before I searched. My brother contacted the Gentleman who owns the property, but he wanted some terms that we were not comfortable with (i.e early payment penalties, 5-year balloon, adjustable rates). So I decided to write him myself and basically said: "Here are the terms we can work with, please contact me if you are interested in them". He wrote back and said that he would be interested, but had several people who were making offers. He wanted us to come by and look at the place during an open house. 

We got to the open house and knocked on the door. When he opened it, to my surprise, it was one of our friends from church. We had known him for 3 years and had visited each other's homes. We simply didn't know that we were communicating with each other due to Craigslist's encrypted email system. 

Long story short. He sold us the house on a 30-year note, fixed rate at 6%, $10k down, and no pre-payment penalty. We closed last Sunday, and are currently elbows deep in renovating. This house is 3,300 sqft, and only needs a door to convert it back to a duplex. My brother and his wife will be occupying 1 side (3 beds, 2 baths) and my wife, myself, and our potential daughter will be occupying the other side (3 bed, 2 bath, 1 office). We are always thankful for the providence of God in our lives.