How to get real estate agents to promote seller financing

[Nathan P.]

Obviously there are some great benefits (both for buyer and seller) to putting together a seller financed deal that has been discussed in other forums.

This can work great when your negotiating directly with a seller off market. But when your analyzing deals listed by an agent how do you get that agent to advocate your offer to the seller?

The conflict I am seeing is that if the seller decides to hold the note for me or wrap a mortgage then the money is not due upfront and the agents commissions are supposed to come from that money.

Another problem is that a good majority of agents arent familiar with seller financing and may be afraid of the unknown. Most people in this situation would not want to sound incompetant so it would get ridden off as a low ball or bad offer.

How can some of these hurdles be overcome?

[Rick Pozos]

As far as how the agent gets paid, you are going to have to come up with a down payment big enough to cover the sellers closing costs plus commission plus a little something for the seller. I have been on both sides of this, selling with owner financing and buying with owner financing. I can tell you, no seller is going to want to walk away from closing without a little money in his pocket.

At this point in the market, there is not much incentive for sellers to offer seller financing or wraps. Properties are selling pretty quick. When the market is not so hot, you can probably get all kinds of seller financing.

Agents must present all offers, but I can tell you that they are NOT going to recommend seller financing unless something is wrong with the property or it is unfinanceable. Even then, they are probably going to only ask for cash. You can find seller financing, but it is going to be tough.