Purchase What I'm Currently Renting

[Dylon May]

I now have the opportunity to purchase the home that my family and I currently live in. The property manager is also willing to do a seller finance deal. I'm not sure how that works, so can you fill me in on what that means, and what that entails especially now in this economy? Would that be a good idea to do seller financing?

What would be my next step? She's already given me a sales price, however she did say that they are willing to negotiate down. Where would I go to look up comparables in my neighborhood without having access to what real estate agents have access to? We will not get a real estate agent involved, because we want to keep money in our pockets. 

I really need a step-by-step guide on where I should go from here. I am a newbie investor, and a newbie home buyer, and I do not want these people taking advantage of my family and I with our first purchase. Let me know your thoughts! 

[Steven Griffith]

Hi @Dylon May

I'm over in Chapel Hill - nice to meet another NC investor!

There been some great information shared on this post. Can you clarify - is there a reason you're looking at seller financing, or that's just what they've offered? Since your a newer investor, and unless you have a specific reason why you want to go the Seller financing route, I'd strongly encourage you to go the 'traditional' route through a bank for financing. That will also be a good learning experience for you. Ask your bank/loan officer questions. There are some crazy low rates available right now, and again unless you're in a unique, and unusual, situation where Seller financing makes sense (i.e you have 10 other mortgages, banks have turned you down, you can't make the down payment on a bank loan, etc), I don't think you want to mess with it for your first deal. Just my 2 cents. If you do decide to go the traditional bank route, let me know and I can share a few banks with high -to-mid 2's on 30yr fixed loans.

Last comment/question - is all your communication with the owner going through the PM? Is the PM a realtor, representing the seller or is this going to be a for sale by owner deal? If the PM is the seller's realtor, then you should get a realtor. You pay nothing - all realtor fees are in the sales price. They can walk you through the ins and outs of your first purchase. If this is a FSBO deal, again I'd encourage a realtor since this is your first home purchase. If you're set on doing it yourself, then BP has all the forms you'll need. Everybody else has already shared how they do comps. A quick way to see if their number is ridiculous is to go to Zillow, zoom in, and look at what Sold, recenty near the house. You could also call up a realtor and say 'hey, I'm trying to buy a house on my own. If i give you $1000.00, can you run some comps for me, and help me get the right forms?'

While I'm usually an advocate of doing things yourself, I'd encourage your first deal to be with pros, just to learn the rules.