Can You Resell a Seller Financed Land or Property?

[Bob Asad]

Does anyone have experience with reselling a seller financed land or property? (Is this legal?)

For example, let's say you get a 10 acre vacant land for $100k but have it seller financed, so it's $10k down and $1k/mo for x number of years. Can you then advertise the land to resell to another buyer (cash) for $120k and then pay off the original seller, and pocket the $20k?

Same with a house, can you get seller financing on a $500k house and put $50k down, and pay $2k/mo, but then immediately find a buyer (ex. 1-3 months) and sell it for $550k and pocket the $50k?

Are there any rules, laws, or regulations regarding this? What types of contracts would you need?

And would this be considered "capital gains" since it's re-sold under 1-year therefore having to pay a large % of tax on the profit?

[Matt Devincenzo]

Yes you can, you're just selling like any other sale. Ignore seller finance for a second...

Can you buy a house, put 20% down...yes. Can you then decide to list and sell the house two months later...yes. That is exactly what you are doing. In any contract you don't typically need a clause saying what you CAN do, its assumed you can do anything legally allowed as an owner including sell. The seller would need to include a clause saying what you CAN'T do, which is what a pre-payment penalty would address.