Seller Financing Terms

[Brandon Bass]

I think this falls under private lending but let me know if this shouldn't be posted here.

I have one of my rental properties listed for sale. I received an offer to sell it for full price with seller financing. I can see the benefits of seller financing but I've never done one of these so I'm proceeding with caution.

Here are the terms of their offer:

415k Purchase Price (full price), 20% down

Finance the remaining 332k at 8% amortized over 30 yrs with a 3 yr balloon

2 Questions:

1. The buyer intends to occupy the property. This will be my only seller finance transaction. Does Dodd-Frank / SAFE apply or not? Is there any issue with the short ballon?

2. What assurance do I have, if any, that the buyer will adhere to the terms and make the payments? Is loss of his downpayment the only incentive? He won't let me credit check him and I suppose it wouldn't look good if I did. His Realtor says a lot of good things about him for whatever that's worth, and says he's done a few of these as buyer and seller. Sounds like a leap of faith on my part.


Thanks!