Seller financing how to bring it up and experiences

[Christopher Juntura]

I've done 2 deals in my real estate career and both have been seller financing.

Both deals were done with my aunt whose 79 and just wants out. She had non paying tenants on 2 single family houses and it was costing her. I had been managing a 6 unit rental for my parents so I was familiar with the eviction process and decided to help my aunt. I filed the notice to quit and then the FED and after some conversations with her what she wanted to do with the properties, she wanted to sell and not worry about it, so I approached her with obtaining the properties and paying her a monthly payment for them for 30 years and I'd cover all the costs to close and eviction of her tenants.

This was fairly easy cause I was talking directly to the owner understanding their wants and needs and came to a win win scenario. 

fast forward to recent experiences.

I've been using an agent, found properties I liked and wanted to approach the seller with terms / seller financing. 

Not the easiest thing for many reasons.

My agent had no experience with this type of financing so approaching the other party was difficult and all 10 properties I had asked to do any seller financing was shot down.

I had asked to see what the conversation looked like and it wasn't the best, to sum it up they looked like...

My agent: my client is interested in the property and is wondering if the seller was interested in seller financing. 

Seller Agent: Doesn't seem likely I'll ask though.

outcome: No.

So all 10 times this was how my agent approached the other party about seller financing and I'm not blaming them but I can't expect anyone to be convinced with this approach.

At this point I had a sit down with my agent and explained to them that their approach isn't likely to work because it didn't make things inciting for the seller.

They discussed that they were always told not to mention price and to be vague.

I had asked them if they were willing to give a change of strategy, I would be willing to work with them on some deals.

One of the things we talked about were operating under a win win outcome. The selling party would get a price where made them happy and we would secure the property. The price would be the hook where it would get the seller's attention.

One of the practice sessions we had involved how to bring about seller financing. Since we would be working with agents keeping things simple so the message wouldn't be lost in relaying messages from the buying party to the selling party.

my agent: I've got an interested client whose willing to meet you at your asking price, they would like to discuss the property further either over the phone or in person.

Just this simple change got us to another conversation.

How the one following conversations looked like.

@ The property in person meet up.

Me: Really like the property, tell me more about how you got it, and why you are selling?

Seller: I bought it a while ago looking to retire, do more fishing and relax.

Me: Sounds like your looking for mailbox money while you enjoy your life by doing things that interest you more. Sound about right? 

Seller: Exactly, I spent most my life working...(I'll save you from the whole background story, but they're just shifting their focus).

Me: I see where you're coming from, thats what most people want but don't always get the opportunity to do. I want to help you have that kind of freedom and I think that if your willing to work with me, I can meet you at your asking price. 

This scenario is much better than before where we weren't having future conversations. 

This deal is still being discussed but its leading to creative financing to some form.

Id love to hear about your experiences with approaching seller financing, working with agents or sellers. Also any helpful advice to bringing up seller financing, closing the deal or getting to the next level of the conversation could help me or anyone interested is always welcomed.

Thanks in advance!