Mechanics of seller financing

[Mariah Jeffery]

I'm about to make an offer on a multiple-property deal with seller financing and I have some questions. I assume if the deal gets accepted, I'll need to get a real estate lawyer but in the mean time, I'm thinking of things I want to include in the terms of my offer. Besides the usual down payment, amortization period, and interest rate, here are some things I've thought of:

- No prepayment penalty
- Seller will report interest as taxable income and issue the appropriate tax forms
- I may try to sneak in no due on sale clause
- Fixed interest rate

What am I missing?

How will I track what's been paid to principle and interest? Is there a software I can buy, or do I simply use Excel's payment functions, and then get the seller to sign off on a statement each year (I know they should be the ones sending me a statement but they're very unsophisticated).

We would probably close on the 44 separate properties in 4 batches of 11 properties. What if I want to sell just 1 out of 11 in a batch?

Thanks!