All Forum Posts by: Kathryn Bowden

We have agreed to owner finance our primary home for a short term balloon loan.  30 year amortized, and then a balloon at about 16 or 18 months, still working on the details.  They do qualify for financing now, but for various reasons we decided to do this (I won't bother going into why since that's not the point of my question).  My question is what tends to be a standard range  to charge on interest above prime or what a bank would give them, for providing the owner financing.  Like one (1)% above prime?  More?  Yes, I know it is whatever we want or agree upon.  I'm trying to know what tends to be a standard and is considered fair for both parties.  Thanks in advance.

@Russell Brazil, also I assume if a seller were to owner finance, this should have no bearing - as long as the property was closed or the binding contract is before 1/1/2018.

@Jon Holdman and @Russell Brazil.  Wow, that is a bummer.  Well, not the end of the world in this case.  :-|

@Matt K., honest to God, Matt, I am 100% positive about this.  Definitely not the county appraisers.  Anybody buying or selling a home here in this county, will have to wait to a point that realtors are not comfortable setting the escrow for less than 60 days generally.  Everybody gets everything done, then sits and waits for weeks for their appraisal.  That is just standard fare here.

@Matt K., no it actually is a local problem here.  This is a well known sad fact that we have only about three appraisers for the whole county and there is always a long waiting list.  Most realtors here always set closing for 60 days.  It's something everybody complains about.  :-(  Our buyers are apparently now working on setting up an expedited appraisal at their expense.  I just got off the phone with my realtor.  The question is only what does "expedited" actually mean.  We should supposedly have a date shortly (I hope). 

@Russell Brazil, well it is a flip, but my understanding is it's taxed at a capital gains rate when you've owned it over a year, vs. at an earned income rate for under a year.  At least I hope I had that right.

Wow, super helpful.  Thanks @Russell Brazil.  I will stay up into the wee hours to read the whole thing. :-)  One other question - so it sounds like for my other property that I originally posted here about and we've owned for over one year, there should be no tax change to be concerned with, at least in terms of whether we sold it say 12/31/2017 vs. 1/2/2018.  Would you say that's correct?

@Michaela G., yes, unfortunately a waiting list.  Nobody seems to understand why they have about three appraisers for our county.  But it's just the way it is.  And thanks for bringing up that new tax rule, because it applies to our primary residence that we are also under contract with.  You can't imagine the relief to hear that it sounds like there's an exemption in our case.  Boy, sure hope so.

@Russell Brazil, you may have just made my day.  Actually, no this is not a primary residence, so it would not apply in this case.  However, simultaneously we are selling our primary residence that we have been in for 4.5 years.  We are under contract, but we are not closing until late January.  Do you have a link for that exemption by chance?    Thanks again.

@Gordon Cuffe, yes those were my thoughts exactly.  Thanks.