How to promote Owner Financing on a MLS listing

Question

Does HAR(mls ) or TREC have any  rules not to promote Owner financing on an active on market listing. I have a property listed on Har(Texas) and i want to promote Owner financing  on the Property discription so buyers can see it.My realtor says she cannot put Owner fiancing available under the property discription section because of MLS rules.Strange.Never heard it before.

Matt Devincenzo · Answer

I'm not familiar with those MLSs specifically, but in the 'financing' section of the listing you should have terms available for owner financing...no?

Bruce Lynn · Answer

This response surprises me.  There may be local MLS rules against interest rates because that doesn't always tell the whole story, but just putting in owner finance I would think is acceptable.   I would also have her flag in in the financing options.   Typically there are about 10 choices like Cash, VA, FHA, Conventional, DPA, etc and one of those flags is owner financing in our MLS which could be different than HAR.  HAR is pretty advanced so I would think they would have that too.   The general public may not be able to search on that flag or even see it, however agents with searchs including that flag would see it and also be able to set up that search for their clients.

I myself have that search set up to alert me to any listings that are flagged owner finance as I have some buyers who want to pursue that.

Also as Account Closed mentioned, I would probably have the agent put it in every free form field like Public Remarks, Agent Remarks, Private Remarks.   I also have searches set up to alert me to listings with those key words.

I see very very few of these in any of my searches, but it can certainly help you if that's what you are looking for.  Do you have RMLO and loan servicer set up already to assist you with this.  You do NOT want to do it yourself in most cases.

Just be aware also that if you put it in public remarks, you may get a flood of phone calls that you really don't want.  People who want you to finance because they could never get bank financing for all kinds of reasons.

Eliott Elias · Answer

Owner finance is 100% a financing option that can be put on the MLS. All the property I put on the market owner finance have it advertised in the listing description.

Jeyo Punnakottil · Answer

@Jon Minerick Thanks for the update.I always thought it was possible to update it under property description.But i was wrong.

Jonathan Minerick · Answer

@Jeyo Punnakottil You can verify what they said by looking at the HAR MLS rules. Paragraph 1.2 (b):

Physical Property Description - Public

The Physical Property Description - Public field is intended to describe the physical attributes of the listed property only. Remarks related to the transaction such as available financing, cash back at closing, bonuses, upgrade incentives, upgrade allowances, repair and decorating allowances, etc. shall not be entered in the Physical Property Description - Public field.

Confidential information such as showing instructions or security codes and contact information such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, web site addresses, service provider information, the words FSBO or For Sale by Owner shall not be entered in the Physical Property Description - Public field.

Account Closed · Answer

That would be unusual. She may be confusing it with selling on lease option. If you own the property free & clear, it is yours to do with as you wish. If you have financing on it, the financing should be paid off, but doesn't have to be. Your agent is wondering how they would get paid.However, I bought a property in Kyle TX using Subject To (I took over the existing loan, did not pay it off) and sold the property using TREC on a financing addendum, I believe the attorney used a land contract. When the buyer refinanced a couple of years later, everybody got paid off in escrow.

Account Closed · Answer

Not sure if their are rules prohibiting this as you stated, but you could potentially put it in Agent to Agent remarks so agents can propose it to their buyers. Just a thought, never heard of such rules.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Jeyo Punnakottil

When we offer owner financing we say it in description Owner Financing / Seller Financing available.

How to promote Owner Financing on a MLS listing

Most Popular Reply