First time home buyer Seller financing/subject to

[Bridgette Ray]

LONG POST!
I am a first time home buyer and I found a house FSBO on facebook marketplace. I haven't gone to see it in person. My husband did do a drive by and the house looks nice. This is what the posting on Facebook reads:

4 Beds 2 Baths - House

$335,000

New Braunfels, TX

2 Car Garage attached

Game room / possible 5th Bedroom. 5 ton AC installed 17 months ago …Low taxes due to being in County . No HOA. Super Quite neighborhood. 10 Min drive to downtown New Braunfels. …

Price reflects total proceeds. I will not pay anything … will not pay closing. Will not pay for any possible repairs. Want those things in the deal. Adjust the price to cover them. … I am asking for my payoff. The price is super fair. Upstairs could use new carpet/ flooring… I have not replace so the price would be lower.

Selling due to job transfer. I bought it 2 years ago for 360k

Houses in the neighborhood go for more.

The house was built in 1992 it is 2142 sqft … restrooms are dated . Flooring is dated.

The house has been inspected several times by professional inspectors and comes back great everytime.

I have lots of questions and would appreciate any advice. My goal with a home is to Airbnb. New braunfels is a great location and I have done research about STR in the area and how the city is not STR friendly. However, this property is outside city limits and registered in a different county so I think I would be covered there.

When I researched this property, the seller bought it in 2023 and listed it for sale in the fall of 2024 then took it off the market in Dec 2024. I thought that was questionable and the neighborhood definitely has houses for 60k more. (Don’t judge me) I totally facebook stalked him, and did find that he legitimately moved for a job transfer to corpus. And in August of 2023 his neighbors house caught fire and the neighbor died. My husband drove past and the neighbors house is still in ruins. It looks like no one has touched the property. I wonder if this is why he struggled to sell his house and would this be a terrible buy if my neighbor is a burned down house?

I think the price is a great deal, I do however have concerns about him being so strict on not paying anything. He was very adamant in messenger that he would not pay anything and I would have to cover all closings and commission. Obviously that's not great for me as a first time home buyer, but I thought about something of the podcasts I heard about seller financing and subject 2. Subject 2 is confusing to me and sounds risky as a FTHB. I asked for his contact so my realtor could reach out and he was totally fine with that and told me he'd give me the code to go see the house tomorrow. I'm not in a rush to see it and I want to make sure this is safe and not a scam. I did look on the CAD, and he is the owner on the deed.

Why I like the idea of seller financing:

I can negotiate a lower interest rate than what’s going on now, I could maybe convince him to lower costs or wiggle a little.

Questions:

• 1. He said “I posted my house for my payoff” I don’t really understand what that means. Could someone explain?
• 2. If a seller agrees to Seller financing would they be able to go and buy a home like if you did a normal sell of home the conventional way?
• 3. Is it a bad idea to buy this house with a burnt up house that hasn’t been touched in 2 years next to it? The neighborhood is nice, and a sharing living in the neighborhood asked my husband to leave (he was nice) and said it’s a quiet and nice neighborhood with older retired people.
• 4. Should you seller finance as a first time homebuyer? If you do, in two years if I wanted to move and sale my home, is that possible?
• 5.With seller financing could I keep the house and rent it and pull equity out like a normal conventional loan home?

Would love any input or advice! I definitely want to talk to my realtor about it and the seller but I want to be prepared and have a good strategy going in before wasting both of our time