Owner financing: interest due on sale!

Owner financing: interest due on sale!

Rental Property Investor · Winona MN · Member since 2019 · 80 posts · 42 votes

Help-- should I do this? I just negotiated an owner financing deal that I am happy with. I like the down payment and the monthly payment. The property is distressed, and I will be getting it for a good price. He wants to amortize it 50/50 interest and principal for the life of the loan (30 years), I'm not sure exactly why, but tax reasons.

The potential problem is that he will only do it if, when sold, we owe him the entire amount WITH interest. So if we had to sell it in the first few years, it might be hard to break even.  I don't plan to sell, but this makes me a little bit uncomfortable. Other than  that, the deal is a very good deal. Should I do it? 


Details:

4 plex-- income $3000/mo, Purchase price 140K, 40K down at 6ish% interest, amortized over 30 years (so no more than $700/mo payment) 

(Expenses: tax $225/mo 

Insurance: $150/mo

sewer: $200/mo

lawn/snow: $50/mo

capex/repair/vacancy: $700/mo

(So almost 1000/mo cash flow)

But, if sold, the total amount owed with interest (initially 197K after down payment) would be due. 

I would have to put in at least 30-40K to correct deferred maintenance, but ARV should be 250K-300K.

Am I missing anything? This is a good deal, right? 

2Reply
106 views

Most Popular Reply

Joe VilleneuvePro Member
Plymouth, MI · Member since 2013 · 13k+ posts · 19k+ votes
3y

I wouldn't do it.  This is basically a simple interest loan with a prepayment penalty.  One of the best aspects of a seller finance loan is the ability to sell the property, and keep the note intact.

See this reply in the discussion

29 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Rental Property Investor · Winona MN · Member since 2019 · 80 posts · 42 votes
    3y

    Additional research: The closest thing to this proposal that I've found is something in commercial loans called "yield maintenance."  And, although it looks like this deal isn't going to work for me, one thing for others to note is that loans with yield maintenance are often assumable, which would mean that you do have a way out without actually having to pay all of that interest. 

  • Member since 2019 · 223 posts · 261 votes
    3y

    The prepayment penalty is insane and possibly illegal. Plans change sometimes good sometimes not so good, who knows you might want to sell in 5 years. What happens if there's a fire, you get hit by a bus, a developer makes you an great offer, this seller would make 10's of thousands of dollars on interest he didn't earn. 

    I would love to see the details of this loan because I'm an accountant and can't wrap my head around how this amortized.

  • Investor · Provo, UT · Member since 2016 · 759 posts · 626 votes
    3y

    It sounds to me like he is trying to avoid a large tax liability and/or wants the monthly payments. 

    What if at the sale it turned into an unsecured note or a second position lien?

    My goal when doing seller financing is to figure out what they want in the deal and change everything besides that into my favor.

  • Rental Property Investor · Winona MN · Member since 2019 · 80 posts · 42 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Logan M.:

    It sounds to me like he is trying to avoid a large tax liability and/or wants the monthly payments. 

    What if at the sale it turned into an unsecured note or a second position lien?

    My goal when doing seller financing is to figure out what they want in the deal and change everything besides that into my favor.

    I just talked to him again, and he said that what he wants is 300K, guaranteed. So I'm officially calling this a dead deal.  On the one hand, I hate knowing that all of those hours of research and deliberation didn't yield any concrete results, but on the other hand, boy did I learn a lot. There's just no way to artificially manufacture that feeling of being under the gun, and how much you can learn in a short time when you're under pressure. 
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.