Seller Financing For a House?

Question

I am looking to buy a house within the next few months and am looking into seller financing as an option.  If I were to go this route would/should I get a home inspection done?  Are inspections typically done if using seller financing?  Thanks in advance.

Michael Temple · Answer

@Zachary Harrison There are no hard rules regarding this. Seller financing is just using terms to make a deal work and there are a variety of ways of structuring a deal. You could use lease/option, master lease, options, interest, no interest, etc. As to your specific question, there is no reason you couldn't do an inspection if you wanted.

I have found sometimes by waiving a lot of this stuff sellers become more open to my terms because they don't have to deal with you using the inspection results to beat down their price. The reason most people sell to investors on seller financing as opposed to just listing it and getting all cash is that they will take on problems that the seller doesn't want to deal with that would likely be required if they were going to list it.

You need to remember that investors use seller financing and other strategies to solve real estate problems. If we can't provide that service then most sellers don't have a lot of incentive to work with us, at least in my experience that is the case.

Dan Guenther · Answer

I'd recommend getting an inspection done regardless of the terms of your offer. Even if you structure the deal without contingencies/inspection objections, you should have the option of getting an inspection done.