I will be moving home a few hours away (Dallas) and I am going to sell the house I live in. The mortgage company will allow me to let someone assume the note.
I have done this on 5 other investment properties that I owned a few years ago that were mortgaged with the same company. It was a painless process in the past, and they actually let some people assume the notes that didnt have perfect credit. This company is actually a servicing company that bought the note from the original lender.
I have entertained the idea of renting the house, but we had fits getting people to pay the rent in the other houses we had. In this area the responsible people dont rent houses they own houses. There are not any good, middle class renters in this area. I have had people destroy the carpet, knock holes in the walls, and tear out the appliances, sinks or doors on more than one occasion. The deposit was NEVER enough to cover the damage, even with me doing the repairs myself. This is not like a large metropolitan area where there are better rental candidates, that is why I finally got rid of all of the houses I had. I used to rent in Dallas with no problems like this.
There is approximately 16K owed on this house. I bought this house for 30k, then made some improvements. I would like to try and get at least some of my investment back if possible. I know that the economy is bad right now and no one interested will have a down payment of more than a few thousand. The house still needs another 15k or 20k in improvements. The tax appraisal is at 47k, but there arent any banks that would loan on the house as is. the comps in the area are at 85k-90k.
I am wanting some ideas on how I could be able to get my investment back. I am not needing the cash to fund my move or the purchase of a new house, but I would OK in accepting payments of some kind. There is only 5 years left on this note, and the payment is right at $300 per month.
If I had to cut my losses and not get anything, it would be OK with that. I have actually paid about half per month of what rent would be in this area.
Seller finance it as a fixer. Can you use a Land Trust in Texas and wrap the loan with your equity? Can you use AITD’s in TX?
I would market the house as a fixer with seller financing. There are buyers who would love your house, but don’t have the cash to both fix the house and put up 20% down, which with a fixer would be a given requirement.
So, if you’re able to offer a buyer time to fix the house piecemeal, and without having to commit to a conventional down payment then you’ve expanded the profit opportunity for yourself.
I’m not sure that seller financing a fixer to a credit challenged buyer would be as wise, or profitable, in this case. You want someone looking for a bargain in financing, not ‘needing’ financing. There’s a difference. However, don’t close the door on the ‘needy.’ Maybe you can make a few thousand more going the latter route.
Do you mean if I sell it to someone with good credit, they get thier own financing after the repairs are made to pay me off? or do I finance the whole term?
Can I finance this house while there is an existing note?
Yes, I would market and sell to someone with good credit (or at least not advertise it to those with bad credit). Then give the buyer plenty of time to do the repairs (you need an agreement of what is going to be done and how long it should take, etc.), and then put a balloon date that they must refi you out of the deal, or perhaps pay you some more money, not necessarily credited to the purchase price in return for extra time.
You want to allow an extension of time, just in case financing gets even tighter than it is today, etc. You’re not setting the buyer up for failure… You want your money back/out. I don’t think you’re considering an exit strategy that includes reselling this house multiple times, with multiple down payments I can safely assume, is it…?
Meantime, you’re going to be hesitant about going more than five years, without some additional consideration, only because the value of what you offer quickly diminishes. And… people get lazy, procrastinate, and just otherwise wait til it’s too late, or …make everything a nail biter.
On the other hand, you don’t want to make this an anal retentive transaction where the buyer feels like he’s got a knife to his back the whole time. Your buyer will get mean if he thinks his back is being put to the wall when it gets time to refi. So, plan on baby-sitting the buyer and holding his hand and leading him along to closing. Plus if you do this correctly you won’t have any last-minute surprises.
In the worst case, you discover that the buyer isn’t prepared/willing to perform and wants out… Fine. You just rinse and repeat. You’ll get more down payment money …and perhaps have the house paid off, so all the income is gravy…
The latter is how we make the bucks nobody else does/can.
I am in Texas and I use land trusts for my owner finance deals. My lawyer charges about $600 to set it up and we close at his office (really looks professional that way instead of across the kitchen table…his secretary even brings in refreshments) I charge the tenant/buyer $3,500 for closing costs and pocket the difference.
This house needs quite a bit of work, and I do not have it paid off yet. Is this still a candidate for a land trust? If so this sounds like a great option for me. I would like to hear more.
Land Trusts are ‘trusts’ with trustees and beneficiaries.
Land Trusts are primarily used to provide personal identity protection, but not for tax protection, etc.
Land Trusts can be the buyer or seller in a given transaction.
Land Contracts are usually installment notes used most often when the seller is NOT going to transfer title to the buyer until the buyer pays off the seller.
Land Contracts are also known as a Contract For Deed, or Agreement For Deed, or in Louisiana, a Bond For Deed. Regardless of the name, the Deed effectively remains in the Seller’s name until the note is paid off.
A Land Contract is illegal in some states and unenforceable in others. Louisiana, Texas, California, and North or South Caroline have some oddball rules about them.