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seller financing

Prospective Buyer: “I Want Something 25% Below Market, That I Can Fix Up and Flip for Double, That the Seller Will Finance. Oh, and Do You Know Any Contractors??”

“Good Luck With That” Department I fielded a call the other week from a prospective Buyer who must have just skimmed “How to Make Millions in Real Estate” (or some such title) at Barnes & Noble. I doubt that such an approach ever worked, but it’s a guaranteed loser — and a time sink — in a...
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Sign of the (Housing) Times

Too-Good-to-be-True Real Estate Come-On’s Combine an (over)heated housing market, scarce inventory (at least at the lower price rungs), and a shaky economy in which lots of consumers have still-battered credit, and what do you get? Home-made signs (like the one to the right) on telephone poles promising would-be home Buyers their pick of hundreds of...
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“Umm . . .That-Might-Be-Tough-to-Find” Dept.

Unrealistic Buyers, Exhibit A; or “The Contract for Deed Catch-22” I fielded a Web lead the other day from a very nice gentleman looking for a larger (over 2,000 FSF) town home near the lakes in move-in condition. For under $250k. Where the town home association rules allow an 80 pound dog (he had one)....
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Betting on the Wrong . . . uh, Horse

Why Aren’t Contracts for Deed More Popular? With interest rates in the toilet and the stock market having already almost doubled from its 2009 low, you’d think that there’d be more takers for contracts for deed. An alternative to bank-financed mortgages, they allow Buyers with tarnished (or too-brief) credit histories to buy, and Sellers to sell...
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"Seller Financing" Terms

More Seller Financing — & More Flexible Terms Sellers Terms: Cash, Contract for Deed, Contract/Deed w/Assumption, Conventional, DVA, FHA –MLS listing I’m seeing lots more listings like the one above. If you don’t speak “Realtor,” here’s a quick glossary: Contract for deed: Buyer makes monthly payments to the Seller, who retains title; title transfers when...
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Distressed Markets Show Improvement

What Goes Down . . . Must Come Up? When buying is cheaper than renting, markets begin to turn. At the current rate of sales, there is less than three months of inventory in the Sacramento market. In normal times, that would indicate a seller’s market. Except these are not normal times. The unemployment rate...
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