Learn seller financing
Twenty questions a real-estate investor actually asks, not twenty features to tour. Every lesson carries a reading time, links straight to the calculator that does the math, and — where it matters — spells out the legal and tax rules a beginner is most likely to get hurt by. Free, no account, no gate.
Module 0: Can this deal even happen?
Before you learn how to structure a note, learn whether this seller can legally offer you one — and whether you should ask.
Who can actually sell you their house on terms?
Equity is the precondition everything else depends on. Check it first and you'll rule out most leads before you waste anyone's time — yours or theirs.
The three rules that decide if your offer is legal
Dodd-Frank/SAFE, owner-occupied status, and outreach consent — answer 'may I' before you get anywhere near 'how much.'
What a note actually is
A calculator's amortization schedule is not a legal instrument. Know the difference before you hand someone a PDF and call it a contract.
Which of these three rules can actually blow up your deal — and which one doesn't apply here?
Dodd-Frank/SAFE, due-on-sale, and AFR show up across this whole course in pieces. This is the one page that puts all three side by side, with the part each one leaves out.
Module 1: Structuring the note
Price, rate, term, and down payment are a trade space, not four independent fields — and every exit has a legal shape.
Price, rate, term, and down payment: the four dials, and what each one costs the other side
These aren't four independent fields on a form. They're a single trade space — move one and you've quietly moved what the other side is actually getting.
Giving the seller an exit: balloons, step-ups, and the day it comes due
A balloon payment isn't a feature you toggle on — it's a hard deadline with real legal exposure on residential deals, and a real failure mode if the buyer can't hit it.
Buying over a loan that stays in place
Wraps, all-inclusive trust deeds, and subject-to purchases all share one fact underneath the math: the existing lender's due-on-sale right never goes away.
Module 2: What the terms are worth
A below-market rate is a real dollar figure, not a feeling — and the tax side of the trade matters as much as the price side.
Turning a cheap rate into a dollar figure
A below-market rate feels good. This lesson makes it a number — and names the point where the math stops mattering because an appraisal won't support the price.
Why the same deal can win for both of you
The seller's tax picture is a second, separate reason terms can beat cash — with its own rules, its own disqualifiers, and its own AFR trap.
Module 3: Will it actually make money
The household math — rent vs. buy, and what a sale really nets you — deserves the same rigor as the investor math.
Is renting or buying cheaper, for how long you'll actually stay?
The mortgage-payment-vs-rent-check comparison almost everyone runs in their head is missing three real costs and one opportunity cost.
What it actually costs to sell, and what you'll owe on the way out
Two separate bills show up at closing: the cost of selling, and — if it was ever a rental — the tax on the gain, including the recapture piece that survives every exclusion.
Module 4: Finding the seller who says yes
A distress record only says something happened. Reading it right, and checking it before you commit, decides whether the deal in front of you is real.
Which distress signals actually lead to a seller-financed deal?
A notice of default, a tax delinquency, and a probate filing all mean 'something happened' — not the same something, and not the same likely structure.
The seller says they owe $118,000 on the mortgage — how do you check that?
Everything a seller tells you on the first call is testimony, not evidence. Four things need a document behind them before you build an offer on top of the number.
Module 5: After the ink dries
The note is signed. This module covers the two things that happen next: what happens if your buyer stops paying, and what your note is worth if you ever need to sell it.
Your buyer missed a payment. Is that a default, or not yet?
A late payment, a default, and a foreclosure are three different stages with three different clocks — and the clock varies by state more than almost anyone expects.
You're holding a note and need cash — can you actually sell it?
A note is a transferable asset, but it sells for less than its remaining balance — and knowing why tells you what to fix before you list it.