Owner Financed Homes: What You Should Know
If you’re looking to buy a home of your own but don’t have adequate funds for a deposit or meet other criteria for a traditional mortgage, an owner financed home could provide an alternate path to homeownership. If you are paying rent every month, you’re not earning any return on that money – you are helping your landlord build equity in his property. Instead, you should build your own wealth through homeownership. When you own your home, every payment is an investment in a home that you will someday own outright.
The way owner finance homes work is that instead of borrowing from a bank or mortgage finance company, the seller of the home can actually finance all or part of the purchase price. While partial financing is more common – if you lack funds for a deposit, for example – 100% financing may be possible depending on the terms the seller is willing to offer.
If you are seeking your home through real estate advertisements, you may not have seen owner financed home opportunities advertised. This doesn’t mean that they are not there. If an owner has had a property on the market for some time and does not want to reduce the price in order to make a sale, he or she may be willing to consider owner financing. Obviously, they would have to have the financial capacity to do this but you won’t know if you don’t ask.
There are also sites on the Internet that specialize in the owner finance homes market. Do be aware that even though you won’t need to meet the stringent standards of a conventional home loan, you will need to prove your creditworthiness and ability to pay before most sellers will consider owner financing. Also, you can expect your house payments with an owner financed home to be higher than what you would pay with a traditional lender, but if you have the ability to make these payments, owner finance homes can be a means to an end if you can’t get any other kind of financing. After you’ve built a solid payment history, you can always refinance with a traditional lender later on for a lower interest rate.
One of the most important things to do if you are considering buying an owner finance home is to hire an attorney to go over the contract and any other pertinent paperwork. You need to clearly understand what you are agreeing to, and you will want to make sure there aren’t any stiff pre-payment penalties that would prevent you from refinancing down the road. Understanding your rights and obligations is very important before signing a contract.
Owner finance homes provide seller with the opportunity to quickly sell a home at the price they’ve set. But, buyers need to realize that the seller isn’t doing you a special favor. It’s important for buyers to exercise caution in evaluating any type of seller financing. All of the steps you would take for buying a home with a traditional lender, like a building inspection report and professional survey, should be undertaken.
In some cases, overeager buyers are quick to jump the gun and enter into an owner finance contract without really thinking it through. Make sure you’re not buying someone else’s problem home or being taken advantage of with a predatory lending contract. Doing your due diligence is important – resist the temptation to jump in with both feet without good research and planning.
Owner financed homes can provide a way to home ownership when obtaining traditional financing is not possible. If you go into an owner financed home with a long range plan, you can use owner financing to get into a home, and then obtain a traditional mortgage later on with better terms when your circumstances allow.