Seller Financing Bypasses Bank Rules

Having trouble qualifying for a home loan with your bank or local lender? Getting frustrated with tight underwriting rules? If so, seller financing might be for you.

Seller financing is when the seller allows you to make payments directly to them, bypassing the bank and Fannie Mae. If the seller does not need all their cash immediately, they might be happy to let you make payments and collect the interest for themselves.

Here is how a typical seller-financed loan works:

1) Most sellers will carry the contract for five years. After that, they want to be cashed out. Thus, the loan is amortized for 30 years with a 5-year balloon payment. This gives you the lower payment a 30-year loan would have, but at the five-year mark (or sooner), you would refinance with a bank loan. This gives you plenty of time to get your credit and debt ratio in…