A price can come back soon after a buyer has your note details. The money takes longer, because a buyer will not fund until the title, the property value and your documents have been checked. Nobody can honestly quote you a fixed number of days, and the readiness of your paperwork is the part of the timing you can change.
Where the time goes
- Quote. A buyer prices the note from the facts you give: balance, rate, payment, payer record, property. This is the quick part.
- Agreement. You choose an offer and sign a purchase agreement, which takes as long as you take to decide.
- Due diligence. The buyer verifies what you told them. They order a title report, get a view of the property’s value, review the note and the recorded mortgage or deed of trust, and confirm the payment history. Much of this is waiting on third parties.
- Closing. You sign the assignment that transfers the note, hand over the originals, and the funds are sent.
Our guide to how long it takes to sell a note walks through each stage and what holds it up.
What you control
A title company works at its own pace. Your part is to make sure nothing is waiting on you, which means having the main documents you need to sell a note ready before you ask for a quote:
- the original note, since a sale stalls while a missing original is traced or replaced
- the recorded mortgage, deed of trust or land contract, plus the closing statement from when you sold the property
- the payment history, as bank statements or a servicer’s ledger showing each payment and its date
- proof of a current insurance policy on the property and evidence that the property taxes are paid
What you do not control
Some things slow a sale whatever you do. A title problem, such as an old lien nobody released, has to be cleared. A property that is hard to value takes longer to assess. A note held by an estate, a trust or two owners needs more signatures, and a payer who is behind makes buyers look harder. If any of these apply, say so at the start, because a buyer who finds them halfway through will stop to re-price.
What hurrying costs you
Being short of time is the weakest position to sell from, and a buyer who senses it has less reason to improve the price. A rushed seller is tempted to take the first offer because comparing feels like a delay, and to accept a price cut late in the process because starting again with another buyer would take too long.
Comparing does not have to add days, since several buyers can price the same facts in parallel. That is why we send a note to competing buyers at the same time instead of one after another.
If you need a set amount, sell less
If the need is a specific sum, you may not have to sell the whole note. In a partial sale you sell a set number of upcoming payments for a lump sum, and the rest of the note returns to you once the buyer has collected them. The fewer payments you sell, the smaller the lump sum and the more of the note you keep.
A partial goes through the same checks as a full sale, so it saves you part of the note and no time. It also needs a note with enough payments left to divide, and the sum you need decides how many of them go, which is the calculation behind using a partial to cover a specific cash need.
When a note sale is the wrong tool
If the bill is due this week, a note sale may not get there in time, and it is better to hear that now. Ask whoever you owe for more time and tell them a sale is under way, since a written offer from a note buyer may be enough to win an extension. A medical or family emergency raises the same problem and has its own page, and the other reasons for selling are gathered under when selling a note makes sense.
Tell the buyer your date
Put the documents in one folder, then send us the note details with two extra facts: the amount you need and the date you need it by. A buyer who knows the date can tell you at the outset whether their checks will fit inside it, and that answer is worth having before you sign anything.
Related questions
What slows a note sale down the most?
A missing original note, an unclear payment history or a title problem will each hold a sale until it is resolved. All three can be checked before you ask for a quote. Fixing them first saves more time than anything a buyer can do.
Does a partial sale close faster than a full sale?
No. A buyer runs the same checks on title, value and documents whether they buy every payment or a few years of them. The benefit of a partial is that you give up less of the note.
Can I get an advance before the sale closes?
Buyers generally fund at closing, once their checks are complete. Be cautious with anyone who offers money up front in exchange for a signature today. Read the terms and compare them with a second offer.