Maine sellers carry financing on camps, woodlots, farmhouses and in-town homes. If you hold one of those notes, we take it to several buyers and show you how each offer was priced.
How a Maine note holder ends up with less than the note supports.
The same worksheet comes with every offer.
| Remaining balance | $129,400 |
|---|---|
| Payments left | 168 |
| Buyer’s target yield | 8.0% |
| Purchase price | $115,000 |
| Discount from balance | 11.1% |
| Our fee | shown on every offer |
| Sell the whole note | Sell 60 payments | Keep it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash today | $115,000 | $56,200 | $0 |
| Payments still coming to you | None | 108 payments of $1,140 | 168 payments of $1,140 |
| Total you receive | $115,000 | $179,320 | $191,520 |
| What you give up | Every future payment | The next five years | A lump sum now |
Illustrative example. Totals add up the payments as scheduled; they assume the payer keeps paying and are not adjusted for the value of money over time.
The promissory noteThe mortgage or deed of trustA payment historyThe closing statement from the saleA good deal of Maine real estate is awkward for a bank to lend on: seasonal camps on lakes and ponds, woodlots, old farmhouses with acreage, coastal and island lots, homes at the end of a private road. When the bank declines, the seller sometimes carries the financing, and a private note is the result.
Year-round houses in Portland, Lewiston and Auburn, Bangor and Augusta produce notes as well. The holder may be a retiree who sold the family place and now collects a monthly payment from another state. That is no obstacle to a sale, since what a buyer cares about is where the property is. It works the other way too: if you live in Maine and the property is in New Hampshire or Florida, use the page for the state where the property sits.
You hold two documents. The promissory note is the borrower’s promise to pay you, and the security instrument ties that promise to the property. In Maine the security instrument is generally a mortgage, recorded at the registry of deeds for the county where the property sits.
Foreclosure in Maine commonly goes through the courts. This is judicial foreclosure: the note holder files a case and a judge decides it. Some Maine sales were written as an installment contract instead, with the seller holding the deed until the price is paid, and those follow their own rules. A Maine attorney or title company can tell you which you have and what currently applies to it, so treat this page as background.
A buyer works out what your remaining payments are worth today, given the return they want on the purchase. More risk or cost means they want a higher return, and that means a lower price and a wider gap between it and your balance.
The court process is part of it. A buyer assumes that recovering the property would mean a lawsuit, and prices in the legal cost and the wait.
Value is the harder question. A camp or a woodlot may have few recent sales nearby to compare it with, so a buyer takes a cautious view of what it is worth, and that shrinks the equity they count. Equity here means what the camp or lot is worth, less the balance still owed on it, and buyers measure the cushion it gives them as investment to value, their price set against the property’s worth. How cautious a view they take depends on the property, which is why we ask for the address and a description when you tell us about your Maine note.
A long record of on-time payments offsets a good deal of this, and so does a solid down payment at the original sale. Both count for even more when you are selling a vacant land note on a woodlot with no building on it.
You can save time by having the answers ready.
A year-round house on a town road suits more buyers than a summer camp does, so these answers decide who will bid. Where you do not know one, the town office or the payer can generally tell you. Write the answers down and keep them with the note, the recorded mortgage and your payment record, so that every buyer is pricing the same facts.
Yes, though fewer buyers bid on seasonal property than on a year-round house. They will ask about road access, water and septic, and whether the camp sits on owned or leased land. A steady payment record helps a great deal.
Mortgages are generally the security instrument used in Maine. Foreclosure commonly goes through the courts. Your own documents decide what applies to you, so have a Maine attorney or title company look at them if you are unsure.
Yes. Where you live does not matter to a buyer. What matters is where the property is, because Maine rules apply to the mortgage. The sale can generally be handled by mail and courier with a title or escrow company.
Their terms stay the same: the rate, the payment and the remaining balance do not change. They are told in writing where to send payments after closing. Nothing else about their loan is altered by your sale.