New Hampshire notes are often held by long-time owners who financed the sale of a house, a lake camp or a wooded lot. We bring competing offers and explain each number in plain terms.
Why a holder here hears a lower number than the note deserves.
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 saleNew Hampshire notes are often held by long-time owners who financed one sale, not by professional investors. In the southern tier, around Manchester, Nashua, Salem and Derry, the note is on a single-family house or one of the older multi-family buildings near the mills. On the Seacoast, around Portsmouth, Dover and Hampton, it may be on a house that was sold to a tenant or a family member.
North of Concord the collateral changes. Around Lake Winnipesaukee and the smaller lakes, sellers have carried paper on camps and cottages that a bank would not lend on because they were seasonal. In the White Mountains and Coos County, notes are on cabins, wooded lots and land sold by the acre.
On a New Hampshire note the property can decide more of the price than the legal paperwork does. A buyer will ask whether the home can be lived in all year, whether the road is public or private and who plows it, and whether the septic system and well are documented. Put those answers in when you send us the note for pricing, since they decide which buyers are worth asking. A three-season camp on a private road is weaker collateral than a year-round house in Bedford, even at the same balance, because fewer people could buy it if it had to be resold, and the type and condition of the property feed straight into an offer.
Weaker collateral means a buyer wants a higher return on what they pay you, and that widens the gap between the balance owed and the price paid. Small rural notes also draw fewer bids, since a buyer’s cost of checking a file is much the same whatever the balance. Both are reasons to ask several buyers and to look at a partial sale, where you sell a set number of payments and keep the rest. The partial purchase guide explains how that works and which notes suit it.
New Hampshire commonly uses a mortgage, a document that gives the lender a lien, or legal claim, on the property. Mortgages here commonly include a clause called a power of sale, which generally lets the holder foreclose by public auction after notice, without first filing a lawsuit. That route is called non-judicial foreclosure, and buyers count a clear route to the property in a note’s favor. A mortgage without the clause generally has to go through court. The clause and the route it opens are a matter of each state’s law, so for property over the line in Maine, Vermont or Massachusetts, start from the page for that state.
Your mortgage should be recorded at the registry of deeds for the county where the property sits. Get a copy and look for the power of sale wording. If you are unsure what the clause allows today, a New Hampshire attorney or title company can tell you, and theirs is the answer to rely on. Keep the mortgage with the note and whatever record you have of payments received. If the property is a camp or cottage, add a line on which months it can be used and how it is reached in winter.
Yes, if a buyer is satisfied with the property. They will ask whether it can be used all year, how it is reached in winter, and whether the septic system and well are documented. Those answers can affect the price more than the note's terms do.
It is a clause that generally lets the mortgage holder foreclose by public auction after notice, without first filing a lawsuit. It is commonly included in New Hampshire mortgages. Check your own document and ask a local attorney how it applies.
At the registry of deeds for the county where the property sits. A buyer's title search will look there for your mortgage and for anything recorded ahead of it. If your mortgage was never recorded, tell us at the start so it can be dealt with before closing.
You are not required to use one to ask for a quote. Having an attorney read the purchase agreement before you sign is sensible, and the cost is yours. We are not attorneys and do not give legal advice.