In Oregon, seller-financed deals are written as trust deeds, mortgages and land sale contracts. Tell us which one you hold and we will bring back competing offers, each with its pricing worksheet.
Oregon-specific reasons an offer comes in lower than it should.
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 seller-financed sale in Oregon can be papered in more than one way, and the answer decides who will bid on it. The security is commonly a deed of trust, called a trust deed there: a recorded document in which a neutral trustee holds a form of title until the debt is paid. Some deals use a mortgage. Older ones are often land sale contracts, where the seller keeps legal title until the last payment is made. All of them can be sold, though a land contract goes to a different set of buyers than a trust deed does.
The heading on your recorded copy tells you which one you have. If you cannot find it, the county recording office or a title company can pull it. For property across the Columbia in Washington, or anywhere else outside Oregon, the usual document may differ, so start from the page for that state.
If the payer defaults, a trust deed can generally be foreclosed outside the courts through a trustee’s sale, which is called non-judicial foreclosure. A court foreclosure is also available, and it is the usual route when the security is a mortgage. Land sale contracts follow their own rules. Which path applies to you turns on the wording of your document, and the rules are revised from time to time, so ask an Oregon attorney or title company before you count on one.
West of the Cascades, the notes come from houses and rentals in the Portland area, Salem, Eugene and Medford, and from small farms in the Willamette Valley, that an owner sold and financed personally. East of the mountains and along the coast they are more often on land: ranch parcels, timber tracts, and recreational lots around Bend and the high desert.
Every offer starts from the return a buyer wants on their money. The less they pay for your remaining payments, the higher that return, which is why an offer comes in below what the payer still owes.
Being able to recover a property without a lawsuit generally lowers a buyer’s expected cost after a default, which helps a little. The document you hold has more effect, because a buyer who is comfortable with deed of trust notes may not bid on a contract at all. A contract shown only to trust deed buyers collects refusals that say nothing about what it is worth, so when you ask us for a price, name the document in your first line.
Rural notes face one more Oregon question. The state’s land use rules restrict building outside city growth boundaries, so a buyer will ask if the parcel can legally have a home on it. The answer sets what the land would sell for if they ever had to take it back. County planning staff can tell you how a parcel is zoned.
With those three written down, the first conversation with any buyer is short, and their questions will tell you quickly if they buy your kind of document.
Yes. A land sale contract can be sold in full or in part, though fewer buyers take them than take trust deeds. Tell us it is a contract at the start so it goes to buyers who price them.
Read the title at the top of the recorded document. It will say trust deed, deed of trust, mortgage or contract. If you cannot find your copy, the county recording office or a title company can pull it.
It can, for rural land. A buyer looks at what the property would sell for if they had to take it back, and that depends on what can be built there. For a house inside a city, zoning is rarely a pricing issue.
It depends on the note. A partial sale means selling a set number of upcoming payments for a lump sum, after which the note returns to you. The payer's record, the property and the kind of document all bear on it, so ask for a partial to be priced beside the full sale.