Selling a Real Estate Note, Is your Real Estate Note Saleable?
As a Premium real estate note buyer I am often asked by note
sellers if their note is saleable. I can't stress enough to
sellers how important it is to get the right information about
your note and payment history to the potential note buyer. The
potential buyer can only determine whether the note is what they
want to buy if it meets the criteria they are looking for in a
note purchase.
There are, however, a few basics that all or most note buyers
look for. First,the note must be secured by legal means.
Understand, the note iteslf is not legally binding to the payor
unless it has been filed at the county court house.
A mortgage is then created that legally connects the real estate
note to the property. This means that if the Payor (the person
sending you payments on the note) ceases payments the note is
still secured by the real estate. What that means is you could
recieve payments for say, three years, but then the payments
stop coming. You would still own the property and have no
obligation to return payments made to you against the note.
Without this mortgage to secure the real estate note to the
property the note would be worth- less.
Most note buyers are looking for secure places to invest their
money for a long term return on their investment. They need to
know everything they can about the note to decide if it will be
a secure investment for them to make. Most note buyers want at
least an 18% ROI when they purchase a note.
The mathematics required to determine the ROI on a note are
complex and include consideration of the depreciation of money
of a period of time. Quite frankly, a note loses value over the
course of time, and this is a factor the buyer must calculate
into his equasion.
The longer a note lasts the more it's value drops because of
this deprecation of money, called the "Time Value of Money". To
get the maximum amount of cash for your real estate note you
want to sell it as soon as possible after it is created.
look at the equity in your property. A higher equity can make
your note more valuable. Other factors will effect the value
also. It is really hard to know what a buyer might BUY on any
given day, much less what they might PAY for it, even with
fairly good looking facts and circumstances on the history of
your note.
Many note deals may take a lot of "engineering" to finally come
up with workable deals - deals that satisfy your needs as the
seller... and meet the needs of the Buyer for security and yield
return.
The note buying market offers a broad playing field. All kinds
of cash flows might sell... and they might not! The only way to
tell for sure is to list your note and all the facts, telling
the buyer EXACTLY what it is you have for sale (leaving no
important details out) then see what they are willing to offer
you for your note.