Buying a home on terms
When the bank says not yet, and you are ready anyway.
Now and then we sell a house we have renovated on terms, carrying the financing ourselves instead of sending the buyer to a bank. This is the list of people who hear about those houses first.
Who it suits
People who can afford a house and cannot get a bank to agree yet.
Self-employed
Real income that does not come on a W-2, so it does not fit the paperwork a bank underwrites to.
A thin credit file
Paid rent and bills on time for years, with not enough of it in the places a score looks.
Rebuilding
A setback behind you — a medical bill, a divorce, a lost job — and steady footing now.
What you bring
Skin in the game, and a steady paycheck.
- A real down payment of your own money
- Steady income you can show us
- A plan to live in the house and keep it
- Patience: the right house does not come up every month
What it is not
Said plainly, before you sign up.
- A way around affording the house. If the payment would stretch you, we will say so.
- Better than a bank loan you can get. If you qualify for a mortgage, that is usually cheaper, and we will tell you.
- An application or an approval. Joining the list commits neither of us to anything.
- A shortcut on the paperwork. It closes like any other sale, with everything in writing.
This is an interest list, not an application. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell, an offer of credit or a commitment to finance. Price, down payment, rate and term are set per house, in writing, and only once both sides have looked at it properly. Selling a home on terms to someone who will live in it is regulated, which is one reason nothing is quoted here.
Hear first when one comes up.
When a house we have renovated is going to be sold on terms, the people on this list hear about it before it is advertised anywhere. Tell us where you would live and what you are working with.