Seller Financing, it never hurts to ask

Seller Financing, it never hurts to ask. The last piece I wrote consisted of a list of properties in Red River where the sellers had made it public knowledge that they were willing to seller finance. But what about all the other properties out there? Will those sellers finance? The only way to really find out is to ask.
Property owners may be more or less likely to be willing to owner finance depending upon their situation.
Situations that may be beneficial for the seller to finance:
1) The seller has title free and clear with no existing mortgage in place
2) The seller has an existing mortgage in place and the seller is willing to do a wraparound so that the payments received from the new buyer will eventually pay off the existing mortgage and possible make the seller some extra money also.
3) The seller would like to receive the interest income that would otherwise go to the bank.
Situations that may not be beneficial for the seller to finance:
1) The owner will need to receive all the money in one lump some in order to purchase a replacement house for themselves.
2) The property has been inherited by the heirs and now there are several people involved.
3) The owner plans on using the proceeds in a 1031 tax deferred exchange to purchase more property.
There is always the chance that you may want a piece of property and not know anything about the sellers situation. In this case just ask. The easiest way to ask is to have have me write up an offer with a "Seller Financing Addendum" attached to it. Your purchase agreement will now be contingent upon the owner agreeing to finance all or a portion depending upon what you specified in the addendum. If the seller doesn't agree, then you have no further commitments and the entire agreement is void.
The more enticing you make your offer, the more likely the seller will be interested. Make sure the terms of your offer are fair, and remember that all of this is negotiable. The more down payment you can come up with, the more comfortable this will make the seller. If you need lower payments then you can amortize over a longer period of time, but keep in mind, most sellers don't want to wait 20 or 30 years to be paid off. In this case you can still do a 30 year amortization to keep the payments low, but just add a balloon that will come due at an earlier time. This just means that you will have to refinance when the balloon comes due. If you have been prompt on payments, the original seller may even do the refinance for you. Again, all you can do is ask and everything is negotiable.
In the past year, I have sold one of my own properties with seller financing and have two more on the market, both with seller financing options. With banks asking for more and more from prospective buyers, seller financing has worked out well for me and the buyers.