When selling your home in a buyer’s market, the key factors are marketing, pricing and condition.  You don’t need gimmicks. And seller financing is a gimmick. 



*Lenders are loaning money to qualified buyers in in the 4-5% range. As a home seller are you prepared to loan your money for thirty years at such a low rate?  

*Buyers can obtain FHA financing with less than a 5% down payment.  When the seller is the banker, the seller needs to be prepared to take the home (collateral) back if the buyer doesn’t make the payments.  If the buyer has only a 5% stake in the home, there is a greater risk of the buyer losing the home if (divorce, loss of job, further decrease in housing values, etc.)

*It can easily take four or more months of non payment before the defaulting home owner can be evicted. This is four months of not having income; also consider attorney’s fees involved in the foreclosure and possible eviction.

In my experience the buyers who are hoping for seller financing are the buyers that can’t obtain a loan from a lender (due to either poor credit, lack of a sufficient down payment or insufficient/unverifiable income).  The only time a seller should consider owner financing is in the event the seller has a tax benefit (or savings).  And in that instance the home seller needs a very experienced Realtor to help them assess the risks.