Owner financing in Georgia: a guide for the seller who carries the note
If you sold Georgia property and carried the note, it is most likely secured by a security deed or mortgage with a power of sale. Georgia law sets the notice you owe before a foreclosure sale, a tax on the note at recording, and the licensing exemptions a seller relies on.
Foreclosure under a power of sale
Georgia allows foreclosure without a lawsuit when the security instrument contains a power of sale. The sale is valid only if it is advertised and held at the time, place and in the usual manner of sheriff's sales in the county, and the security instrument (or its assignment) must be filed with the clerk of superior court before the sale (O.C.G.A. § 44-14-162).
At least 30 days before the sale, the holder must send the debtor written notice by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested. The notice must name the person with full authority to negotiate, amend and modify all terms of the loan, and include a copy of the sale notice (O.C.G.A. § 44-14-162.2). For most individual sellers, that person is you.
Before any of that, you need to know exactly what is owed and how every payment was applied. A sale built on a wrong balance is the kind of mistake a borrower's lawyer looks for.
Intangible recording tax
Georgia taxes long-term notes secured by real estate when the security instrument is recorded: 1.50 dollars per 500 dollars of the face amount, or fraction, up to a maximum of 25,000 dollars per instrument (O.C.G.A. § 48-6-61). A note is long-term if any principal falls due more than three years after the note is dated, which covers most seller-financed notes.
Licensing
Georgia's mortgage licensing law exempts a natural person lending their own funds, including a purchase money mortgage for financing sales of their own property, and separately exempts any natural person who makes five or fewer mortgage loans in a calendar year (O.C.G.A. § 7-1-1001). Entities do not get the natural-person exemptions, and exempt persons may still be subject to registration.
Federal rules count seller-financed sales separately; see RMLO licensing thresholds and the de minimis exemption.
The record every Georgia seller needs
Whatever the structure, the rules above all lean on the same thing: a complete record of every payment, the date it arrived, and how it was split between late fees, interest, principal and escrow. OwnerNote keeps that record. You log each payment as it arrives, and it applies every one the same way, keeps the balance current, produces payoff quotes good through any date, totals the year's interest, and prints statements for any period.
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