Ohio land contracts and owner financing: a guide for the seller
Ohio regulates land installment contracts in Revised Code Chapter 5313, and several of its rules are record-keeping rules: you must record the contract, send the buyer a statement every year, and know exactly how much has been paid before you can take the property back.
What Chapter 5313 asks of the seller
The seller must record the land installment contract within 20 days after both parties sign it, and deliver a copy to the county auditor (R.C. 5313.02).
At least once a year the seller must give the buyer a statement of the amount credited to principal and to interest, and the balance due. The buyer may ask for one at other times, but the seller need not provide more than two a year; a land contract passbook satisfies the duty (R.C. 5313.03). That statement is your ledger, summarized, so the ledger has to be right.
Default, forfeiture and foreclosure
Forfeiture cannot begin until the buyer has been in default for 30 days, and the buyer can cure during that time by paying what is due plus allowed charges (R.C. 5313.05). After that, the seller serves a written notice giving the buyer 10 days to cure (R.C. 5313.06).
Once the buyer has paid under the contract for five years or more, or has paid 20 percent or more of the price, forfeiture is no longer available: the seller must foreclose in court and have the property sold (R.C. 5313.07; R.C. 2323.07). Which route you are on depends on how much principal has been paid and since when, which is a question your payment record answers.
If you financed with a note and mortgage instead of a land contract, Ohio mortgage foreclosures are also judicial (R.C. 2323.07).
Licensing
Ohio's residential mortgage lending act has no express exemption for an individual seller financing their own property. Its loan originator definition reaches people acting for compensation or gain, and transacting business as a lender is defined by making five or more residential mortgage loans in a 12-month period (R.C. 1322.01, 1322.04). A seller making an occasional sale may fall outside the act, but confirm your situation with the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions or a lawyer.
Federal rules count seller-financed sales separately; see RMLO licensing thresholds and the de minimis exemption.
The record every Ohio 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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