Seller financing calculator
Selling a property and carrying the note yourself? Enter the amount you are financing, the rate and the term, and get the buyer's monthly payment and every payment of the schedule, split into the interest you earn and the principal coming back to you.
How to use it as the seller
Loan amount is what you are financing: the sale price minus the buyer's down payment, not the sale price. Annual interest rate is the fixed rate written in the note. Amortization term is the number of monthly payments the note is paid off over; 360 months is thirty years. The origination date is the day interest starts, usually closing, and the first payment date is when the first installment is due, usually the first of the month after.
Pick the day count convention your note uses. Most level monthly seller-financed notes count every month as one-twelfth of a year (30/360); some accrue on actual calendar days (Actual/365). The two give different interest on the same note, so match the note rather than the default.
If the note balloons — the buyer pays as if the loan ran thirty years but owes the rest in, say, five — use the seller financing calculator with a balloon payment instead. It shows the same schedule cut at the balloon month and the exact amount due then.
What the schedule tells you as the seller
Each row splits the buyer's payment into interest, which is your earnings on the note, and principal, which is your sale price coming back to you a piece at a time. Early in a long note most of each payment is interest; the principal share grows every month as the balance falls. The running balance in the last column is what the buyer would owe you after that payment if every payment arrived on time and in full.
That last condition is the catch. The schedule is the plan. Real payments arrive late, short, or with a late fee attached, and each one moves the balance off the schedule a little. After closing, the balance that matters is the one built from the payments that actually arrived — see why payment application order changes the balance.
For your taxes, the interest column is the part that matters each year. See Form 1098 reporting for individual note holders for what you may owe your buyer in January.
Choosing the terms
The calculator answers "what is the payment"; the terms are a negotiation. A few things sellers weigh:
- Down payment. The buyer's equity is your cushion if you ever take the property back. A larger down payment also means a smaller loan amount and a smaller payment.
- Rate. Run the schedule at two or three rates. The payment moves less than you might expect; the total interest over the life of the note moves a lot.
- Term and balloon. A shorter amortization returns your money faster but raises the payment. A balloon keeps the payment low and gets you paid out sooner, but it has consequences under federal lending rules for sellers; see RMLO licensing thresholds and the de minimis exemption.
- Structure. A note and deed of trust, a contract for deed, or a wrap over your existing loan each come with different duties; see contract for deed versus deed of trust and how a wraparound note works.
Seller financing or owner financing?
Same thing. "Seller financing", "owner financing" and "owner carry" all mean the seller lends the buyer part of the price and takes payments instead of cash at closing. The owner financing calculator runs the identical computation and walks through a worked example row by row.
After closing: keep the record
The day the sale closes you become a lender for the life of the note. 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, and totals the year's interest. Every figure on this page comes from the same engine.