Owner finance note tracking for Texas sellers
You sold a house, a rental or a few acres in Texas and carried the note. From the day of closing you are the lender, and the record of that note is yours to keep for as long as it runs. OwnerNote keeps it with you.
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What a Texas note holder has to keep track of
Owner finance tracking is not one number. It is a handful of questions that keep coming back for the life of the note, from your borrower, a title company, your accountant, and sometimes a court.
- Every payment, and how it was applied. Late fee, interest, principal and escrow, in the order your note says, the same way every month. Apply them in a different order once and the balance drifts. See why payment application order changes the balance.
- The balance today. Not the balance on the amortization schedule printed at closing, but the balance after the payments that actually arrived, on the days they arrived.
- A payoff figure good through a date. When your borrower refinances or sells, the Texas title company handling the closing will ask you for a payoff good through the closing date, with per-diem interest carried to the right day. The payoff quote calculator shows how that figure is built.
- Year-end interest. Interest received for the year, separated from principal, for your own return and for whatever your borrower expects in January. See Form 1098 reporting for individual note holders.
- A payment history you can hand over. A refinancing lender or a note buyer will ask for one. See what a certified payment history is.
Which Texas structure is your note?
Texas seller financing usually takes one of three shapes, and each one changes what the record has to show.
Note and deed of trust
The most common Texas structure: the buyer gets the deed at closing and signs a note secured by a deed of trust back to you. The contract-for-deed January statement below does not apply, but you need the same numbers the moment a payoff request, a refinance or a dispute arrives.
Contract for deed (executory contract)
You keep legal title until the buyer pays. Texas Property Code Subchapter D attaches duties to this structure, including an annual accounting statement every January showing what was paid, what is still owed and how many payments remain, with damages for missing it. That statement is only as good as the ledger behind it. See contract for deed versus deed of trust in Texas.
Wraparound note
Your buyer pays you, and you keep paying the loan that stays on the property. Now there are two ledgers that have to agree: what comes in on the wrap and what goes out on the underlying loan. See how a wraparound note works and the wraparound calculator.
How OwnerNote keeps the record
You enter the note's terms once and log each payment as it arrives. OwnerNote does the rest the same way every time:
- Every payment applied in the same order, with the interest and principal split shown for each one.
- The balance today, the next payment due, and whether anything is late.
- Payoff quotes good through any date.
- Year-end interest totals for your taxes, and a CSV export of every payment.
- Printable statements for any period, as a page or a PDF.
- A monthly statement emailed to your borrower on the 1st, if you turn it on.
- Importing your notes and payment history from a spreadsheet, if you have been keeping one.
- Late fees suggested after the grace period, which you charge or waive with one click.
- Escrow for property taxes and insurance, with a ledger of deposits and bills paid.
- Reminder and receipt emails to your borrower, and printable payment coupon books.
- Year-end mortgage interest statements for your borrower.
- Rate and payment changes from a date you choose, a contact log, and the note's documents kept with it.
- For a contract for deed, the January annual accounting statement under Property Code § 5.077, as a PDF or an email, with each send recorded. See contract for deed vs. deed of trust in Texas.
- Wraparound notes, with the underlying loan and its payments kept alongside the wrap.
- Insurance and property-tax watch, payoff letters for the title company, and a read-only view your borrower can check instead of calling.
It runs in a browser, so the record is the same on the laptop at home and the phone in the truck, and nothing is lost when the computer is replaced. One note is free; the plans are priced by how many notes you track.
Before you carry the next one
If you are selling residential property and an existing mortgage stays on it, Texas requires a written disclosure to the buyer and the lienholder at least seven days before closing or the binding contract, whichever comes first. See Texas seller finance notice requirements. And the number of owner-financed sales you make in a year matters for licensing; see RMLO licensing thresholds and the de minimis exemption.
What OwnerNote is not
OwnerNote is a tracking tool, not a loan servicer. It never touches your borrower's money: payments go from your borrower to you exactly as they do now, and OwnerNote records what arrived and what it did to the balance. If you are weighing a servicing company instead, see seller finance note servicing in Texas.