Selling your private mortgage note to a purchasing company is an easy, straightforward process between a note owner and a note purchasing company. You can have cash in your hand in less than a month by following these steps:

  1. Deciding to Sell
  2. Choosing Between a Full or Partial Sale
  3. Selecting a Note Purchasing Company
  4. Getting Your Quote
  5. The Property Evaluation Process
  6. Closing the Sale, Getting Your Money

Step One: Deciding to Sell

The process starts with the decision to sell your note. For some, mortgage notes can easily be transformed into cash in a time of need. But others may have used seller-backed financing to get a property fast and intended to sell the note from the start.

Reasons to sell:

  • Dividing an estate
  • Unburdening yourself from note management
  • Managing assets to qualify for retirement benefits
  • Free up capital to invest differently
  • Selling your business

Many people start the process by searching for information on whether their note is saleable. Several terms describe the different promissory notes eligible to be sold on the secondary market. If you have one of the following types of notes, you can liquidate that asset for a lump sum:

  • Mortgage Notes
  • Seller Financed Mortgage Notes
  • Contracts for Deed
  • Land Contracts
  • Balloon Notes
  • Interest Only Notes
  • Performing Notes

If you’re interested in selling but not sure whether your note is saleable, the answer is probably yes. And there is no harm in checking: We offer no-cost, no-obligation quotes. If your note isn’t eligible to be purchased, you owe us nothing.

Step Two: Choosing Between a Full or Partial Sale

Mortgage notes can be sold in two different ways: selling the entire note or selling a portion of the payment. Both result in your exchanging money from long-term payments for a lump sum, but the biggest difference is how large that lump sum is.

A full sale means liquidating the entire asset and exchanging your full-ownership rights for a one-time cash payout. This option is typically chosen in the case of dividing an estate or when using seller-based financing is the only way to sell a property. Most note holders who sell choose this option.

Note owners also have the option of a partial sale if they need capital but wish to retain some of their ongoing payment stream of the note. In partial sales, a percentage of the payment goes to the note owner, while the remaining percentage goes to the mortgage note buying company.

Step Three: Selecting a Note Purchasing Company

The next step is choosing a mortgage note buying company. Selecting a mortgage note purchasing company determines the level of customer service and expertise you’ll have access to during the process, as well as the amount of money you’ll be able to get for your note.

Our partners at MortgageNote.org have been in the business of buying notes since 1993. We have the experience to do everything right the first time. That experience means we can close your sale in as little as five weeks.

When you call us, we’ll give a free quote for how much we can offer for your mortgage note. To get you an accurate quote, these are the documents they need to help you:

  1. Promissory note
  2. Title commitment
  3. Closing statement

Once we have this information, we give you a quote over the phone. From there, we send you a copy of the quote and contract for purchasing your note.

Step Four: Getting Your Quote

Once you get your quote, you may want to go over it to understand how we arrived at the amount we’re offering.

The biggest factors affecting amount of your quote:

  • Property owner’s equity: The more money the property owner has invested in the property, the more likely the owner is to pay off the mortgage.
  • Property owner’s credit score: Higher credit scores mean lower risk for note buyers and higher quotes for note sellers.
  • Payment history: The longer positive payment history the note has, the more we can offer you for it.

At this point, you send back the contract signed, with all necessary documents attached, and, for the most part, the rest is in our hands.

Step Five: The Property Evaluation Process

During this step, everything is complete on your end, but we’re working hard to get everything ready to officially close the sale.

Here is what we’re taking care of during this part of the process:

Appraisal Process:

  • We do a full evaluation to find the current property value of the real estate. This typically happens through a Broker’s Price Opinion or, depending on the situation, a Drive-by Appraisal.

Title Search:

  • While the appraisal looks at the physical aspect of the property, a title company examines the legal history of the property. This process checks for any claims, liens, easement rights, unpaid taxes and other restrictive legal statuses.

Step Six: Closing the Sale, Getting Your Money

Once everything comes back as expected — and it typically does — we move forward with closing the sale of your note.

This is the point in which the property owners are informed of the sale of their mortgage. We reassure them that their mortgage remains the same and let them know where to send future payments.

To finalize the sale, you need to attend a closing at a local title company to sign the final paperwork. The closing paperwork makes the sale official and transfers ownership of the note.

After we get the forms from the title company, typically the same day as closing, we wire the money directly to your bank account.

Catherine J. Byerly
Catherine J. Byerly Staff Writer Catherine Byerly covers finance for multiple websites, including MortgageNote.org. She is a graduate of the University of North Florida and has worked as a writer for the past five years in radio, print and digital news.