Appreciation post: the $340 seller carry back note that almost fell apart at a Starbucks in Reno
I was sitting in a Starbucks on McCarran in Reno last month with a seller who agreed to carry a $340k note on his duplex, and my lawyer called to say the balloon terms I wrote down did not match what he sent. The seller got quiet and started packing up his folder. I pulled out my laptop, we called the lawyer on speaker right there, and it took 40 minutes to redraft the payment schedule so the balloon landed in year 7 instead of year 5. He signed two days later, but that near miss still bugs me. For those who do seller carry deals, do you get the note terms reviewed before the meetup or after?
My last seller carry deal nearly blew up over a typo in the interest rate, so you are not alone in the almost crashed and burned club. I now send the full terms to my lawyer the night before and make him read them back to me on the phone, because I clearly cannot be trusted with numbers before coffee. Doing it at the table is a gutsy move, but it beats watching a guy walk out with his folder and your deal.