Seller Financing Calculator

This seller financing calculator shows the monthly payment, the balloon, and the two numbers wholesalers actually need: your spread and the payment your end buyer inherits.

How to use this seller financing calculator

1. Set the purchase price to what you can actually contract at, not the asking price.
2. Set the down payment. On a seller-financed deal this is often the seller’s real objection, not the price.
3. Set the rate and amortization. A longer amortization drops the payment without dropping your price, which is the whole reason these deals work.
4. Set the balloon. This is when the remaining balance comes due in full. Three to seven years is typical.
5. Add your ARV and repair estimate to check the deal against the 70% rule.
6. Add your resale price to see your spread and whether it survives closing costs.

What the monthly payment actually tells you

The payment is calculated on the amortization period, not the balloon. That distinction is where most people get confused, and it is also where the leverage is.

A note amortized over 30 years with a balloon at year 5 produces a 30 year payment, but the entire remaining balance comes due in year 5. The seller gets a low monthly number they can live with. You get a price you can live with. Nobody has to move much.

This is why amortization is the quietest lever in the whole negotiation. Stretching a note from 20 years to 30 on the same price and rate drops the payment noticeably without you conceding a dollar on price. If a seller says the payment is too low to be worth it, shortening the amortization raises it without you paying more for the property. Most people reach for price when the real adjustment is term.

Rate does the same job in the other direction. A point of interest changes the monthly figure meaningfully, and sellers who have never lent money before often anchor on the rate because it is the only number that feels like a return to them. Give ground on rate before you give ground on price, because rate costs you monthly and price costs you on the exit.

What is a balloon payment and when is it due

The balloon is everything still owed on the day the term ends. On a $200,000 purchase with 10% down at 7% over 30 years, the payment is about $1,198 a month. After five years of those payments, roughly $169,000 is still owed, and that is the balloon.

Five years of payments barely dented the principal because early payments are almost entirely interest. Anyone taking over that note needs a plan to refinance or resell before the balloon date.

Look at the chart above and the shape of the problem is obvious. The balance line is almost flat for the first several years and only starts falling meaningfully in the back half. On a 30 year amortization the loan is not close to half paid at year 15. That is not a flaw in the structure, it is simply how amortization works, and it is exactly why the balloon date matters more than the payment.

The practical rule is to make the balloon long enough that the person carrying the note has a real path out. Two years is rarely enough to season a property, fix credit, or wait out a market. Five gives room. Seven is better if the seller will take it, and many will, because a seller who wanted monthly income in the first place is often happy to keep receiving it for longer.

Can you wholesale a seller-financed deal?

Sometimes, and the answer is in your contract rather than in the financing.

An assignment only works if your purchase contract is assignable and the seller has not restricted it. Sellers carrying paper often care a great deal who ends up making the payments, so an assignment clause that would pass without comment on a cash deal can get struck out here.

What your end buyer has to qualify for

This is where seller-financed wholesale deals die, and it is the number nobody else’s calculator shows you.

Your end buyer is not just buying a property. They are taking on a monthly payment and a balloon with a date attached. If that payment does not work for them, the deal does not close no matter how good your spread looked.

Check three things before you market it: can they carry the monthly payment, do they understand when the balloon lands, and do they have a realistic route to refinance or resell before it does.

It also changes who your buyer is. A seller-financed deal is usually wrong for the cash buyer on your list who wants a discount and a quick flip, because the price is too close to retail for their model. It is right for a landlord who cares about monthly cash flow rather than purchase discount, or a buyer who cannot qualify at a bank right now but can clearly make a payment. Those are different people, and marketing a financed deal to a cash list is why plenty of these sit unsold.

So before you tie one up, know which buyer you are aiming at. If the honest answer is that you do not have one, the terms will not save you.

Seller financing, subject-to, and assignment compared

What sellers actually care about

Almost never the headline price. They care about the monthly amount, when they get the rest, and whether the person making the payments is going to disappear.

Which means the number you lead with is the payment, not the offer. Run it in the calculator above before the call so you can say it out loud without hedging. There is a real difference between “I can offer you $190,000” and “I can get you $1,150 a month for the next five years and the balance after that.” The first invites a negotiation about price. The second invites a conversation about whether the monthly number works, which is a much easier conversation to win.

Three objections come up almost every time, and each has a lever in the calculator above.

• “I need more than that per month.” Shorten the amortization or raise the rate. Both lift the payment without you paying more for the property.
• “I need my money sooner.” Shorten the balloon. You keep the price and the payment, and simply commit to refinancing or reselling earlier.
• “What if you stop paying?” This is the real objection hiding behind most of the others. The seller keeps a lien on the property, so a default means they take it back, usually with your down payment and every payment you made still in their pocket.

A worked example

Take a house worth $260,000 after repairs that needs $20,000 of work. The seller owns it free and clear, wants $200,000, and does not need all the money at once.

Set the calculator to $200,000 with 10% down, 7%, amortized over 30 years, balloon at year 5. The payment lands near $1,198 a month, the seller collects $20,000 up front, and about $169,000 comes due in year five.

The 70% rule says maximum offer is $260,000 times 0.70 minus $20,000, which is $162,000. Your contract at $200,000 is well above that, so this is not a cash deal. It only works because the terms carry it, and that is precisely the point of the structure. A cash buyer will not touch it at $200,000. A buyer who wants a property with financing already in place, and who cannot qualify at a bank, will look at $1,198 a month very differently.

That is the trade. You pay closer to retail on price, and you get paid for solving a problem that price alone cannot solve.

Common mistakes

• A balloon that is too short. Two years sounds cheap and gives your end buyer no time to refinance.
• A rate high enough to kill the resale. You are not the one making the payments. Price the note so somebody else wants it.
• No assignability clause. Decide your exit before you sign, not after.
• Forgetting the second set of closing costs if the exit turns into a double close.
• Quoting a payment you have not calculated. Sellers remember numbers you say on the phone.

Frequently asked questions