If you have a home to sell in Jacksonville or the surrounding areas, you already know the Jacksonville real estate market is tough.  To sell your home with so many competing properties, sometimes you need to offer better terms that would attract more potential buyers.  (Don’t forget, you are motivated to sell)

You may have never considered Owner Financing or Leasing your home, but this may be the time.  Here are a few reasons to consider opening up the terms when selling Jacksonville Real Estate:

• The Stats from City-Data state that 37% of the population in Jacksonville rents.
• Many military families know for sure they have to move again.
• Relocation families often have homes they can’t sell in other cities.
• Many families have had to short sale a house and taken a temporary credit hit.
• The self employed have an even harder time qualifying now than they ever have.
• Due to layoffs, many have started new jobs -temporarily affecting their ability to qualify for a loan.

Listed here are 5 different options to sell your home or lease your home. This is a small scratch of the surface as their are many ways to transfer ownership of a home, but these are the more popular main stream.

1. Traditional Purchase: Buyer finds your home, falls in love with it, and purchases using a traditional mortgage.
2. Owner Financing: Same as above, however you provide the financing.  Selling by offering owner financing typically gets you a down payment from the buyer and you set the mortgage rate above your current mortgage rate.  You transfer ownership to the buyer through a normal real estate closing, but you are the bank.  Forget about getting a 20% down payment, expect 5% or maybe 10% at best, so if you need ALL the equity in your home and the equity is more than 5%, you may reconsider.  That being said, if you think about being the bank and having payments made to you for 30 years….this is good and can be very profitable!
3. Lease Purchase: This method is a Lease with a predefined date of purchase.  You get a small down payment, a lease agreement, and a sale agreement at some point in the future….2 years is common.  Going with this type of agreement, you become the landlord and never transfer ownership until the Buyer/Tenant purchases the home.  Typically you would pre-set the price and pre-set the date.  If the Buyer/Tenant can’t make it happen, your agreement usually becomes null and void and they convert to a month to month renter or whatever terms you have in your agreement from the get go.
4. Lease with Option to Purchase: This is much like above, but the Tenant typically is a little less committed to your house.  They have the Option to purchase within a given time period, usually 1 or 2 years in to the lease agreement, however they don’t have to purchase.  It’s merely their option.  The Tenant would pay a “Option Fee” to have the option and most likely would have a pre-set price as well.
5. Lease/Rent: Self explanatory option.  Sometimes, this may be your best option if you are having a tough time selling and you have already moved.  After all, in 10 or 15 years from now, with a few extra payments every year, you could be close to paying off the house and this could become a great stream of income for your family for years to come.

If you have Jacksonville real estate, and need to sell, consider opening up your terms to attract more buyers.  As always, work with a professional Jacksonville Realtor to market and sell your house!

Small legal notice here:  If you were my client, I would have you work with a Real Estate Attorney to set up several of these options to make sure your interest are protected.

Jacksonville Real Estate Agent and Jacksonville Realtor