Frequently Asked Questions

If you cannot find the full answer to your questions here, we cover many issues in more detail in our Note Holder's Handbook (click here).

Why sell my trust deed, mortgage or contract?

Over 75% of all people carrying a mortgage, trust deed and note or contract are interested in selling their note at some time during the life of the loan. There are several reasons selling your note makes good financial sense.

1. When you need cash for something else

Often the loan has tied up a large amount of your cash that you can use for something important. Many times unanticipated investment opportunities appear. Others need cash to purchase a new property or RV. Others have a health or other emergency need for the cash.

If you have outstanding credit card debt charging a higher interest rate than you receive on your loan, you can come out miles ahead by selling part of your note to pay off your credit cards and other high interest debt.

2. They are tired of managing their loan

The other primary reason people sell their seller financed loan is they don’t want to manage it anymore. The interest earnings are not worth their time and effort bookkeeping, collecting late payments, completing 1098 and other IRS forms every year, tracking the buyer’s upkeep of the property, and tracking tax payments and insurance coverage. They find their financial needs change and they are better off with a lower earning, safer investment that they don’t need to constantly monitor.

How can I find out the value of my mortgage, trust deed or contract?

You may request a free quote online or call us toll free at 1-800-535-5081 and speak with us directly.

How do you determine what you will pay for a private mortgage, trust deed or contract?

The value of your note or contract is determined on the open market by how much an investor would risk receiving a fair return on their investment.

If we need a totally safe investment, we would invest in Treasury Bills but would also be stuck with a very low return (interest rate). If we wanted a very high return on our investment, we would need to purchase something very risky such as options where the value can fluctuate wildly every day. An investor would pay more to receive $1,000 in the future from a Treasury Bill and less for an option because they stand a greater chance of not receiving the full $1,000 from the option.

For seller carry-back notes, we primarily consider the equity (down payment and property’s appreciation); borrower’s credit (credit report, current earnings and payment history); and type of property to calculate how much we would pay for the risk associated with these factors. The safer the loan, the more we will pay.

What do I need to know about the note investor I work with?

• Time in business: How long has the investor been in business?
• Professionalism: Do they answer all of your questions in a knowledgeable and professional manner?
• Customer Service: Do they return calls and e-mails promptly?
• Honest quote up front: Will they give you a quote they will not change?
• Focus: Do they place all of their attention purchasing seller carried notes or do they use their time and resources doing things of no value to you?

Why should I work with West Coast Equity?

We stand out among our peers. We are the only company offering note holders a guarantee like ours. See our Why Sell My Note To West Coast Equity and About Us pages for more details. We also give you more tools to assist you in managing your note:  

Over the past 20 years we've gotten the purchase of seller carry-back loans down to a science. We specialize only in purchasing your note or contact. We don’t waste our energy chasing other "cash flow investments" that eat up a lot of other companies' time and resources.  

How quickly can you go from quote to funding?

We provide a specific timeline to handle the transaction or you are free from our agreement. Our experience means our underwriting and closing process only takes a couple of days. We have funded transactions in less than a week although three weeks is more typical. Much of our ability to close quickly is how timely you can send us the documentation for our underwriters. Cleaning up title issues are the most time consuming part of the transaction. If you have your title policy, we can close quickly.

How can you tailor an offer on my note to meet my specific needs?

Your may sell a part of your loan to get just the cash you need now if that is what you require. Many sellers only need enough cash for a specific purpose. They chose to sell only a fixed number of payments to give them the cash they need today. That way they can still receive thousands of dollars of future interest earnings and get the cash they need now.

For example, if your buyers pay you $700 per month for the next 330 months and you only need $50,000 cash now, we might offer $50,000 now in exchange for receiving the next 110 payments. After the 110 payments have been paid, you would still have 220 payments coming to you and earning interest in the future.

In some cases, the loan is deemed too risky for us to invest enough to purchase the entire loan. When this happens, we offer you the maximum amount of cash possible and also allow you to keep future payments we can’t offer you much or any cash for. If the loan proves to be less risky than we anticipated, we can purchase the remaining payments as the note seasons.

What are the costs of selling my mortgage, trust deed or contract?

All normal costs are paid by us and included as part of our quote to you. Normal costs we cover include pulling credit, property appraisal, title insurance, property review, drawing documents, recording fees and overnight couriers. We use our own staff to facilitate escrow. You are free to use your own escrow officer at your expense. We will tell you before we order the appraisal if the property’s value is suspect or an expensive commercial appraisal is required where we would request you pay for the appraisal.

Can I use my own escrow or title company to close my transaction?

Yes, you may use any approved accredited and bonded title or escrow company. However, since we have our own employees who specialize in these functions, we may ask you to pay for the escrow services.

Can I supply or order the appraisal for my transaction?

In order to provide you the best price possible and due to current market conditions, we cannot allow you to order or provide your own appraisal. If you already have an appraisal, our underwriters will review it and take it into consideration.

Your payor experiences no change in the way the payments are structured and will not be bothered or inconvenienced. The only change will be the address where the payments are mailed. They usually are not contacted until the transaction is nearly complete. We can take care of all contact with your borrower on your behalf.

Will you purchase second position trust deeds or mortgages?

We will consider second position notes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho only at this time. We may expand our program in the future.

Will you purchase newly created trust deeds, mortgages or contracts?

At this time we cannot purchase loans before a loan payment is collected. We will send you a few pointers on how to create a note that will bring the highest possible price without a payment history.  

Will you purchase loans in default?

We purchase defaulted notes on a case by case basis. We will bid with the anticipation we will need to foreclose, request a stay from borrower’s bankruptcy, fix and repair property damage inflicted by the borrower, and modernize the property to bring it up to market value. We also anticipate the property will sit on the market while we pay insurance, taxes and other holding costs.

Who can I ask if my question about my mortgage, trust deed or contract is not answered here?

We are always happy to discuss any questions you may have by phone Toll Free 1-800-535-5081 or email (click here).