Sell at or close to full value. Get paid over time.

It is a sale where you are paid over time instead of all at once. Two shapes cover almost everything.

If you own the house free and clear, you become the lender. We pay a down payment at closing, then monthly payments with interest, secured by a mortgage on your house, with the balance due on a date you choose.

If you have a mortgage, we can take over the payments on it — the industry calls that a subject-to purchase — and pay you for your equity in cash, in a note, or in both.

Because we are not asking for a discount in exchange for cash, the price can be at or close to full value.

It is arithmetic, not an insult. A cash buyer starts from what the house will be worth after repairs, then subtracts the repairs, the cost of money, the cost of reselling it, and a profit that makes the risk worth taking. The rule of thumb most of them use is about 70% of value, minus repairs.

That is the number a cash buyer needs for the trade to work. It is not what your house is worth.

We can pay more because we are not paying you all at once. Time, not a discount, pays for the difference.

The comparison on this site uses that typical cash-investor math. It is not any particular buyer's offer.

Most mortgages contain one. It says the lender may demand the loan be paid in full when the property changes hands. It is a right the lender has, not something that happens automatically, and it is not a penalty or a crime.

Lenders rarely call a loan that is being paid on time and insured. But they can, so you should assume it is possible before you sign anything.

If it happened, the plan is written into the paperwork before closing: refinance or pay off the loan, sell the house, or hand the property back to you under the performance clause. We put that in writing because it is the question you should be asking.

That is a legal question about your own loan documents, so have your attorney read them with you.

Yes, until the loan is paid off or refinanced. The loan stays in your name. That is the honest answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.

What changes is who pays it, and what protects you if they stop. Payments go through a licensed third-party loan servicer, so there is an independent record of every payment, and you keep the right to check with the servicer or with your lender at any time.

The loan also keeps reporting on your credit, with the payment history the servicer creates.

This is the real risk of a terms sale, so it deserves a straight answer.

If we carry a note, it is secured by the house: your note is secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on the property, recorded at closing. If the payments stop, you have the remedies any lender has.

If we take over your existing loan, a deed back to you is held in escrow with a performance clause: if the payments stop, the property returns to you.

Payments go through a licensed third-party loan servicer, so there is an independent record of every payment and you receive statements. You would learn about a missed payment from the record rather than from a phone call.

Independent attorney review is encouraged before anything is signed, and we will wait for it.

Selling on terms can spread the gain across the years you are paid, instead of realising it in a single year. In the United States that is called an installment sale.

For some sellers that is the largest single benefit of the structure. For others it changes very little.

We are not tax advisors and this is not tax advice. Confirm it with your CPA before you decide anything. We will put the numbers in writing so your CPA has something to work from.