A real estate agent organization dedicated to helping older Americans with their real estate concerns has formed an alliance with a company that buys seller financing notes in a deal that could allow seniors to make more on their money up front while providing a bailout option for the future.

The Senior Advantage Real Estate Council, based in Murphys, Calif., announced the partnership with NoteWorld, which is a country's largest servicer of seller-financed real estate contracts.

According to Tim Corliss, head of Senior Advantage, the deal will help build awareness in the real estate community that seller financing remains a good option for some people in the moving process.

Corliss said that with mortgage options seeming to expand every day, seller financing has been all but forgotten as good alternative for some buyers - and sellers.

"I think a lot of people just look at what's out there and say, 'It's quick, it's easy,' and they just move on," deciding not to consider the seller financing options, Corliss said.

For seniors, however, offering buyers a seller financing option often makes sense.

"We've had a case just recently where an older woman was selling her condo and going to live with her daughter," Corliss said. "We asked what she was going to do with the money. She said she was just going to put it in the bank in a CD or something.

"We showed her that by carrying forward a first trust at 8.5 percent, due in six years (amortized for 30 years) she could make $2,000 more on her money."

For many seniors, said Corliss, the offer of seller financing is hindered by the amount of paperwork that has to be done.

"In the old days the corner bank would do the servicing. But today, the mega banks don't do it any more," he said.

Noteworld fills that void. Noteworld has a program that costs (consumers) $9 per month. Plus, if at some point in the future the person wants to sell the note, NoteWorld is there, he said.

Corliss said the pact with NoteWorld would provide both marketing and education to the 3,200 real estate agents who are members of the Senior Council.

In education, Noteworld will provide seminars on seller financing. In marketing, Corliss said the company already had a database with more than 1 million names in it and that the average age in the database was 63 - the ideal target for Senior Advantage agents.

Published: July 17, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.