SAFE Act – Any teeth to it?
Lots of seller financers have asked if there is any real need to get licensed since the State would have a hard time enforcing the law. There is such a large volume of transactions like this every year “how will they find (fine) me?” Well, because there is such a large volume of seller financed [...]
SAFE Act and Realtor Responsibility
Even though the State Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending (Texas), has issued an opinion that seller financers engaging in less than 5 transactions per year may be exempt for the SAFE Act (for now), a Real Estate Agent still has the responsibility to advise the seller financer of the recent clarification to the states [...]
Safe Act Requirement for Seller Finance
There is a lot of confusion out there about the so called de minimis ruling that TSDML recently tried to clarify. The ruling was that since Texas already had a licensing safe harbor for seller financers engaging in less than 5 transactions per year, Texas would deviate from the National SAFE Act model (for now) [...]
Are seller/financed land and mobile home transactions included in the SAFE Act?
In the case of land, if a seller finances a parcel to a buyer who is going to build a home or have a home built, or if a residence is planned for the property, the transaction requires origination by an RMLO to be in compliance with the SAFE Act. This does not include land [...]
Do I have to have a license for just one seller/financed home?
The amemded SAFE Act allows for an exemption from licensing for those individuals or businesses that complete no more than three transactions per year. There are exceptions to this rule as well. For instance, if the note calls for a balloon payment or an interest rate that adjusts sooner than five years, then a license [...]
Does the SAFE Act have an alternative to being licensed for a seller financer?
Yes, an investor can engage the services of a licensed residential originator to perform the required tasks to be in compliance with the law. The problem that an investor will find is that in traditional conventional loans, a licensed originator may charge 1% or more of the transaction amount as an origination fee. In addition, [...]
How will the SAFE Act affect Seller Financing
The affect is going to be to add an element of caution when originating the installment sale. The so-called SAFE Act was originally intended, in my opinion, to provide relief to buyers of residential property from unscrupulous lenders. This relief is in the form of documented disclosure of installment sale terms, and oversight of qualification [...]
Can a Seller Financer Quote Interest Rates?
In Texas, under the Mortgage Broker Act and the soon to be in full force SAFE Act, a seller that quotes an interest rate to a prospective buyer is not in compliance with the law if not properly licensed. A seller can advertise that seller financing is avaialble for a purchaser of the property, but [...]
Licensing Nightmare
Licensure under the new Texas Safe Act for seller financers is going to be a nightmare. If Texas can not obtain an exception to the Federal SAFE Act law, persons seller financing even one property would require that person to be liscensed. Is it worth it? Liscensing requires beginning education as well as continuing education, [...]
Texas SAFE Act for Seller Financers
Seller financing of no more that 5 transactions in a rolling 12 month period was permitted without licensure under the Texas Mortgage Broker Act, Finance Code Chapter 156. An exemption is not mentioned in Finance Code Chapter 180, the Texas SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act of 2009 which was signed into Texas law during the 81st [...]