Illustrations of Financing and Tax Transfers in Owner Financed Real Estate Sales

Abstract

The dramatic increase in seller or creative financing in the late 1970s and early 1980s has captured the attention of many academicians and practitioners. The primary focus in the existing literature is on explaining differences in loan terms between creative financing and conventional financing and on how these differences are capitalized into sale prices. This paper investigates the role of financing opportunity costs and federal income taxation and their consequences on real estate financing. Illustrations of the model show the feasibility of interpersonal financing transfers (between buyers and sellers) and intertemporal tax transfers (across time periods).