In this live call, Chris Prefontaine follows up with a motivated seller, Nelson (also called Steven), about a Willow Bridge property. Nelson is a new investor who is considering selling the house himself but is open to an owner‑financing arrangement where a buyer provides a down payment of roughly 10‑12% (about $50‑$75k) and makes monthly payments of at least $2,600. Chris explains his team’s 30‑year track record with rent‑to‑own deals, clarifies that they would source, vet, and underwrite a buyer, then hand the deal over to the seller, taking minimal profit. The conversation covers cash‑flow expectations, the seller’s desired down‑payment amount, the hypothetical monthly payment, and the logistics of scheduling a property visit with Chris’s partner Dan Furnish. Both parties agree to set up a follow‑up call the next day to move forward.
Chapters
Hello?
Hello, is this Steve?
Hello?
Hi, is this Steve?
Oh, this is Steven.
Steven, this is— you want me to call you Nelson, Steven?
Yeah.
Okay, Nelson works for me. My name is Chris Prefontaine, and you spoke with my partner Dan Furnish. About your property on Willow Bridge. Do you recall that?
Yeah.
Fantastic. He sent you a follow-up email. He's tied up today with some meetings and asked that I just follow up on that, answer any questions you might have, and see if this might be a fit. Did you have a few minutes?
Yeah.
Okay. Uh, did you receive the email? Okay.
Yeah. Great.
What questions would you have about Getting this done.
Um, you see, he explained it pretty well, and I understood it. Um, I don't know whether I'm gonna go that route, because actually I was thinking about going that route myself and put it up and sell by owner myself.
Okay.
And they basically do the same thing.
When you say do the same thing, could you just Can you just explain what you mean by that so I'm tracking with you?
Get me a buyer, get a little over 10% down, 10 to 15% down, and, um, put them in the house and give them opportunity to finish improving their credit over the next couple of years, help them out with their program with that. And what was the cash flow difference until then, until after, until that 2 years or 2 or 3 years was up?
Got it. Okay. So make sure I understood where you were going. So you've done these before, Nelson, as far as putting people in the— in your house before?
But I am a new investor.
You're a new investor?
Okay.
The reason I ask if you've done it before is people that attempt— I'll use that word strongly— the rent-to-own nationally have about a 20% success rate, and that's probably generous. We have about a 92 to 100% success rate because we've done it for 30-plus years. So that's the only reason I ask that. I just don't want to see you get hurt or have no cash flow coming in because that can happen too, obviously.
Yeah, well, I'm not saying rent-to-own. I'm saying basically to sell it.
Okay, so you'd be, you'd be open to selling it to someone with a small down payment and you'd owner finance?
Owner finance. Yes, sir. Okay, we're not a small down, a large down payment.
What's large?
He was saying that I could— if you all got about 10%, which is about $50,000 to $55,000, and I was splitting with you guys, and I would like to be able to have the whole $55,000 to $75,000 in my pocket.
Okay, let me ask you a different question just to make sure again I'm tracking with you. Hypothetically, If tomorrow I provided a solid buyer who needs time, which is what you're looking for, and you got a down payment and I got paid from the buyer, you didn't come out of pocket. It sounds like that would be of interest to you. Yes? No?
Well, I mean, that would be more of interest. I mean, considering how much that buyer is going to put in my pocket. Maybe $70,000, right?
We wouldn't—
I—
we wouldn't know yet. I'm just talking hypothetically. I think 10 might be a little strong, but I wouldn't know till we took it to the market and presented options to you.
10% is like $50,000. Yeah, $53,000, right? 10% is like $53,000, $55,000, right?
No, I understand. So I'm just— I was just talking hypothetical. I understand. The reason I ask you that is instead of you going out and trying something for the first time on a half a million dollar asset, it makes a little more sense to me. And you could tell me if you don't agree that we would do that for you and you wouldn't pay us. That sounds like that would work as long as we could find the right down payment for you. Is that correct?
That's, that's part of the other part is that I'd rather make my own— my cash flow different. From the difference from what I'm paying in my note and what I want to pay, what I would like to charge somebody, what I feel would be the marketable rate to, uh, you know, put my— have my monthly note to be.
Well, above my regular note, your note is only like $1,600 or $1,700. No, you know, I understand. Your note is only like $1,600, right?
Right.
Is that PITI everything?
Yeah.
Okay. Well, for a half a million dollar house in any market, you can get obviously a lot more than that.
Exactly.
Okay. So that's not an issue at all either. We can run some comps and I'm sure you have. Do you have an idea of what you want monthly? Again, hypothetically?
I mean, I would say at least $2,600. Okay, so a $539,000 house.
Okay, yeah, I'm not doubting you. So again, so I can talk to Dan this evening when he's back, if you got your $2,600, we'd probably try higher, and you got your, your price, provided we still have to talk about what the down payment might look like. Is that something you'd like to pursue a little further? We'd have to see the house is why I'm saying hypothetically right now.
Um, what role would you all play? And this by basically getting me a buyer?
Well, yeah, that's all we do. So we would find the proper buyer, vet them. It's like an underwriting process. Find out why they're not ready now, present to you a mortgage-ready plan, present to them a mortgage-ready plan. Have them sign off on all that, literally get it all signed up, and then turn it over to you. So we're out. It's the least profitable way for us, Nelson. But if you're saying you want to be in there and do it yourself, it's the safest for you.
Um, what's that question again?
Does that does that sound like you'd want to? Please be open to looking further at this because we need to come see the house. And what would happen is Dan would come out.
I mean, it depends on how much down payment we're talking about.
Well, I don't know yet.
I would like to get probably around $60,000.
Now you're going a little bit above 10%, so I think that might be a stretch.
I could go $55,000, right at 10%.
So why don't we do this? Why don't we set up a time where I can be on speakerphone or FaceTime or whatever, and Dan can come see you and he'll have to look at his schedule. I don't know his schedule, but if you're open to that, let's get that booked, see what the house looks like, and then talk about a little bit more definitive numbers. Does that make sense?
I would say Okay, when is—
are you around this evening for Dan to try to sync up schedules with you?
I will be here this evening. Oh, this evening? Uh, Valentine's Day, I don't know.
Oh, you don't want to get in trouble. Um, how about tomorrow?
Yeah, that'll probably be okay.
Okay, I'll have him call you tomorrow because if I tell him he has to call you tonight, it might get him in trouble on Valentine's Day.
All right, man.
All right, he'll call you sometime tomorrow, Nelson.
