Getting started
Get your first owner-financed deal on the books — a property, a buyer, and the loan that ties them together. About five minutes.
DeedTrack is built in that order, and it matters: a loan needs a property and a buyer to point at, so add those first. Once the loan is saved, the amortization, the monthly breakdown and the full payment schedule are generated for you.
1. Add the property
Go to Properties in the sidebar and click + Add Property.
- Street address, City, State and ZIP — this is the address your buyer sees and the one that prints on mailed notices, so use the full legal address.
- Notes is optional. Anything you want on hand later — parcel number, what you paid, condition at sale.
- Company only appears if you've set up more than one LLC. It decides which bank account this property's payments land in, so if you hold property in different entities, get this one right.
Click Save.
2. Add the buyer
Go to Terms Buyers and click + Add Buyer. Enter their Full name, Email and Phone.
The email is the one that matters. It's how your buyer gets their own login, and it's where their invitation goes — a typo here means they never hear from you.
Click Save. Saving doesn't email anyone — you send the invitation yourself once the loan is set up, and the Terms Buyers page keeps a count of who's still waiting.
3. Create the loan
Go to Loans and click + New Loan. This is where your signed contract gets typed in, once.
Who and what
- Property and Terms buyer (primary) — the two you just created.
- Co-buyers on this loan is optional — anyone else on the contract. Each co-buyer gets their own login, sees this loan, and can make payments.
- Loan type — Amortized (level payment) for a standard note, or Interest-only + balloon.
The numbers
Straight off your contract:
- Sale price and Down payment. What's left is the amount financed.
- Interest rate (%/yr) and Term (months).
- Start date (first payment due) — not the closing date. The date the first payment is owed.
Escrow, if you collect it
Property taxes (annual) and Insurance (annual) are annual figures — DeedTrack divides by twelve. Entering a monthly amount here is the most common setup mistake, and it makes the payment come out far too low.
Miscellaneous fee (monthly) is a flat monthly charge, if you bill one. Name it whatever your contract calls it — “Loan service fee”, “Administration fee” — and put the amount beside it. That name is what shows on the loan and in your exports. Leave both boxes empty and nothing is charged.
If the note already has payments on it
Most notes you put into DeedTrack aren't brand new. Payment status handles that:
- Buyer is current (caught up) — DeedTrack builds the history up to today for you.
- Buyer is behind on payments — then fill in Months behind.
Either way, you're not back-entering two years of payments by hand.
Late fees
Set Late fee type to a percentage of the monthly payment or a flat dollar amount, then set the Grace period (days before late fee).
Watch the line under the grace period — it tells you the exact day the fee will be added, and it updates as you type. A payment due on the 1st with a 4-day grace means the buyer has the 1st through the 5th and the fee lands on the 6th. Check it against your contract before saving; it's the one setting people most often assume rather than read.
A percentage fee is a percentage of the full monthly payment — not of the balance, and not of whatever is left after a partial payment. A part-paid month still gets the whole fee, because the month wasn't paid in full by the end of grace.
Click Save Loan. The monthly payment calculates as you type, so you can check it against your contract before saving.
Send the invitation
Now the loan exists, go back to Terms Buyers and click Send invite next to your buyer. They get an email with a link to create their login, and from then on they can see their balance, what's due, and pay online. The button reads Resend invite afterwards, so you can always send it again.
Before you send, it's worth adding your own note to the invitation — something like “this is the payment portal I mentioned, call me if anything looks off.” It appears above the sign-up steps, under your name, so the email reads like it came from you rather than from software. Write it once and every invitation uses it.
When payments come in
Your buyer can pay by card, Cash App or bank transfer. Card and Cash App clear straight away and appear on the loan within seconds.
Bank transfers take about four business days. The money leaves your buyer's account almost immediately, but the banks take several days to settle it, so it won't count toward the balance until it arrives. Both of you will see it listed as processing in the meantime, with the date it's expected to clear.
This catches people out, so it's worth telling a buyer up front: a bank payment that's gone through will still show the full amount owing for a few days. More than one buyer has paid twice because they assumed the first attempt failed.
Two other things worth knowing about bank payments: the money needs to stay in their account until it clears, not just on the day they pay, and a returned payment can bounce back days later.
That's it
One property, one buyer, one loan — and you're servicing the note. Open the loan to see the balance, the monthly breakdown and the full payment schedule, all built from what you just entered.
