Most sellers simply can't offer it, because seller financing takes a home owned close to free and clear. A seller carrying the note is stepping into the bank's shoes. Most people selling a home still owe a mortgage and need your purchase to pay off their loan, which leaves nothing to finance. Where it shows up more is the investor world, in two flavors. One is a distressed seller who needs flexibility, though distress tends to be scarce when most owners have equity and low fixed rates. The more common one is an older investor who owns free and clear, is tired of the work of being a landlord, and is happy to keep collecting a monthly payment as the lender. Carrying the financing turns a management headache into passive income. We've seen this on larger deals too: an owner in his eighties holding a multimillion-dollar, multi-unit property free and clear, weighing whether to carry some or all of the financing because he wanted out of active landlording without giving up the income. So it's possible. You're usually hunting for the free-and-clear seller who values steady payments over a lump sum, though, and that's rarely the typical listed home.