Payment plans how to make it legal?

I'm selling one of my snakes and the person buying it asked if I could do payment plans, its local so I can get it in writing, but what needs to be on there to make it legal to protect myself, and what will they need to protect themselves?

also out of curiousity, how do you make it legal over the net? I've seen that before.

If you have a written document that has a statement and signatures, I'm pretty sure that's good enough. If you want to go further, you can get a notary.

I don't know anything about online payment plans.

and get a xerox of his driver's license if possible.

Make sure that everything is written out very clear. Don't assume ANYTHING. Put down what the down payment was and how long he has to pay it off. Make it very clear that if it is not paid off by the time both of you agree to in the contract that you have the right to resell and buyer loses any money already paid.

This is from a past deal of mine. Guy bought a snake and paid half up front. He made one payment after that and I never heard from him again. After about a year without hearing from him(he did not respond to my emails either) he shows up out of the blue with the 800 he owes on the snake. To make a long story short after talking to an attorney I was advised my best bet was to refund his money because I was longer in possession of the snake. The attorney said because our paperwork didn't lay out a time frame for payments he was not delinquent on payments and he would probably win in small claims.

thx guys

In most cases, depending on the person buying and the amount I actually send them a contract that I ask to be returned with their sig.

Here is an example if that helps. http://stewartreptiles.com/Articles/ContractSample1.pdf

thank you