It can be possible to sell your house on a land contract even if you still owe money on it. However, your ability to do it depends on a number of factors, including your lender’s willingness to allow it — and your buyer’s willingness to have a lender sandwiched between you both.
You can sell your house on a land contract with an outstanding loan balance if your lender agrees and if the contract doesn’t have a due-on-sale clause.
How Land Contracts Work
A land contract, sometimes also called a contract for deed or installment sale, is an agreement between you and the buyer. Under the contract, he agrees to make payments to you, sometimes including a down payment, and you agree to let him use your property while he is paying on it by giving him “equitable title.” If he meets his obligations under the contract, you also agree to transfer the “legal title,” which is the actual ownership, of the property to him.
The effect of this is that while the buyer, or vendee, gets to use the property as if he had bought it, the property doesn’t change hands until the end of the contract. Read the rest of this entry »