A good Land Contract document addresses a secondary sale within its terms (all of Standard Legal’s Land Contracts do!). If the existing Land Contract spells out the terms for any sale by the Land Contract buyer, those terms should be followed expressly.
Land Contract Questions
Answers to Frequently Asked Land Contract Questions
Is There a Set Time Limit in Which an Executed Deed Must Be Provided After the Completion of Payments on a Land Contract?
The vast majority of states have no firm set time period or “grace period” for requiring the tender of a Deed for real property upon the completion of payments on a private mortage.
Does a Land Contract Buyer or Seller Typically Pay for Property Insurance During the Contract Term?
Under a Land Contract, the responsibility for the property insurance payment and the securing of a policy is a negotiated item.
Can I Sell the Land Contract House I Live In?
A Land Contract, like all other contracts, can be transferred, sold or assigned — so long as the document itself permits a sale or assignment, or all parties involved in the existing contract consent and agree to such sale or assignment.
If the Seller of a Land Contract Home Loses the Property in Foreclosure, What Recourse Do I Have as the Land Contract Buyer?
There is indeed a risk to a Land Contract buyer if the Land Contract seller has a mortgage on the property being contracted. Buyers need to protect themselves during the purchase negotiations.
Can I Quitclaim My Half Interest in a Land Contract to My Buyer Partner?
In most cases concerning Land Contracts, title to real property does not pass to the purchaser until all or a certain percentage of the land contract installment payments are made.
Until such time, the purchaser (or a partner-purchaser) does not hold any title or ownership in the property.
As such, if the purchaser does not hold ownership, he/she has no ownership interest in the property that can be transferred by way of a Quitclaim Deed. In essence, a drafted Quitclaim Deed would be meaningless because a person cannot “transfer ownership” of something he or she does not own.
What Legal Options Do I Have on a Land Contract Balloon Payment if I Can’t Get Financing?
The crash of the housing market has left a number of Land Contract holders facing balloon payments on amounts that are equal to or greater than the current market value of the property. Mortgage companies will not lend money to borrowers for such an over-valued purchase, even if the buyer has made several years of payments against the Land Contract.
So what options are available to the buyer and seller who find themselves in such a situation in a Land Contract?
If My Parents Land Contract Their Home to My Sibling, How is the Property Divided Upon Their Death?
The first fact to understand in such a circumstance is that a person cannot create a Will that distributes property they have already sold.
Can I Sell or Transfer the Land Contract Property I Bought?
A Land Contract can be sold or assigned to a third party purchaser — assuming that the terms of the Land Contract itself permits such an assignment or sale.
Should the Interest Rate Be Listed Within a Land Contract?
Standard Legal always recommends that every single pertinent detail to any property transaction be included within the Land Contract document covering said transaction.
But the nature of the question raises a rebuttal question.