Question

How can we proceed with the sale of our house under a Contract for Deed agreement?

Answer 1

You can talk to the party you have the contract with, or not, and inform them that you are listing the property for sale and that your contract will be satisfied upon sale of the property. This is you property as long as you contract is satisfied and how you satisfy it is your choice. Just make sure you read your contract prior to listing the house to make sure you are not limited.

Answer 2

In the previous response, the suggestion to "assign" your contract is correct provided that clause is in your contract. If not, seek to make an addendum or a "new" contract and then sell it. There are many ways in which to resolve your situation, especially if the owner of the deed is cooperative. After five years, I suspect that they will be willing to work something out reasonably. Good luck!

Answer 3

You could do a simultanous closing in which you sell the property to the buyer and use the money to payoff the contract for deed. The closing company holds everything in escrow until they have the deed to you, the deed from you, and the money to payoff the seller.

Answer 4

Unfortunately, unlike a Purchase Money Mortgage, in a Contract for Deed you cannot take title to the property until the Contract is completely satisfied and all payments have been fully made. If you have not fulfilled all duties under the Contract, you must do so in order to sell the property. If you fail to do so, you have no right to the property and are forfeiting the monies already expended under the Contract for Deed. Good luck, I hope it works out. The only other suggestion I can make is to assign the remainder of the Contract for Deed to another individual under whatever terms you can agree to, but that's only if the original Contract for Deed allows assignment...