Contract for Deed - Posted by Thomas J. Dietel

Posted by Seniorito on June 09, 1999 at 12:29:23:

A title search will only protect against the past. Two dangers of this method are future leins and failure to transfer. A course in land trusts may help here. Or at least put a deed in escrow to backup the future transfer agreement.

Contract for Deed - Posted by Thomas J. Dietel

Posted by Thomas J. Dietel on June 09, 1999 at 08:35:39:

Anyone out there want to explain to me, in some type of detail, that can explain how a contract for deed works. The situation is there is a duplex for sale at 80,000. My investigations say that it is worth about 64,000. The house is paid for by the owner, nothing is owed. Someone suggested a contract for deed deal. Someone help.

Re: Contract for Deed - Posted by Russ Sims

Posted by Russ Sims on June 09, 1999 at 11:27:27:

The seller agrees to carry the note on the property. In other words it’s an owner financed deal. But unlike a lot of owner financed deals, you don’t take title to the property. The property stays in the owners name until such time as he feels safe transfering title to you. Often this will be at the end of the contract term. But you can set it up so that the deed is transfered to you after, say, you have faithfully made 24 or 36 months of payments. By that time the owner should be convinced of your reliability.

In this scenario, the owner maintains taxes and insurance, so those payments will have to be built into your monthly payment to him.

One of the biggest concerns for you would be to make sure the owner has unencumbered legal title to the property.One way to help safeguard against this is to have a title search done. It will cost money but is well worth the effort.