I am buying my home through a Contract for Deed in Texas. For the past year, the seller has let me pay part of the payment by the 15th and the rest the next week. Now, she has sent me a letter via regular mail, stating that she will no longer accept the payment in 2 parts and that I must make the full payment by the 1st, which is what was stated in the Deed or the property will go back to them. The 1st is only 3 days away and there is no way I can make the payment. Is she correct?

There is a legal way to deal with this & the simpler way. The best way is to talk to the seller & find out why the change now. If you aren't angry & defensive, there may be some way to work this out before the more expensive & time consuming legal resolution is used.

I suggest you check out the link below & find out as much as you can what your legal rights are. I don't know your exact location but they may be able to refer you to the best place for the info you need. You can use the Google terms: "contract for deed" Texas to get more info on how they work there.

Then see if you can get a free consultation from a real estate lawyer to get some basic questions answered. Make a list of them before you call or your appt so you can maximize the time. There are some rights that can't be waived even if your contract says they are. It may also be possible that since they accepted the pymts for a yr in 2 pymts that legally the contract has been changed to that.

In any case, it is doubtful that you got sufficient notice to change it back to only one pymt. Which means they may be able to do that, but not for the upcoming pymt, so you should try to prepare for that.

If your deed is not recorded with the property records, ask the lawyer if you can do that. Then get it done if you can. If not, ask the lawyer what you can do with the property records to protect your interest in the property.

I am not a lawyer, but hopefully this will help.

Contract for Deed Consumer Education Program