Okay, I purchased a used mobile home last year under a land contract with $5000 down. I pay the taxes and insurance on the mobile home. I decided to take a job in another state and asked if I could let a friend take over the payments and eventually the mobile home would be his when paid off. The "owner" told me no way, that I am responsible for the payment and if I move I must sell the mobile home to pay them in full or continue with the payments while the home remains vacant. Obivously I can't do that. I told them that if I was unable to sell it for the pay off that I would have to forfeit on the loan. Needless to say they told me that they would take me to court and sue me for payment. Can they do this? Nothing was ever filed on the 'contract' other than having it notorized at time of signing. Can I legally rent it to someone with option to purchase? HELP PLEASE!! :(

It will depend on the "contract". I have bought a few that did not allow me to rent it or to sell it without the owners permission. I could either keep it and pay it off, So there are contracts written like that, It is because people like us that sell on land contracts do it with the idea that the person buying it will not pay it off and we get it back to pay it off. So the harder it is to make your contract, the easier it is to foreclose.

Now most land contracts have it that once your breach the contract the owner merely takes the property back.

You should be able to merely turn it back over if you don't want to keep it.

But again the exact terms of this contract since all are normallly written individual. So the person selling to you may have well harder for you than other contracts.

You need to take your contract to an attoreny who can tell you what you can and can't do.

Thank you for the prompt response. The contract was one that was downloaded from online with nothing stating that I could not rent the property out or transfer the loan to another person.

Remember a contract for deed is not a loan, there is no deed transfer until the contract is paid off. So only the seller could allow you to transfer the contract to another party. ( unless it is in the contract you can)

But if it does not say you can't rent, then you can rent it out.

And you can even do a rent to own sort of thing,

If I came over a little strong I normally the seller, and sometimes a buyer but I buy them that way to flip them, where I do it on a contract, fix the house up and then find a buyer. What I do is have an arrangement to sell it for more money, at closing the buyer pays the owner off, hands me a check and everyone goes home happy. But I always make sure I have a clause that allows me to do that.