How owner-financed land
actually works on Contract4Deed.

A two-sided marketplace for owner-financed land. Individual landowners — we call them operators — list parcels they want to sell on terms (a down payment plus monthly payments, no bank involved). The platform provides attorney-reviewed contract templates for every state, orchestrates county recording, runs the payment rails, and gives both sides a dashboard. We do not take ownership of any parcel listed here.

The individual operator who listed each parcel. The seller you sign your contract with is the real-world party who holds title. Contract4Deed never takes title and is never a party to your purchase contract.

No to all four — and we say so explicitly on the legal positioning page. We license a brand, provide tooling, and supply state-specific contract templates that an attorney has reviewed. Every operator is responsible for their own deal, every contract is between the buyer and the seller, and every party is encouraged to retain their own attorney before signing.

Three places, and they are all opt-in. (1) A Gold subscription with power-user features — priority alerts, comparable sales, demand analytics, and automated cross-posting to other platforms. Buyer Gold is $9/mo; Seller Gold is $29/mo. (2) An optional Instant ACH fee of 1.5% if you want same-day settlement instead of free 3-business-day standard ACH. (3) Flat pass-through fees for expedited county recording, notary scheduling, and similar add-ons — disclosed before you confirm. We never take a commission on the sale price or the monthly payments.

Two anchors. First, every contract you sign is drafted under your parcel's state-specific land-contract statute (Michigan MCL 565.351, Ohio ORC 5313, Texas Property Code Subchapter D, and so on), and a memorandum of the contract is recorded at your county recorder's office — you can pull that record yourself and confirm the contract exists. Second, every operator publicly agrees to our legal positioning, which disclaims any broker, agent, or lender role. Beyond what we ship, the right move is the same as for any real-estate transaction: have your own attorney spend an hour with the contract before you sign.

1. Browse the marketplace and find a parcel you like. 2. Submit a buyer application on the listing — you propose your terms (down payment, length, rate). 3. The seller reviews and either accepts, counters, or declines. 4. When you reach agreement, both parties sign the state-specific contract in-browser. 5. You wire the down payment via ACH. 6. The memorandum of contract is recorded at the county. 7. You take possession of the parcel. Title transfers to you at final payoff.

At signing. Once the contract is signed and the down payment clears, you take possession of the parcel — subject to whatever rules the county or HOA imposes (zoning, easements, building permits, etc.). Title — the legal piece of paper at the county recorder — transfers to you at final payoff.

No. The platform itself does not pull credit. Individual sellers may screen applications based on their own criteria — income, intended use, employment type — but most owner-finance land transactions don't involve credit reports.

Yes — encouraged. Every listing has photos (ground level plus aerial when available), GPS coordinates, and a satellite-map embed. You can navigate to the parcel using the coordinates. Some sellers may offer to meet on-site; ask via the listing's contact button. Contract4Deed does not employ field representatives.

Use the satellite map, the photo gallery, the county GIS map linked from the listing, and the driving directions provided. We strongly recommend visiting in person whenever feasible. If that's impossible, hire a local property inspector or surveyor to verify the parcel matches what's listed — for $200 to $500 most will photograph and report on a vacant parcel for you.

Immediately: a signed PDF of your land contract, the recorded memorandum of contract (with the county's stamp), your amortization schedule, and access to the platform's payment ledger and document vault. As you pay: monthly statements (or quarterly in states where the law requires them, like Ohio). At final payoff: the deed transferring title from the seller to you, recorded by the platform with the county on your behalf.

At final payoff — when you make your last contract payment. The seller delivers the deed; the platform orchestrates recording with the county; both a copy and the original (mailed by the county after recording) reach you within 30 days. Throughout the contract, you have an equitable interest in the parcel — recorded in the county's land records — but legal title sits with the seller until payoff.

Every state's land-contract statute provides a cure period — a fixed number of days to catch up before the seller can begin forfeiture. Michigan: 28 days under MCL 600.5728. Texas: 30 days standard, 60 if you've paid 40% or more of principal. Ohio: 30 days plus quarterly statement protections. The contract you sign references the exact cure window for your state. The right move when you anticipate missing a payment is to contact the seller immediately — most situations resolve through a short forbearance arrangement long before forfeiture proceedings begin.

Most owner-finance land contracts on Contract4Deed allow prepayment without penalty. The specific language is in your contract — look for the prepayment or acceleration clause. If avoiding prepayment penalties is important to you, confirm with the seller before signing; the platform makes the contract terms visible on each listing.

It depends on the parcel and the seller. Every listing states explicitly whether mineral rights are conveyed along with the surface. In states with significant mineral activity — Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Dakota — many parcels have severed mineral rights, meaning a prior owner kept them. If a listing doesn't make it explicit, ask the seller before signing.

Same answer — it depends on the parcel. Water rights are a meaningful issue in western states (Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Washington) where prior-appropriation water law separates surface ownership from water rights. In most eastern states water rights move with the land. Each listing states whether water rights are conveyed.

Generally yes. Most US states allow non-citizen ownership of vacant land. A few caveats: Texas's SB 17 (effective September 2025) restricts real-property ownership by citizens of designated foreign-adversary nations. Some states require additional disclosures. Individual sellers may have their own preferences. If you're a foreign buyer, ask the seller and check the listing for any state restrictions — they'll be flagged.

Mostly, but state law adds rescission windows in specific cases. Texas: 7-day rescission on residential land contracts under Property Code §5.074. Most other states: no automatic rescission window — once the contract is signed and the down payment clears, you're committed to the terms. Read the contract carefully; ask before signing; have your own attorney review.

Every listing's Property Specifics section lists the zoning code from the county assessor's records. For current authoritative rules, contact the parcel's county zoning office directly — they're the source of truth, and zoning rules change. Don't rely on the listing alone for any plans that depend on zoning (a build, a business, etc.).

Yes. Contract4Deed provides attorney-reviewed templates per state, but those attorneys represent the integrity of the template — not you personally. Plan on $200 to $500 for one hour with a local real-estate attorney before signing. It's almost always money well spent, especially on the first contract you sign with a given seller.

Create a free account and save a search (state, county, acreage, price range, etc.). The platform will email you when matches drop. Buyer Gold ($9/mo) upgrades the cadence to priority alerts within 15 minutes of a listing going live; the free tier sends a daily digest. You can also add specific parcels to your watchlist for activity notifications.

Parcels are first-come, first-served at the application stage. Operators can choose to give a prospective buyer a short exclusivity window once an application is accepted — that's between you and the seller, set out in the agreement before contract signing. The platform itself doesn't hold parcels off-market.

Yes — that's the core of what the platform does. Apply as an operator on the seller page. Once approved, you list any parcels you own and set your own terms: down payment minimum, term length, interest-rate range, buyer qualifications, anything you want. The platform handles contract assembly, county recording, ACH payment rails, and the buyer-side experience. We never take title.

Buyer down payments and monthly installments land in your bank account directly via ACH. Standard ACH settles in roughly 3 business days at no cost. Instant ACH is available at 1.5% if you need same-day. The platform never holds your money — it routes from the buyer's account to yours.

Listing is free, on every parcel, forever. Seller Gold is $29/mo and adds featured placement, bulk-upload tools, buyer KYC pre-check, demand analytics, automated cross-posting to Craigslist and other platforms, and dedicated ops support. Per-deal services like expedited county recording ($25) and notary scheduling are opt-in flat-fee and disclosed before you confirm. There is no platform commission on the sale price or on the monthly payments.

You do. Buyer applications hit your dashboard with the buyer's identity, proposed terms, intended use, and any qualification info you required at listing setup. You accept, counter, or decline. The platform doesn't gate buyers on your behalf — your terms govern.

The default-and-cure process is governed by your parcel's state-specific land-contract statute. The dashboard surfaces the remedy timeline for each parcel: notice required, cure window (Michigan 28 days; Texas 30 to 60 days; Ohio 30 days plus other protections; etc.), and the path to forfeiture if cure fails. Most defaults resolve via short forbearance rather than going all the way through forfeiture.

At intake we collect your purchase deed reference, the recorded deed instrument number, and the legal description. We cross-check against the county's public records to confirm you are the current owner. If anything in your title chain looks unusual — a quitclaim deed, a probate-derived title, an old tax-sale deed — we surface it before the listing goes live so it can be cleared or disclosed up front rather than at the buyer's closing.

When a buyer on an owner-finance contract defaults and fails to cure within their state's statutory window, the seller can take the parcel back through forfeiture (or, in some states above a certain equity threshold, judicial foreclosure). Those parcels often come back onto the marketplace, typically with the prior buyer's down payment and accrued payments forfeited. The new asking price is usually close to where the previous contract left off — which can mean meaningful built-in equity for the next buyer. Forfeiture is not a Contract4Deed action; it's a process between the original seller and the original buyer under state law.

Yes. The seller may already have a survey on file — many listings include one in the document folder. If not, hire a local licensed surveyor; cost is typically $500 to $1,500 for a small vacant parcel. The cost is yours unless your contract specifies otherwise.

We don't. Every parcel is acquired and owned by an individual operator who chose to list it. Operators source their own parcels — typically via county tax-sale auctions, off-market deals from neighbors and estates, subdivider relationships, or their own portfolios. Contract4Deed is the marketplace and tooling layer; we don't take inventory.

Your contract with the seller typically warrants good and marketable title at payoff — meaning no undisclosed liens, no missing heirs, no recorded easements outside what was disclosed. The seller is bound by the contract; the platform is not a guarantor. Title insurance is available through our partner network as an opt-in service at the buyer's option — for a vacant-land parcel, owner's title insurance typically runs 0.3% to 0.5% of the purchase price, paid once.

A tax some states or counties charge when title to real property changes hands. It's charged when the deed is recorded — at final payoff, not at contract signing — because that's when title moves. Some states have no transfer tax; some are flat fees; some are percentages of sale price. The parcel's state and county determine the rate; your contract specifies who pays.

Three differences that matter. (1) The seller is the financer, not a bank — your monthly payments go to the seller, not to a mortgage servicer. (2) The contract is a land contract (or installment contract; or contract for deed; the names vary by state) rather than a deed-of-trust mortgage — legal title stays with the seller until payoff, while you hold a recorded equitable interest. (3) There's no credit check or bank underwriting; the seller decides what they need to see in your application. The protections, cure rights, and remedy timelines come from each state's land-contract statute rather than federal mortgage law (though federal Dodd-Frank rules apply when the parcel is the buyer's primary residence).

Yes — a memorandum of contract is recorded with the county recorder for every transaction. The memorandum is a short notice document referencing the parties, the parcel's legal description, and the existence of the contract; the full contract itself stays private between you and the seller. Recording is mandatory in some states (Ohio within 20 days, Texas within 30 days, Maryland within 15 days) and standard practice in all others. The platform handles the recording.

Two layers of protection. First, the memorandum of contract recorded at the county means your equitable interest is in the public record — anyone searching title sees it. Second, because legal title stays with the seller until payoff, the seller cannot sell the parcel out from under you to a different buyer without that buyer's title search discovering the existing contract. In the rare case a seller disappears or stops fulfilling their end (sending statements, transferring the deed at payoff), the contract and the recording give you the basis for a specific-performance action in court to force conveyance.

Depends on the seller's terms in your specific contract. Three common patterns: (1) Buyer pays — you pay the county directly when the annual bill comes; (2) Seller pays — the seller keeps paying and adds your tax share to the monthly payment; (3) Escrow — the platform escrows monthly tax payments and remits to the county. Each listing states which pattern applies. Most platforms default to buyer-pays for vacant land because the dollar amounts are small.

Your contract specifies a dispute-resolution venue and process — usually the courts of the parcel's state, sometimes with a mediation clause first. Contract4Deed is not a party to your contract, doesn't have authority to make rulings, and doesn't act as arbitrator. We're available to surface what the contract and the state law say if either side asks; beyond that, disputes are between buyer and seller.

Rarely, but state-by-state. Most states permit non-citizen ownership of vacant land. Texas SB 17 (September 2025) restricts ownership by citizens of designated foreign-adversary nations. A handful of other states have agricultural-land foreign-ownership rules. If you're a foreign buyer, the listing will flag any applicable state restriction, and the seller can confirm.