Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Land contracts, also known as contracts for deed or installment land contracts, have again fallen into disfavor in California after a surge in popularity in the 1970, largely due to a series of unfavorable court decisions and legislative changes.

Your question's first sentence ends abruptly, and I think you left out a lot of information that would be needed to give you an answer. As it is, I can't even really tell whether you are the seller or the buyer under the land contract.

You might want to re-ask your question. Otherwise, here are a few references that might be helpful. If you can't find them on line, try your county law library:

Civil Code, sections 2985 to 2985.6;

Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) "Mortgage, Deed of Trust and Foreclosure Law" 4th Ed., sections 1.59 - 1.66;

CEB "California Real Property Remedies & Damages, section 4.64;

CEB "California Real Property Sales Transactions" sections 9.14 - 9.17; and

Miller & Starr "California Real Estate" 3rd Ed. section 2.14

The big issue that I see with your installment land sale contract is that you do not have title. Under an installment land sale contract, the seller retains title until the buyer has made all payments under the contract. At this point, it seems any structuring of a deal to sell the property is going to allert your seller, which could trigger an anticipatory breach of your land sale contract, because your seller is going to want to make the sale. You would then be limited to restitution of payments that you made.