Legal Question in Real Estate Law in South Carolina

Re: buying a new home

What you are thinking is formally called a Land Sales Contract, aka Contract for a Deed. You agree on a down payment and monthly payments. If you complete the term of the agreement, you get the deed transfered to your name. If you can't keep making payments, both parties simply walk away from the deal. Of course, you loose what you have put into the property, but you don't have a mortgage and you don't hurt your credit rating.

There is a hidden advantage in this for you, because you do not have to maintain the house or pay taxes, unless you agree to do so, because you do not own the property until the contract has run to the end of its term. If, after time, you find out that the building has hidden problems, you can simply walk away.

The money for the repairs and taxes, will, of course, come from your payments, but they would anyway.

Re: buying a new home

You would enter into a land contract. However, you do not get ownership of the property until full payment is made. Many people enter into land contracts and then ultimately obtain a mortgage for the balance after a few years of payments and reestablishing

your credit.