What if the buyer has stopped making their payments?

We can still help. We regularly accept non-performing or defaulting land contracts. We take over the legal burden of resolving the default so you don’t have to hire a lawyer or go through the expensive and stressful foreclosure process.

Do I have to pay any transfer fees or legal costs?

No, you won't pay a dime in closing costs. We take care of the heavy lifting, handling the complex assignment paperwork required to legally transfer the note and deed over to our nonprofit organization.

How is my tax deduction calculated?

When you donate an active land contract, your tax benefit is not based on what you originally paid for the property decades ago. Instead, the IRS generally allows you to claim a charitable deduction based on the fair market value of the note’s remaining principal balance, instantly bypassing years of future income taxes on the interest.

Donate a land contract or seller-financed note to charity Land contract specialists: (888) 228-7320

Menu Call

Donate a land contract to charity: a couple at the kitchen table reading the contract and payment ledger

Donate a Land Contract or Seller-Financed Note to Charity

If you sold property on a land contract, contract for deed or seller-financed note, you hold two things: the right to the remaining payments and, often, legal title until the buyer pays in full. Real Estate with Causes accepts donations of that seller’s interest nationwide. We step into your place, collect the payments and deliver the deed when the buyer finishes, and you stop managing a contract you may have carried for decades.

(888) 228-7320 Read the land contract FAQs

Tell us about the contract

Every property gets a look. Name, phone and email are the only required fields.

Land Contract or Note Donation Intake

What are you holding?

What kind of property secures it?

Where is that property? City, state and ZIP

Remaining balance

Interest rate

Monthly payment

Payments remaining

Payment history

Is the instrument recorded?

Who collects the payments?

Are the property taxes on the securing property current?

Fully IRS Compliant

We Handle the Paperwork

Form 8283 Done Right

501(c)(3) Recognized Charity

How donating a land contract works

The buyer keeps paying and keeps living there. The only change for them is who the payments go to.

Step one

Send us the contract and the payment history

A copy of the contract or note, the recorded memorandum if there is one, and a record of recent payments. A specialist reviews it and calls back.

Step two

We assign the contract and notify the buyer

Your interest is assigned to us in writing and, where you still hold title, the deed is placed so it can be delivered at payoff. The buyer is told where to send payments.

Step three

The payments and the paperwork become ours

We collect, track and service the contract through payoff and deliver the deed when it is earned. You receive a written acknowledgment and, where required, a signed Form 8283.

Selling a land contract versus donating it

Contract holders who want out usually have two options: sell the contract to a note buyer at a discount, or donate it. This is how they compare.

	Selling to a note buyer	Donating the contract
What you receive	A lump sum, usually at a meaningful discount to the remaining balance, set by the buyer’s risk and interest rate.	No cash. A charitable deduction based on the appraised fair market value of the contract interest.
What you pay	Broker fees on some note sales, and the discount itself.	No escrow, no closing and no commission. A qualified appraisal of the contract interest is your expense and your choice of appraiser.
Buyer who pays late	Deepens the discount or ends the offer.	Reviewed, not refused. Payment history affects the value, and we look at it with you.
Deferred gain	Selling the contract triggers the gain you have been deferring under installment reporting.	Giving the contract away is also treated as a disposition, so deferred gain can become taxable. Your advisor needs to run this before you decide.
Ongoing work	Ends at sale.	Ends at assignment. We service the contract through payoff.
Where the value goes	To you, less the discount and any fees.	To our charitable programs as the payments come in.

We do not provide tax or legal advice. Deduction outcomes depend on holding period, property type, use and a qualified appraisal. See IRS Publication 526, Publication 561 and the Form 8283 instructions, and consult your own advisor.

Six contracts we see constantly

Land contracts come in every shape. Find the one closest to yours, or call and describe it.

A small occupied house on a gravel drive, the kind of home most land contracts are written on

A house sold to a young family You sold a modest house on terms a bank would not offer, and they have been paying for years. They keep the house and keep paying; only the payee changes.

Handwritten payment ledger and a bundle of payment envelopes on a desk

A contract you track by hand Payments recorded in a ledger or a spreadsheet, sometimes for twenty years. We take over the record keeping and reconcile it with the buyer.

A small cabin on a wooded parcel sold on a land contract

Rural land sold on terms A few wooded acres or a hunting tract sold on contract, now improved by the buyer. Title stays with you until payoff, which we take over.

A land contract seller reviewing the contract with an advisor

A contract your advisor flagged Your CPA has raised the installment gain or the estate plan. We work with your advisor on the numbers before anything is assigned.

Signing an assignment of a land contract beside a notary seal

A contract written long ago Old forms, handwritten amendments or a missing recorded memorandum. We review what exists and paper what is missing.

Mailbox at the end of a gravel drive where the monthly land contract payment arrives

An inherited contract A parent sold the property on contract and you inherited the payments. The estate or the heirs can donate the interest.

Michigan land contracts and the Midwest, where most of these come from

Seller financing is ordinary practice in Michigan. Houses on the east side of Detroit, cottages up north, small rentals in Flint and Saginaw and Kalamazoo get sold on a land contract because the buyer cannot get a bank loan and the seller wants the income. Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois run on the same instrument. We take assignments in all 50 states, but if your contract came out of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa or Illinois, you are in familiar territory for us.

What we read on a Michigan land contract

Recording. Whether the contract itself or a memorandum of land contract went on record with the county register of deeds, and who has the executed original. An unrecorded contract is common and is not a dead end, it just changes the order of the paperwork.
The default remedy the contract preserves. A Michigan seller can pursue forfeiture through summary proceedings in district court or foreclosure in circuit court, and the timelines and outcomes are not the same. What the contract says about notice and the grace period matters to what the interest is worth.
Taxes and insurance. Whether the buyer pays the summer and winter tax bills and carries insurance directly, or pays you and trusts you to forward it. Escrow arrangements get documented in the assignment.
Taxable value. Entering the land contract is what set the assessment picture, not the assignment of your interest afterward. Send the last two tax bills and we will confirm how the local assessor has been treating the parcel.
The balloon. Many Midwest contracts carry a balloon at five or seven years. We want the date, the projected balance at that date, and your read on whether the buyer can refinance.

The same instrument under other names

Contract for deed in Minnesota and Texas. Installment land contract in Ohio and Indiana. Bond for deed in Louisiana, agreement for deed in Florida. If your document says the seller keeps legal title until the last payment and the buyer is already living there, it is the same gift and the same review.

None of this is a yes or a no. Send the contract, the amortization or payment ledger and the last two tax bills, and we will tell you what we see. The buyer keeps paying on the same terms either way: an assignment changes who receives the payment, not what the buyer owes.

The tax side of donating a land contract

A land contract is not real estate in the usual sense for tax purposes. It is an installment obligation, and that changes the rules.

How the deduction is valued

The deduction is generally the fair market value of the contract interest, which depends on the remaining balance, the interest rate, the payment history and the buyer. That value is often below the face balance and is set by a qualified appraisal.

The deferred gain

If you have been reporting the original sale on the installment method, giving the contract away is generally a disposition that can make the remaining deferred gain taxable in the year of the gift. This is the most important number to run with your advisor.

Documentation

Above $5,000 the IRS requires a qualified appraisal and Form 8283 Section B, signed by the appraiser and acknowledged by us. Keep your original closing statement and payment history; your advisor will need both.

Full tax benefits guide How Form 8283 works The donation process

Land contract donation questions, answered

Will the buyer have to do anything differently? +

Only send the payments somewhere new. The contract terms, the interest rate and the payoff date stay the same. We send the buyer a written notice of assignment and our payment instructions, and we answer their questions directly.

What if the buyer has fallen behind on payments? +

Tell us the history and we will review it. A buyer who is behind lowers the contract’s value, and in some cases the right answer is to work out the default before donating. Every contract gets a look, and we will tell you plainly what we see.

I still hold the deed. When does the buyer get it? +

When they pay off the contract, exactly as your agreement says. After the donation we hold that obligation in your place and deliver the deed at payoff.

Will donating the contract create a tax bill? +

It can. If you have been deferring gain on the original sale under installment reporting, disposing of the contract, including by gift, can make that remaining gain taxable. The deduction may offset it in whole or part. This is a calculation for your tax advisor before you decide.

Can I donate part of the remaining payments and keep the rest? +

Partial interests follow strict rules and often do not qualify for a deduction. An assignment of the entire contract interest is the clean route. If you need some income from it, a charitable gift annuity may be worth discussing instead.

All frequently asked questions

Not a land contract? We take these too

Eight other property classes, each with its own transfer rules and its own page.

Donate a House Donate Land Commercial Property Industrial Property Apartments and Condos Farmland Hotels and Lodging Unique Property Assets

Tell us about the contract and we will review it

Send the remaining balance, the monthly payment and how the buyer has been paying, and we will tell you plainly what a donation would look like.

(888) 228-7320 Contact us