Marisela Orozco is letting her sister, Marissa, live in the house she thought she would own after making almost four years of payments. But the owner disappeared, along with the title, and she worries he may return and evict them.
The price was $39,900. For a down payment he sold his childhood home, which he inherited when his dad died,"the only thing I had in the whole world." Land contracts and other kinds of alternative financing have been around a long time, with roots in the race-based redlining that blocked Black Americans from traditional mortgages. But legal aid experts say they became more common after the Great Recession, and as housing and rental costs have skyrocketed. They may be the only option for some, but these alternative deals pose a financial risk to families with the least to lose.
"In most of our cases, we have handwritten notes that wouldn't pass muster," says Peggy Lee, an attorney with Southeastern Ohio Legal Services. She says some of her clients have even been duped into thinking a verbal contract was binding, though they're not recognized in Ohio.
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