Q: If a mortgage is owner-financed and the total amount is due in three years, what happens if the deadline is not met? Can they take back the house?

A: When you say the property was owner-financed, you must mean that the buyer purchased a home and the prior owner financed the purchase of the home. If that's the case, the seller should have had the buyer sign a promissory note agreeing to repay the borrowed money at a certain interest rate in a given amount of time. In addition, the buyer/borrower should have signed a mortgage giving the seller a lien on the home to secure the debt.

Whether a mortgage is owner-financed or bank-financed, if a homeowner fails to comply with the terms of the mortgage, the seller (who is now the lender) can sue the owner of the home to recover what is owed. If the buyer fails to pay what is owed, the seller/lender can foreclose on the home, sell the home and use the proceeds from the sale to pay off the debt.

If the home is now worth less than the debt, the seller/lender can continue to pursue the buyer to recover the difference. That difference is called the deficiency.

If the sale was sold under what is generally called an installment contract or a contract for deed, the seller would sue the buyer to recover the amount owed or get back the property.

In either case, if the seller had the buyer sign the proper documentation, the seller should be able to sue the buyer. Whether the seller gets money or gets the property back will depend on the circumstances and what the buyer does.

Getting the property back may not be what the seller had in mind when he offered owner financing, but that is one of the risks in providing owner financing to buy a home.

Q: We need to reduce our 5.1-acre property to less than 5 acres in order to qualify for my husband's employer's relocation program. It's been suggested that we gift 0.2 acres to one of our adjacent neighbors. Are there any other options we should consider? If not, how do we begin the process?

A: It seems like the best and easiest solution would be to see if your employer's relocation program manager would waive the "less than 5 acre" requirement for you. But if they won't, you have some options, some of which can be complicated, expensive and time-consuming.

As you indicated, one of your options might be to reduce the size of your property. However, in some cases this might be impossible. Some local municipalities have minimum lot-size requirements. If your town or county has a minimum lot size of 5 acres, you'd be out of luck.

If you're able to reduce the acreage of your lot you may have other legal challenges. Of the many legal obstacles you may encounter a big one might be subdivision ordinances and subdivision requirements. In an effort to regulate local land uses, many municipalities have ordinances that require owners of land to obtain accurate surveys of their land, along with water flow studies, before they permit the subdivision of large lots. In some cases these local requirements might even include the review of what you propose and their approval of your division.

If you're able to overcome these obstacles or they don't exist in your area, you could transfer that land to your neighbor. Your attorney could obtain a legal description from your surveyor to convey to your neighbor the necessary acreage. You, in turn, would need to make sure that the local real estate taxing authority thereafter taxes your neighbor for that acreage.

In a nutshell, if you can't get your husband's employer to waive the requirement, seek out a real estate attorney in your area to guide you through the process.

To get even more valuable advice from Ilyce, visit her Personal Finance and Real Estate Center.

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