Homeowner guide
Sell-and-stay offers and North Carolina law
If someone offers to buy your home and let you keep living in it, North Carolina has a specific law about that deal — and it gives you rights most homeowners have never heard of.
Verified against the source on August 15, 2026
We should say up front that we are part of this business. We work with investors who buy homes in North Carolina, including through purchases where the homeowner stays on afterwards, and some of them are affiliated with us through common ownership. That is why we know what this transaction requires. The law below applies to them exactly as it applies to anyone else, and you are entitled to hold every one of us to it.
What a sell-and-stay deal is
You sell your home to a buyer, the sale pays off what you owe and stops the foreclosure, and you stay in the house — as a tenant, with the right to buy it back, or under a lease-purchase.
These are legitimate structures. For a homeowner with real equity, a job, and a reason to stay in the neighborhood — a school district, aging parents, a medical situation — a properly done sell-and-stay can be genuinely better than losing the house at auction.
The structure is not the problem. What matters is the numbers and the paperwork, and North Carolina is unusually specific about both.
How the equity-strip version works
The abusive version of this deal has a recognizable shape, and it works because every step looks like somebody doing you a favour.
The transfer happens at a fraction of what the home is worth
Often just enough to clear the loan. Whatever equity you had built is now the buyer’s, and it left with the deed.
The rent is set higher than your mortgage payment was
Sometimes much higher. Affordable on the day you sign and not affordable four months later, which is not an accident.
The buyback price is set out of reach
Well above what they paid you, sometimes with fees stacked on top, sometimes with a deadline short enough that no lender could finance it in time.
One late payment ends it
You are a tenant now. Missing rent does not start a foreclosure — it starts an eviction, which is far faster and carries none of the protections you had as an owner.
You lose the house and the equity
And the paperwork you signed says you agreed to all of it.
What North Carolina law requires
Article 5A of Chapter 75 governs what it calls a foreclosure rescue transaction. A deal counts as one when all three of these are true.
It is your home
The property is your principal residence.
They say it stops the foreclosure
The buyer, their agent, or someone working with them tells you the transfer will let you prevent, postpone, or reverse a foreclosure and stay in the home.
You keep an interest
A tenancy, a lease with an option to purchase, or an option to reacquire the property.
There is no alternative structure that gets around this. It applies to the transaction, not just to the buyer — the statute reaches anyone who arranges, offers, promotes, solicits, or assists with one of these deals for financial gain.
Source: N.C.G.S. §§ 75-120 to 75-122 (Article 5A, Home Foreclosure Rescue Scams). Verified against the full text published by the North Carolina General Assembly on August 15, 2026. Last amended by Session Law 2015-178, effective October 1, 2015.
The checklist
Three are about how the deal is done. Seven are terms that must appear in the contract itself. Ask for all of them.
Before you are obligated
An appraisal by a certified appraiser
Not the buyer’s opinion, not a comparative market analysis, not a number off a website. A certified appraiser.
Performed no more than 120 days before the transfer
An older appraisal does not satisfy the requirement, however recently it was handed to you.
In your hands at least seven days before you are obligated
Seven days, before you are locked in, so you have time to read it and decide. A deal that has to be signed today cannot satisfy this.
Written in the contract
The contract must be in writing, signed and acknowledged by everyone, contain all the terms you agreed to, and include at least:
The names and addresses of every party
The legal description of the property being transferred
Any debt of yours the buyer is taking over
The total amount the buyer will pay in connection with the transaction
The fair market value, as determined by the certified appraiser
The number has to be in the contract itself — not only in a report handed to you separately.
A description of the interest you are keeping
Your tenancy, your lease-option, or your option to reacquire — written down.
The terms of your right to any future ownership or possession
What you would have to do to get the house back, and by when.
And the payment itself: at least fifty percent of the appraised fair market value, paid to you before or at the time of transfer. Fifty percent is the legal floor, not a fair price — it is the line below which the transaction is unlawful.
Who is exempt, and why it matters
The requirements do not apply when the buyer is one of exactly four things.
Your immediate family
A member of the transferor’s immediate family.
A government agency
State, federal, or local government agency or organization.
A bank or credit union
A bank, savings institution, or credit union — including their operating subsidiaries and affiliates.
A licensed mortgage lender or servicer
Licensed by the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks.
If you already signed one
You may have more standing than you think, and less time than you think.
What you can do
Breaking these rules is not a technicality. Under the statute a violation is an unfair trade practice under North Carolina’s consumer protection law — which can carry triple damages and attorney’s fees. A homeowner can sue for damages, for a court order, and to void the transaction entirely.
These rights are in addition to any others you have
Why waiting is the risk
If the buyer resells your home to someone who buys in good faith, the right to unwind the deal can be lost. The statute is also explicit that nothing in it exposes a homeowner selling their own primary residence to liability — you are the person it was written to protect.
Take the contract to an attorney promptly
If you think a deal you signed fits the description on this page, take the contract and any appraisal you were given to a North Carolina attorney. Legal aid may be available depending on your income, and a HUD-approved housing counselor can help you understand the paperwork at no cost.
Where to get free help
Every one of these is free, and none of them is us. You are entitled to talk all of this through with somebody who is not trying to buy anything.
HUD-approved housing counselors
Free foreclosure counseling, available to every homeowner regardless of income.
NC Housing Finance Agency
State-run assistance programs and counselor referrals.
Legal Aid of North Carolina
Free civil legal help for homeowners who qualify by income.
Your county Clerk of Superior Court
Your foreclosure file is a public record. The clerk’s office can tell you what has been filed and when the hearing is.
Keep reading
Cash offers on your home
How to tell whether a cash buyer will actually close, and the seven things to require first.
Read this →Already signed?If you are already under contract
What to do when a buyer has gone quiet and your sale date is coming.
Read this →The whole boardAll of your options
Every path available to a North Carolina homeowner facing foreclosure.
Read this →This page explains what North Carolina law says. It is not legal advice, and no page can substitute for a lawyer who has read your contract and your court file. Free HUD-approved housing counseling is available to every North Carolina homeowner at no cost, and legal aid may be available depending on your income.