On October 11, 2006 our family thought we had purchased a new home in Minnesota. It came to be that only a week later, after we had begun to move our stuff in, the seller decided that he did not want to sell his house with a contract for deed. Instead, he wanted us to finance with a bank. Keep in mind that, what we had agreed upon (we have a signed aggreement) would work for us financially, whereas, bank financing would not. This is not due to credit scores. The contract for deed monthly payment of $600 would work for us financially, however, the mortgage monthly payment would not. We put $2000 down and $100 toward propane left in tank. He, my husband, and I had signed an agreement stating that we would complete the official contract within 30 days from October 11th, 2006. It was also stated that this signed agreement was to get us the "new owner" into the house immediatetly. We were told that the money down would be going into an account, but instead he spent it and now he does not have funds to pay us back. We have been in contact with him, but he keeps telling us that he is working on it. It has be over two months, as far as we have heard he does not have a job, and our money that he spent is supposed to be a down payment toward another home. We feel that we have been patient enough and that our only option is to bring him to court. This is an urgent situation due to the fact that the seller is not in good health with cancer.

Questions:
1) What is the maximum amount you can sue for in MN small claims?

2)Could we sue for more than $2100 since we have waited for over 2 months?
-interest?
-we have heard that you can sue for double the amount owed after a certain amount of time...is this true?

3)Is there any reason to pursue this in another type of court rather than small claims?

4)Can we get a judegment against his house, so when it does sell we will undoubtedly get our money?

5)Could the court somehow force him to sell his house for less so that it may sell faster, or we could end up financing it affordably?

Thank you so much for you time and thoughts.