How do we make our borrower pay us back?

[Loretta Murray]

Several years ago, my husband and I used the majority of our retirement savings to make a private loan to a real estate developer for a single family home development in a very popular part of town. Years later, there has been nothing built and the borrower has defaulted. The borrower wants to pay us with the proceeds from the sale of the lots, but he has had no success over a period of years in selling any lots. Has anyone encountered this situation? How can we motivate this borrower to pay us back with real cash and not with future promises that might not happen?