Your Landlord is Doing It, Why Not You?

February 17, 2019 by Marty Orefice | Real Estate, Rent to Own

The adage goes the rich gets richer.
Have you ever pondered the old saying, the rich only get richer? And wondered about how you can get in on the action?

The main reason that adage remains true is that the rich can afford to gamble with their money. Not at the casino, but in investments.
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Your landlord wouldn't be renting you your home if they weren't making a profit off of it. If homeownership is profitable, why not try to clear a path toward it?

There are many cities within the United States were your monthly mortgage payment would be equal to or less than what the average rent payments are within the area.

What Holds People Back from Homebuying

There are factors that hold people back from homebuying like creditworthiness, down payment money, income and job history.

All of the factors listed above can be rectified with time, which lease-options give you.

Job History

The easiest factor to establish is job history. Basically, your mortgage lender wants to see that you've made income for the past two years, as an indication that you'll continue to make income during the next 10-, 15- or 30-years that your mortgage lasts for.

Now, this doesn't mean working for the same company for two years, rather, you need to work in the same industry.

Ideally, you'll want to find a job that has a clear path for promotions to help you with the income factor.

Income

Income is a little bit more difficult to maneuver. Ideally, a bank wants you to earn three times what your monthly mortgage payment is each month. However, if raises were easy to procure, everyone would be asking for them.

Consider your income and what the average mortgage payment is within your city. What do you need to do to get there and how badly do you want it?

While promotions are tough to get your hands on, don't be afraid to ask for one if you feel you're qualified.

Shop around for companies within your field that pay more money. Even an extra dollar per hour could boost you into an acceptable income range to qualify for a mortgage. More so, the extra money will help you save up for a down payment or help you to pay off debt.

While you're on the hunt for a better paying job, consider taking on a second or a third job. An extra job can be grueling, but in the long run, owning a home will make it all worth it.

Credit Worthiness

A key factor that's calculated into your credit score is your debt. If you can reduce your debt to credit ratio, you'll see your credit score rise. The best you can do is get your debt to below 30 percent of your credit.

Consider using a credit monitoring service to help you track your progress.

Another factor that can help is paying all of your bills on time. Take some time to map out your income and what order you need to pay your bills in to ensure that your creditors don't report any delinquent accounts to the credit agencies.

Down Payment Money

It's crazy to think about saving money when you're busy paying off all of your debt. However, there are mortgage options that require minimal down payments. While you should, of course, strive to save the biggest possible down payment, don't do so at the expense of your credit score.

If you succeed at paying down your debt and earning a higher income, saving for your down payment will come more naturally.

You won't be accruing as much interest on your debt the more you pay it down, meaning your debt and bills will stop growing as quickly as they might have been.

When you have more money coming in through your paychecks, it becomes easier to find money left over that you can use for savings or debt payments, depending on what stage of preparedness you are at.

How Do I Plan to Beat these Obstacles?

Consider signing a lease-option contract with someone. It will give you a deadline for when you want to have your mortgage application in order and incentivize you to meet that deadline.

Soon enough, you will be among the people getting richer because with every monthly mortgage payment, your building equity in your property. And that's like paying yourself.

Person Counting Money by Pavel Kunitsky is licensed under the Pexels Photo License.

About The Author

Marty Orefice

Martin Orefice is a real estate investor who has been in the industry for over a decade. He has experience with rent to own deals from all sides—as a buyer, seller and investor. He created RentToOwnLabs.com to provide the #1 resource where people can find information about all things rent to own.

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