Buying vs. Rent to Own Homes

To buy a house, you (1) look at the homes available for purchase, (2) pick the house you want, (3) pay the seller the cost of the home and (4) you get the house. That’s the basic gist of the traditional home buying process.

All the steps of the traditional home buying process are present in the rent to own process. The difference is that renting to own has an additional step between Step 2 and Step 3. Step 2.5 is to rent the home for a maximum of three years until you are ready to continue to Step 3.

During Step 2.5, you’re working on improving your credit score, building a steady job history and saving up a down payment so that you can qualify for financing. Once you have financing, you can move on to Step 3.

Rent to own is a good way to prepare for buying a property. Once you do buy, you won’t have to spend money on rent any longer. So, the sooner you can buy, the better.

Rent to Own Realtors

Realtors have more experience with closings and real estate contracts than the typical buyer or seller, but not many of them want to work with rent to own deals. A commission from the sale of a home is much larger than the commission a realtor will receive from rent for the first few years of a lease-option deal.

Instead, visit title companies to make sure the property is eligible for rent to own, consult with a lawyer to ensure that the contract benefits you and meet with a mortgage broker to find out when the buyer will be ready to close on the home.

About Our Listings

The free listings for rent to own by owner properties on this website make it easier for buyers to find rent to buy programs near me online.

Rent to buy is a good way to sell apartments or houses when the market isn’t particularly active. It’s certainly a more profitable alternative than selling them for cheap prices.

You can choose to lease-option or lease-purchase a condo, townhouse, etc – anything other than foreclosed homes works. In a lease-option, the buyer has the option to buy the home, but in a lease-purchase, the buyer must buy it.

It’s important to note that lease to purchase deals usually come with no credit check because bad credit is the tenant’s responsibility. If the tenant cannot purchase the home at the end of the lease, the seller keeps their rent and option fee. Then, the seller can find another buyer and, hopefully, market conditions are better.