The town offers residents a variety of employment opportunities. It is most famously the location of Badcock Home Furniture headquarters. Badcock Home Furniture began in Mulberry more than 100 years ago and currently boasts 300 stores throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi. The Mulberry area is also known for its phosphate mining operations, supplying phosphate for products such as fertilizer. Mulberry residents have access to a number of educational institutions. Polk County Public Schools operates two local elementary schools as well as Mulberry Middle School and Mulberry High School. Mulberry Christian Academy provides private education for Mulberry-area kids. Mulberry Christian Academy operates an elementary school and a combination middle/high school. While settled in the mid-19th century, the town was not named for many years, but it was known for its train stop at the old mulberry tree. That tree became a central meeting place for area residents and gave the town its eventual name. The discovery of phosphate helped the town to grow, and today, that phosphate history is on display at the Mulberry Phosphate Museum.

Buying vs. Rent to Own Homes

The difference between buying a home and signing up for a lease-option depends on your timeframe and how much money you spend on buying the house.

When you buy a house outright, you pay for the fair market value of the home plus interest and other fees charged by your financial lender, if you have one. You buy the property today and immediately start building equity in it.

However, when you rent to own, you won’t own the home until you close on the property, which could be as far as three years from today. You’ll also pay rent monthly, and you don’t get that money back.

There are some fees that you pay for rent to own that you’ll get back as a credit towards the price of your home, like option fees and rent credits. These count as equity on the home, but they’re not on the scale of equity you would build with a mortgage. Therefore, these don’t add anything on to the price you pay for the home the way that rent does.

Rent to Own Realtors

Most realtors aren’t going to want to work with a client looking for a rent to own deal. The upfront profit for a realtor is minimal, and the largest chunk of the commission isn’t guaranteed – even after the contract is signed. Successful rent to own deals make the bulk of commission for realtors as far as three years in the future.

Good realtors know that if they’ve done their job qualifying and showing a buyer options that meet their tastes and budgets, a rent to own deal has a great chance of success. But good realtors are rare.

Instead of using a realtor, learn about rent to own yourself and meet with professionals in the title, mortgage and legal industries to increase your chances of success.

About Our Listings

Financially, buying apartments, houses or any other types of properties makes sense when compared to renting. You're paying roughly the same amount per month for your mortgage that you would to rent the same type of home. However, there are obstacles that make that process difficult to attain, like minimum down payments and bad credit. Those barriers prevent banks from ending up having to sell foreclosed homes.

Nonetheless, those barriers shouldn’t stop you from owning your own condo or townhouse. Through rent to buy and lease to purchase programs with no credit check, you could start working toward owning a house.

A lot of people who rent to own by owner take advantage of Rent to Own Lab’s free listings. Search our website for cheap lease-purchase or lease-option properties near me and see if rent to own could be the right option.