Rent/lease to own.

[adviceplease]

I was thinking of maybe looking for a rent to own home where they apply part of the rent as a down payment to buy the house. Has anyone done this?

Is there a website to look at homes like this that is not shady or wanting you to sign up? Thanks!!

[frogger]

Look in your local newspapers or check with your local real estate agents. However..... do your due diligence. The person doing this "rent to own" may be as broke as you are.

[adviceplease]

[QUOTE=frogger;491759]Look in your local newspapers or check with your local real estate agents. However..... do your due diligence. The person doing this "rent to own" may be as broke as you are.[/QUOTE]

Lol....very true. I am not broke but looking for a way out of the house I did not reaffirm in the BK because I am wasting money on a house I will never be able to sell. A lot of the places offer where after 36 months a part of the rent will go to buying the house (around $9000) which I am trying to figure out is a better deal than giving money to the mortgage company and then walking away so basically I am renting from them also. I have about 16 months till I can apply FHA.

[calgirl67]

I know someone who did this. Yes it can be done and yes it is a good idea if you want to move into your "next home" now but can't close right now.

BUT: Make sure you absolutely cross your t's and dot your i's or you could get screwed big time.

Rent to own by Wendy Patton is a book that gives you good strategies in setting up a rent to own.

I would also advise filing a "performance mortgage" against the property and the owners in case they default you get paid out like other mortgage holders.

[ooCHAOSoo]

Many of the websites are not legit. You need to be careful. You can search for properties on Realtor.com and have one of the criterion be "lease option." There are not too many in Massachusetts but it seems like more and more owners are willing to do them since there are many people in our situation who can't qualify for traditional lending. We have been looking into this since last January and have not had much luck. We look at houses that have been on the market for over 150 days and rentals and then ask the Realtor to ask the owner if they'd be willing to consider a lease with an option to purchase. I'd say maybe 1 out of 30 would consider it. Most owners only want a short term of 1-3 years but we haven't filed yet so we don't want to commit to a time period of less than 5 years. Of course, you need to do your homework b/c we were going to do this over the summer and found an awesome house. Basically a too good to be true situation. Our Realtor recommended a home inspection and boy are we glad we had one. There were so many problems with the home! Good luck!