Why would anyone accept a lease option, rent to own deal? Why would you, as a seller/investor look to find rent to own tenants? How can you use this technique to LOCK IN profits that are much greater than would be found in a straight sale?
Basically, the advantages depend on which of two end results occur: either the rent to own tenant completes on the property, or they don't. You make money either way!
There are MANY people who have less than sterling credit, might not have a long time on the job, or not have a ton of money for down payment, closing, etc. Many people WANT to buy a house - and they expect their credit, job conditions, down payment amount to improve over time. They LOVE the idea of being able to buy NOW, on a rent to own basis. You can help these people out, and be paid handsomely for your efforts.
I'll assume a $100,000 property, and you would offer $5-10,000 down, but be willing to take even less, even possibly take monthly payments for the down payment. Because of providing "easy credit", you can increase the price by an amount of between 5 and 20%, depending on how long the rent to own period is, your local market, individual's credit situation, etc.
Lets say you buy a property for $90,000 that is worth $100,000 in the open market, and is advertised at $110,000, with 5-10,000 down, and monthly payments of $750 over a 3 year period. Note that ALL of these numbers are variable - whatever works for YOU and your rent to own customer. You have LOCKED IN a profit of $20,000 in 3 years time, less mortgage pay down, with $750 a month to make any mortgage payments in the meantime. Use a mortgage table (it depends on the interest rate charged) but it wouldn't be any more than $100 a month that the mortgage is reduced by. Total profit would be $20,000 less $3600 mortgage paid down, with $750 a month to offset any carrying costs, mortgage, etc - not a bad deal!
Should the tenant be unable to complete on the purchase at the end of the term, you can agree to renew the agreement for another period, with a higher purchase price.
That sounds like a very good set up for the vendor, but what if the rent to own tenant bails out on the agreement? The majority of rent to own agreements fail to complete, so this is a fairly likely occurence, but can be reduced by picking your tenants well.
In this case, you are left with the down payment of $5-10,000, payments that covered the mortgage and carrying costs for however long the tenant stayed for, and they probably took MUCH better care of the property than a normal tenant, as it was THEIR property!
You can simply advertise for another rent to own tenant, and collect another deposit, continue collecting rental amounts, and continue carrying the property at no cost to you.
You can carry a portfolio of properties with this method - there are virtually no maintenance requirements - its THEIR property, so THEY have to fix it, mow it, weed it, paint it, etc - and you can carry as many properties as you can get financing for, or even "buy" under a rent to own, lease option type of agreement and then rent out to other tenants at a higher purchase price!
The options are endless - and it doesn't take a lot of ads to find a TON of willing rent to own tenants! You can set up the deals however you wish, and you can "give them a good deal" by reducing the deposit requirements, or extending the term - you win either way!
Andrew Larder Creative Real Estate
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