Lease-purchase options.

Lease-purchase options are ideal ways to help you overcome any current credit blemishes or the lack of a down payment and still own a home.

When you and the seller agree to a lease-purchase option, you agree to pay the seller what is essentially rent for a specific period of time, typically one to three years.

At the end of that time, you can choose to move on or you can purchase the house.

In the event that you want to purchase the house, the seller credits you with a designated portion of the rent you’ve paid (i.e. if you paid $1,000 a month in rent, the seller might credit you with $700 per month toward a down-payment on the home) and you apply for traditional financing to purchase the home.

Lease-purchase options can help you take advantage of the fantastic deals you’ll find in the current economic climate. Lenders are reluctant to consider traditional financing for anyone without perfect credit right now, and coming up with a down-payment can be difficult.

If you agree to a lease-purchase option, you have one to three years to clean up your credit, save money for a down-payment and even have a portion of your rent count as a down-payment.

And if you decide you don’t want the house or aren’t yet in a position to buy, you can negotiate with the owner to extend the lease-purchase agreement or find a different home.

This gives you a chance to lock-in a purchase price right now, with the amazing deals that you won’t find anymore as the housing market rebounds and we enter another housing boom.