Rent to Own - For Home Sellers

If you have been trying to sell your home recently you already know that it is no easy task these days. Where are the buyers? They are out there they just can’t get mortgages right now. So how do you sell your home if buyers can’t get mortgages?

I’m going to introduce you to something called rent to own. Rent to own is a way for home sellers to sell their home to a buyer who can’t currently qualify for a mortgage. You are renting your home to the buyer for a period while they work to qualify for a mortgage and then they can buy it. How does rent to own work? You and the buyer agree to an option - this gives the buyer the right to purchase your home during a set period of time. While this option is valid the buyer rents the home from you. By the end of the option the buyer must either purchase the home or you get to keep their option fee. While this option is valid you cannot sell your home to anyone else.

Why would you do a rent to own?

There are a number of advantages to you.

First, it gives you the ability to sell your home when you might not otherwise find a buyer. If you’ve been thinking about just renting your home to cover the mortgage payment, rent to own is a better choice for you.
Second, when there are a lot of other homes on the market that you are competing against, this gives you the ability to offer something they don’t. You need an edge against your competition and rent to own can do it.
Third, you can sell your home a whole lot faster. Instead of having your home just sit on the market you’ll attract a lot more buyers with this creative choice. Plus once you find a buyer you can get them into the home much faster (typically in a week or so) versus the 45 days or more it takes for a conventional buyer to close.
Fourth, you might be able to get a higher purchase price. Let’s face it, regular buyers are negotiating hard these days. They know what the market is like and they are beating up home sellers on the price. Rent to own buyers are different. They know they can’t get a mortgage right now so they negotiate a whole lot less. Many times they don’t negotiate on price at all! How nice would it be to get your full asking price in this real estate market?

Intrigued yet? I hope so, rent to own can be a great option for you. If you want to learn more take a look at my book, Rent to Sell. It is a step by step guide for home sellers to give you rent to own training. It will tell you how to market your home as a rent to own, how to find and screen buyers, how to handle the paperwork and so on - from start to finish.