RentToOwn-HouseFinder.com
How do Rent to Own Homes work?
I live in Pennsylvania and I was wondering if you are in a contract for a Rent-to-Own home if you decide you don't want to purchase the house can you get out of it and how? Are there penalties that you would have to pay? The reason I am asking is because my boyfriend and I just became engaged and well he wanted to buy a house but I don't think that either of us are ready to buy yet. I'd rather rent to get comfortable with having all of the bills. Also his credit isn't good at all so there's no way he'd be able to put his name on any kind of mortgage and I don't want to buy something that I cannot afford on my own so I'd rather feel safe than be sorry later if you know what I mean. So I need a few more details about rent-to-own in pennsylvania. I read the laws about it, but that doesn't give much information about if the leasee decideds they don't want the property. Any help would be great!!!
Public Comments
- Normally, you pay extra rent - the extra rent goes towards a down payment ta the end of some agreed to time (1-2 years for example). At the end of that time, you can buy or walk away. But, why not just rent something cheap and save the cash for a down payment while trying to clean up the credit?
- I did some research on this some time ago for a friend and found out that the whole rent to own can be a huge scam. The problem is that the person renting the home to own doesn't put away as much money for you as you think they are and they use scare tactics of...if you don't do this you will never save enough for a down payment. But, when the term of the lease is up, they don't have that much money put away to begin with. The information I found also indicated that these guys prey on people with bad credit. It CAN work in theory but, the article indicated that you really need an attourney to look over the contract before you sign to make sure that it is equally beneficial to both of you. Also, the homes I looked at with my friends that were rent to own were not even clean by any standard and were being sold 'as is'. And the paint was bad...usually most of the flooring was bad. THey would try to discount things by saying how easy the fixes would be and all. I found it comical because the seller was showing that he doesn't respect his business, himself or you by showing a house in that condition. I would Research, research, research and maybe contact a realtor in your area to help you understand how they work.
