By James Gage
A twenty years ago while I was working as a real estate agent, a client who was going through a divorce asked me to look for properties she could "rent to own."
At that time, the market was just beginning to shift in our area. Sellers were selling, and Landlords were Landlording. Very rarely did the two types overlap. Some agents would even categorize "rent to own" transactions in the same category as Santa Claus - something some people think exists, but is really just imaginary.
In that market, rent-to-own might have well been imaginary. I could not find the right situation for her, and she ended up moving in with her daughter.
Now, nearly 20 years later, the market has shifted into a buyers market again. Many properties are staying on the market much longer than in the past, and many people that would have been buyers, are finding themselves forced to rent for a while longer, till their credit scores meet today's tougher standards.
This is exactly the market conditions where a Lease Option makes sense - for both the tenant/buyer and the landlord/seller, creating a potential for a real WIN-WIN situation.
