No seller who actually wants to sell the house would ever agree to this.
people have been on here crying over getting scammed in rent to own,,,, so bad that some states are trying to figure out how to make this illegal,,,, so - stay clear of that idea? ok?
when you buy a home you have a realtor that can help you
they will warn you about bad schools, mosquitos, changes in zones, etc.
you will also pay for a professional home inspection that will catch this
if you must,, you can park on the street and spend the night in your car to see if there are loud neighbors
I'm a Realtor and also an investor--as an investor I do lease-options/rent-to-owns. (Not a plug, just giving you some background.)
I can imagine plenty of sellers agreeing to a rent-to-own. It's done all the time. The majority won't do it; as one of the other answers here says, many need their cash to go and buy another house. I'd guess 10% could do it; maybe 5% will consider it. So you're limiting your options, but it's possible.
Convincing an owner to accept a lease-option isn't that difficult. It's pretty straightforward. But before we get to that, one other tip: Some of your best prospects aren't sellers, but people who are renting out their properties. You already know they don't need a lot of cash right away. You already know that they're satisfied with monthly payments. What you've got to do is find a landlord who is willing to sell in 3-5 years.
So you say to a landlord (more formally than this): "Hi. You've got a very nice property. Would you be interested in a long-term, multi-year tenant? One who will take care of small repairs without calling you at 3 am? One who will treat your home like it's their home? Well, that's me. The only thing I'd ask in return is that I have the right to buy your property at full market value in 3-5 years."
You can adjust the 3-5 year range, since you're really just checking the house out, not (from your question) trying to rebuild your credit. So you could make it 1-3 years.
So it's definitely do-able.
One caution: From your questions, it sounds as if you're kind of suspicious. I don't want to say "paranoid," but definitely very cautious. As the other answers suggest, a good home inspector, possibly a structural engineer, and you spending your night in your car outside the house will address 99% of your concerns. And you'll have a much wider range of properties to choose from as an outright buyer than as someone who wants to do a lease-option. Still, it's your choice.
Hope that helps.
All rent to own agreements turn out to be scams.
I think you are just going to screw yourself out of a deal.
Additionally, realtors won't waste their time dealing with you. So you are on your own, which means you are more likely to get involved in a scam situation.
You have professional inspectors, inspect the property. They will be able to tell you if damage was fixed haphazardly.
You find a neighborhood that you enjoy. If the people aren't "ghetto" in the neighborhood they most likely aren't going to be ghetto next door neighbors. I don't see how staying in a house for a few months can protect you against loud parties and barking dogs. Just because neither of these happen during the 3 month trial period, doesn't mean the neighbors aren't going to move in 6 months and the people you don't like move in.
Instead of dealing with home ownership during this trial period, I think you would be better off doing a short term lease in the neighborhood to see how you like it.
Most sellers do not want to undertake a rent-to-own since they usually are moving to a new home themselves and need the proceeds from the sale to afford the new house (not to mention getting out from under). Thee second problem is that a large number of rent-to-owns go south, with the buyer left holding the bag. Your instincts are correct in that sometimes unforeseen problems come with a house, but that has the possibility of happening anyway (and please realize that the usual rent-to-own is based upon you paying an extra few hundred dollars per month with some but not all (usually a small percentage) of that going into an escrow account).
In any event, should you find a suitable rent-to-own, make sure that you have the contract reviewed by a qualified real estate lawyer
I can't imagine any seller accepting that.
I don't want to commit to buying a house until I've had several months to inspect it and observe its problems. For example, I want to be there the next time it rains, and observe any puddles, and how long it takes for the water to drain out of the puddles. And I want to see if the basement grows any mold or mildew, because the seller could have cleaned it up without repairing the underlying moisture problem. And I want to see how well the roof holds up the next time there is high wind. For all I know, the seller might have been fixing the roof after every wind storm. And I want to see how the neighbors behave. Do they often have loud parties, and do their dogs bark all night whenever there is a full moon, and does trash from their yard blow into my yard? And I want to see how bad the mosquitoes are there in late summer.
Exactly what kind of deal would work best for me, and how could I convince the seller to accept that deal?
