Lease To Own Pitfalls - Part 3

So you've decided to lease a home with an option to buy. Great!! - The contract is signed and the moving truck is packed.

10% of your monthly lease payment will be credited toward the purchase price of your home and when you include the amount of money you gave the seller as your lease option 'premium', at the end of 12 months you'll have enough 'equity' built for your lender to give you a loan.

The perfect scenario? It may be, unless you find out that the payments you've been making to the seller, in turn are not being made to the seller's lender.

In today's volatile real estate market, this is a very legitimate concern that potential lease to own buyers should be aware of.

What to do? As mentioned earlier make sure that you have qualified and appropriate representation through an attorney and/or a licensed real estate professional who specializes in lease to own homes.

As far as specific procedures to help avoid this type of unfortunate event, before entering into a lease to own contract you could ask for a 12 month payment history on the home from the seller to prove that they are not currently delinquent on their mortgage. As far as future payments, you can also agree with the seller to establish and EFT (electronci funds transfer) so that your lease payments are made electronically to the seller and in return the seller agrees to make EFT payments to their lender.

In addition, you can also request that an escrow account be established for any funds used toward your option premium. Just remember that this is a negotiable item and can by home, seller and state.

Lease To Own Legalities

In our last post we discussed the potential pitfalls of entering into a Lease To Own Contract. Many of the problems that we have seen potential buyers encounter could have been prevented if they would have consulted with a knowledgable attorney familiar with Real Estate Law and also prepared themselves with more knowledge.

A Lease To Own contract is more complicated than a straight lease or rental agreement because it combines the elements of Landlord-Tenant Law with the complexity of a sales agreement. Because of this, there are multiple facets that you should be aware of to protect yourself and your attorney can guide you properly.

For example, you should be made familiar with the terms Option Premium, Rent Credit and Exercise. Often buyers find themselves in unchartered territories with a Lease To Own contract only to find out that the contract language can cause them to forfeit thousands of dollars because they were not aware of the consequences associated with taking or not taking certain action.

In the State of Michigan, our firm recommends that you contact the Law offices of Bruce Inosencio. Mr. Insosencio specializes in Real Estate and more specifically, Lease Option Law. You may reach Mr. Insoencio at bruce@inosencio.com.

Our next post will discuss issues relating to the economic environment and how to know if the seller of your Lease To Own Home is making the mortgage payments with your Lease Money!

Avoiding Lease To Own Pitfalls Part 2

Our last discussion involved some to the problems you encountered with a Lease Option. Due to the nature of this type of transaction, it is imperative that you prepare yourself as much as possible for the challenges that may be encountered.



In regards to Lease Option Contracts, I highly suggest using an attorney familiar with constructing Lease Option Contracts if you are buying a home direct from the seller or working with an Agent who specializes in Lease Option negotiations.



I am often asked what kind of lease credit you should expect to receive with a lease option. Unfortunately there is no straight answer because most terms of a Lease Option Contract are completely negotiable. There are fringe considerations, such as the amount of credit allowed by lenders, but as t