Lease to purchases when it comes to homes are not always all that and a bag of chips for the buyer. Usually the inspections for the home will be done up front . This will require you to pay for the inspections and negotiate with the owner what is to be repaired. Then you become responsible for the repairs while you occupy the property for the lease term and up until you close. An escrow is put up and can be from $1000 or more.

 If the reason you are seeking a lease to purchase is because you need time to save money or to clean up credit then you are essentially locking yourself into a time table to accomplish that. If you don't make that time table you stand to lose the escrow money and the expense of the inspections you paid for and the money you have spent maintaining the home in the interim.

 Lease to purchase homes are often offered by owners that want more than the market value and will require premium rent to be paid while you occupy property prior to closing on it. If you want the monthly payment to include money to go toward your closing it will be on top of that premium rent.

 The selection you have of homes will dramatically decrease as you will be limited to number of homes that will be available to do LTP. In the generally very brisk market here an owner can fairly easily sell if he wants to sell or lease if he wants to lease. An owner might be compelled to receive consolation for accepting an LTP offer so that he stands to gain something from it.

 There are a lot of programs now to help buyers get into homes for very little or no down if up front money is the concern. Our buyers page will get you to Brad Boswell to find out about these programs and Loans.

 Generally our suggestion to people inquiring about lease purchase is to wait until you are in a position to buy and you will stand to gain a lot more and get more for your money. There is financing available for anyone and if you end up on a B paper loan with higher interest you can refinance after six months to a year of good payment history and get the interest down. The selection of homes will be much greater and you can much more likely get into something you really like. 

Drawbacks:

• Self imposed timetable to clean credit or save the money you need. 
• Less selection
• Less home for the money
• Premium rent
• Possibility of losing the home if all does not go as planned
• Expense of maintenance risk