Many people look to rent a home or an apartment instead of purchasing a home due to financial hardship or simply transitions in life. Renting is an excellent alternative for anyone not able or unwilling to afford a home and needs to get their lives settled before taking the leap to home ownership once again.
When searching for rentals, some have found themselves coming across the terms “lease-option" or "rent-to-own." Both terms mean the same thing. Before considering entering into a lease with option to purchase, one must do two things first: research it heavily to make sure it’s the right choice for you, and consult a real estate attorney.
The initial information below is a good place to start in realizing some general risks involved with a lease-option. This is strictly informational purposes only, not legal advise. You are strongly urged to seek LEGAL councel if you have any legal, tax, financial, or contractual questions with regards to lease-options. Real Estate brokers and Real Estate agents do not provide tax, legal, contractual, or financial advise.
A lease-option agreement is an alternative to purchasing a home where the home is leased to a household that may not be able to qualify for a mortgage. A right to purchase the home may be exercised after a certain amount of time. The lease-option may lock in a sales price and preserve the property until the Buyer obtains a mortgage. The Buyer can receive credit towards the purchase price for the rentals the Buyer pays to the Seller. If the Buyer decides not to purchase the property, the Buyer can walk way without exercising the option to purchase.
LEASE PAYMENTS ARE HIGHER: In a lease-option, the monthly payments are typically higher than the current going market rent rate. This is normally to compensate the Seller in return for locking the home in a lease instead of being able to offer the property for sale to the public. The difference between the going rate and actual lease payment rate can go toward the future down payment if the option is exercised, depending on the contractual terms of the lease-option.
FORFEITURE OF PAYMENTS: In a lease-option, the Buyer forfeits everything paid to the Seller if the Seller cancels the lease due to things such as late payments and canceled insurance. The Buyer will also forfeit all payments that have been made if Buyer does not complete the purchase. The “option” as well (lump sum paid at the execution of the agreement) is normally forfeited (per contractual lease-agreement terms).
CURRENT MORTGAGE MAY PROHIBIT SUCH A TRANSACTION: If there is an existing mortgage on the property, the current mortgage may prohibit the owner from entering into a lease-option agreement. The lender may have the right to demand the entire amount of the loan if the owner sells or enters into a long-term lease. Your rights may be cut off by the lender unless you or the seller has the ability to immediately pay off the underlying loan.
NO PROTECTION FROM ACTS OF SELLER:
HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE POLICY: the Seller usually requires the Buyer to pay for insurance and taxes on the property. If the Seller carries a standard homeowner’s insurance policy, the lease-option agreement may terminate the coverage of the policy. … If the policy is changed to permit the lease, the insurance company will send a new copy of the insurance policy to the lender, potentially violating the due-on-sale clause. If the policy is not changed, the Buyer and Seller runs the risks that there is not a valid insurance policy covering the property and that the mortgage will be violated since there is no a valid insurance policy on the property. ….If something were to happen to the property, and the property is insured properly, the Seller will collect proceeds. The amount the Buyer pays the Seller for the house will not be reduced.
IMPROVEMENTS MADE BECOME THE PROPERTY OF THE SELLER: Until the Buyer pays for the property in full, any improvements to the property (e.g. new kitchen cabinets) by the Buyer will be the Seller’s property. The Seller does not have to reimburse the Buyer for costs associated with improvements even if the Seller evicts the Buyer.
SOMETHING MAY BE WRONG WITH THE HOUSE: If a property is offering a "lease-option," that typically means it has had a hard time selling on the open market. For some reason it has not been able to sell. Hence, there could be something wrong with the house making it un-sellable. Why would you want to purchase a home that will have a hard time selling when you go to sell it later?
Please visit these resources for more information on lease-options, the current trends, scams and risks involved:
Risk of Lease Option – High Failure Rate
How to Avoid Scams in Rent-to-Own
A lease option is the abbreviated form of the appropriate term “Lease With the Option to Purchase.” It is a type of contract used in both residential and commercial real estate. Commercial real estate can get pretty complex so we are going to stick with residential.
The contract is typically between two parties: the tenant (also called the lessee), and the landlord (lessor), who owns or has the right to lease or dispose of the property.
As the name lease with an option to purchase says there are two events and one is not mandatory. In order to have a valid option the tenant/buyer must provide valuable consideration for the option. In other words buy the right to purchase at a later date at an agreed amount of money.
The lease option only binds the seller to sell, it does not bind the buyer to buy. That is why consideration is important. Valuable consideration is approximately 1-3% but there is no rule.
The basic elements are
The terms of the lease have to be negotiated also. The responsibilities of maintenance, utilities, taxes, pets, how many occupants, what type of insurance, and so on.
During the term of the lease option, the tenant makes lease payments to the landlord for the use of the property with the terms mutually agreed. At the end of the contract, the tenant has the option to purchase the property outright; the tenant would typically obtain the money to do this using a mortgage.
Excess credit may also be applied towards the eventual purchase of the property, or towards the down payment for a mortgage (CAUTION, the buyer and seller can agree to whatever they want, but when the buyer goes to get permanent financing the bank has guidelines to what can be applied towards the down payment or the purchase. Typically a banks only allow an amount that is above and beyond market rent to be considered for a down payment) In that case, the lease option works as an automatic savings plan for the tenant. This down payment is applied as part of the “option consideration fee”; in the arena of lease option purchasing this is a fee charged for the right to purchase the property.
If the tenant does not exercise the option to purchase the property by the end of the lease, then any up front option money along with any monies that the tenant paid in addition to the market rental rate for this option may be retained by the owner depending on the agreement. This might occur if the tenant no longer wishes to purchase the property, or if the tenant wishes to purchase the property but is unable to obtain the financing required to do so.
Advantages to the seller. Allow the seller to sell a property that they may not have otherwise been able to sell. Most cases a seller can net more money when offering terms to a buyer.
There is an expression, “Price or Terms, Pick One” Usually you get one over the other. So for a seller to get a better price they can offer terms that favor the buyer and the opposite is true. For the buyer to get a favorable price the terms usually have to favor the seller.
Default if the buyer defaults and the contracts are drafted properly then there is an automatic tenant landlord relationship. All valuable considerations are typically surrendered and then it would be an eviction.
Some forms of lease option have been criticized as predatory, if a lease option is sold to a tenant who cannot realistically expect to ever exercise the option. These types are usually but not always advertised as “rent to own”. Owner Carry, Seller Financing, Owner will Carry, Owner Carryback are all terms that can be used for Lease Option purchases.
You are strongly urged to seek LEGAL councel if you have any legal, tax, financial, or contractual questions with regards to lease-options. Real Estate brokers and Real Estate agents do not provide tax, legal, contractual, or financial advise.
Cheri Elliott | 916-812-0382 | EMAIL
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