Rent to Own Questions and Answers

If you are unable to obtain your own mortgage at this time to buy a home, Rent to Own provides you with a head start to home ownership and also allows you to begin to build equity in real estate that you may of thought was not possible.

Rent to Own is designed to help you receive all of the same benefits as if you already owned the home and obtained your own mortgage while you are resolving all of the issues to satisfy the bank’s requirements to secure your own mortgage.

Rent to Own is a contract that is signed between a Buyer (you) and a Seller (our Company), for an agreed upon price and length of time (term). The Rent to Own term is usually 24 months, however, your Rent to Own term can be for a shorter or longer period of time and this is determined on a case by case basis.

You pay a down payment of usually $5,000 through $60,000, however there are also $0 (zero) down payment options available. Our Company can also customize a monthly payment plan and down payment scenario for you.

A certain portion of your monthly payment goes towards your purchase price each month in the form of a monthly credit. Your credits build over the life of your Rent to Own agreement to add to your down payment. At the end of your Rent to Own term, you find your own bank financing for the home and transfer the property title into your name. If you wish, you can sell the home at any time during the contract and pay us out. For all intent and purposes, this becomes your home.

In British Columbia, the real estate market tends to follow a cyclical pattern with long stretches of slow difficult markets and at times relatively hot markets. The overall B.C. provincial economy has not been great in the last few years although the outlook in the long term is now positive. Often, homes sit on the market for many months (sometimes up to 24 months), with very few Buyers making offers. If you owned a home that was empty in which you were making payments on, you would be very anxious to have it sold as quickly as possible. Many homeowners are in this position and would rather sell their house over time than lose thousands of dollars while it sits vacant, or sell at a price far lower than its current value. Our Company buys homes from Sellers in this position. We are then able to offer the homes at a fair price to Buyers like you who cannot qualify for a mortgage today, but would be able to qualify at a later date, in 24 months, for example.

Our job is to provide you with; the home; a head start on becoming a homeowner; and provide you with access to our specialized team of Mortgage Broker’s and Financial Advisor’s who can give you information in regards to the necessary steps that you will have to take in order to obtain your own mortgage.

Your responsibility is to; ensure that you take the necessary steps to put yourself in a position to be approved for your own mortgage by; saving or having access to a large enough down payment; having the necessary credit score; employment history; income level and all other criteria that the bank will require to enable you to transfer the mortgage and property title into your name.

Our goal is to sell the home. We do not want to get the house back. We will do our best to extend the Rent to Own Agreement or work out an alternative solution to meet your needs. However, if you feel that you may not be able to qualify in the number of years allotted, then Rent to Own may not be the solution for you.

Yes, our Company either; owns the property, owns the property with an investor or retains ownership interest in the properties that we offer through our Rent to Own Program.

No, we do not. We are a private Real Estate Investment Company. We are not realtors and we are not licensed to search for properties on your behalf.

Homes available on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) are advertised for hundreds of home owners by hundreds of realtors. We are not realtors and we are not a Multiple Listing Service, we are a private Real Estate Investment Company that provides people with the opportunity to have a head start on becoming a homeowner and start building equity in real estate that they perhaps thought was not possible. If you were able to qualify for your own mortgage today, you would be able to search on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), for a wider variety of properties. On the other hand, many people who can qualify for their own mortgage today prefer to purchase a home through our Company through a Rent to Own purchase due to our flexible terms and reasonable interest rates that we offer.

Our Rent to Own homes are first offered to or internal client data base of Rent to Own Buyers and are usually sold through a Rent to Own purchase before they make it to our Homes Available page on our website. To become part of our internal client data base, please Register with us.

Since we are not realtors, there are no real estate commissions and other carrying costs. We obtain these homes at a very good price, make a modest profit and you pay virtually the same price as you would if you purchased the traditional way without having to pay any real estate fees or commissions.

The purchase price is set before you move in, when the agreements are signed. The purchase price of your home is set today for future delivery, similar to an equity option or like leasing a car. The term of the Rent to Own agreement is also determined at this same time, at the time of negotiations before signing the agreements.

That is a decision that you have to make. Some analysts have suggested that the long term trend especially here in Vancouver, BC, the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, BC, is for a higher price level considering that by 2025 it is estimated to be another 1 million residents living here. There may be several reasons why you don’t qualify for a mortgage at the present time. Many people approach us who have been renting for years and can never find a way to get themselves off the renting treadmill. With our creative financing techniques, you accumulate down payment credits and you also have the professional consultation of our Financial Advisors and Mortgage Brokers to put yourself in a strategic financial position to own the home as soon as you are able.

The Rent to Own term will last 24 months on average. Some agreement terms are also shorter or longer than 24 months and are determined on a case by case basis. We structure our agreements so that you can complete the purchase at any time during the term by simply advising us.

During the last 15 years or so, Rent to Own has become very popular in the residential real estate market. Rent to Own is an agreement that is used all across Canada including Vancouver, BC the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, BC. As for our Company, we are part of a large network of people who specialize in creative real estate solutions for Buyers. Some of our Associates have been performing Rent to Own transactions for well over 25 years.

When we obtain these properties, they have existing mortgages in place. The Rent to Own monthly payment is based on the mortgage cost (principal, interest and insurance) plus the property tax and strata fees (in the case of a townhouse or condo).

We compare the mortgage cost structure and market economic rent for the property. At times, the Rent to Own monthly payment can be lower than a comparable market rent, a subsidy to you. This occurs because the mortgage registered on title could be much less than the value of the home. However, as a general rule of thumb, Rent to Own monthly payments are quite similar to the market economic rent for the property available.

The more equity that you have in your new home, the better chance that you have in obtaining a conventional mortgage from a bank or other lending institutions and often at preferred interest rates.

All methods of payment are accepted. Unlike most lending institutions, we accept borrowed funds. If you have a close friend or relative that will lend you the money for your down payment, you can use borrowed funds in our program. You may also be eligible to withdraw or borrow from your RRSP’s without penalties. You can also get into our Rent to Own program with zero down payment and you have the option of providing your down payment in installments. Each time you provide a significant enough amount, your monthly payment will decrease.

It is our goal to do whatever it takes to help you take ownership of the home and we will look at all avenues to help you complete the transaction. If after all possible avenues have been looked at and you are still not in a position to qualify for whatever reason, you may lose your down payment similar to leasing a car and you will not be entitled to your monthly down payment credits.

There are no penalties or additional fees if you want to make a balloon or lump sum payment at any time during the Rent to Own term. You may do so and it will go directly towards your equity (purchase price).

Yes. When buying through Rent to Own, we use a standard real estate contract of purchase and sale similar to what you would normally use when buying directly through a realtor. The main difference is that the completion date is usually 12 or 36 months later rather than 30 or 60 days completion date when buying directly through a realtor or Private Sale by an owner.

Yes. If you are ready to qualify for a mortgage during the term of your Rent to Own contract, you can exercise the option to purchase and take title to the property.

Yes, our licensed advisor’s will provide you with Free, no obligation financial consultation and services. You are provided with Free Financial Consultations that will get your money working for you. These Free services can help improve and/or repair your credit score if necessary, provide you with common sense debt solutions and in some cases, provide you with access to down payment plans.

When you Register with us, it is your decision to accept or decline our Free Financial Consultation, there is no obligation. Register Now