Don't overlook homes for rent when you are looking for a home to buy with no qualifying. Investors sell their rentals from time to time for various reasons.
They may want to trade up to more expensive homes. They may change their focus and want to concentrate on multi-family units rather than single family houses. They may be ready for retirement and want to cash out. Or they may be just sick and tired of dealing with renters.
For these and many other reasons, a home for rent may be your open door to a home without qualifying for a mortgage. And investors, as a rule, are more open to creative deals like lease options.
So how do you find the investors who are willing to deal?
There are really many places to start but one of the easiest and quickest is your local newspaper. But don't begin with todays' issue. Calling the current listings will only produce depression, anxiety and heartburn. It's a good way to prove that this just wont work!
Go to your library and pull issues of the local paper that are from 2 to 3 weeks old. Jot down the phone number of any homes for rent in the area you are looking for. Don't start calling them yet, just get as big a list as you can. Try to stay close to the area and type of home you want but don't be too picky. If this is your first home, it probably wont be your last and we all have to start somewhere.
After you have your list, grab a phone, pencil and paper and get to work dialing. You can ask a couple questions like number of bedrooms, does it have a garage, is it in a nice area, etc. - just general questions any renter would want to know. But don't go on and on with a list of your "100 Things My Home MUST Have". Be friendly but be considerate of the investors' time. You also don't want to waste a lot of your time chatting rather than finding your new home. Don't try to qualify a home over the phone. You have got to see it with the current owner to do that.
If the rent amount fits what you planned to budget, ask "Tell me, if I were to make my payments on time and liked the house, would you consider selling to me after a year or so?".
If they say no, move on. If they say they might, tell them it sounds like a place you would be interested in and find out when you can get together to see it. When you get together, then you can ask more questions and bring up the subject of a lease option.
A note on a little subtlety. When talking to a prospective seller, always use the term "house". It is not a home unless you own it. The term "home" carries too much inherent value. You do not want to increase the value in the seller's mind. Do you?
The foregoing method does work if you work it. It is the same method, with variations, that the real estate gurus use when they accept a challenge to go into any strange city in America and make X dollars in 72 hours or a week. If they can buy multiple properties in a short period of time, you can buy one, can't you?
