Table of Content
Use our cost of living calculators to assess how much you'll need to earn to live comfortably in key cities. While traditional mortgages require an immediate down payment that locks you into a year commitment, ZeroDown gives you a 3-year period to live in a home before you make a down payment. That means you can try out your home before deciding to buy it. Because the Purchase Credits are a percentage of your home’s purchase price, as the home’s purchase price grows, so does the value of your Purchase Credits. ZeroDown offers a faster, more accessible road to homeownership.
This helped formalize the rent-to-own model, whereby tenants can have a portion of their monthly rent payments accrue toward a down payment to eventually buy the home they’re renting. We sell our homes for cash or for payments on the terms that work for both the mobile home buyer and the investor seller. Many of our homes are in mobile home park communities and require the rent to own mobile home buyer to qualify for that individual park by filling out the application.
House Features
We work to spread awareness around alternative, non-traditional routes to home-ownership such as rent-to-own and HUD properties. In a rent-to-own agreement, you pay the seller a one-time, usually nonrefundable, upfront fee called the option fee, option money, or option consideration. This fee is what gives you the option to buy the house by some date in the future. The option fee is often negotiable, as there’s no standard rate. Still, the fee typically ranges between 1% and 5% of the purchase price.
It can be tough to own a home these days with the changing interest and so many rules and restrictions that are in place to get approved for a loan. Have poor or not great credit, don't have the 20% down payment, or long enough employment history. All these minor details can keep you from owning your own mobile home.
Rent to own homes: how it works
For a full list of permissible renovations, you can check our guidelines. Think of Purchase Credits as a down payment savings account, that starts at 2% of your home’s current purchase price. Each month that your lease remains current, you earn Purchase Credits. Purchase Credits correlate to a percentage of the home’s value, so 5% Purchase Credits correlates to 5% of the home’s price. Move into the home you want, pay a monthly rent that builds towards a future down payment, and buy the home whenever you are ready -- whether that's in 3 months or 3 years. A lease option is an agreement that gives a renter the choice to purchase the rented property during or at the end of the rental period.
The best part is that our process is not long and complicated and we have all of the tools and resources an individual will need to successfully become a homeowner. Rent-to-own is also a good option for people who might have recent credit trouble that they need a few years to repair. Your credit score plays a big factor in the mortgage rate you’ll get, which can make a big difference in your monthly payments.
Read Next
Rent-to-own homes are homes that include a clause in the rental agreement which either gives you the option to buy or an obligation to buy after a certain time period. You make rent payments each month and a portion of those payments can count toward your down payment. Should you decide to buy, the excess money can be applied to the home purchase. If you’re like most homebuyers, you’ll need a mortgage to finance the purchase of a new house. To qualify, you must have a goodcredit scoreand cash for a down payment.

Realtor.com® can connect you with an agent to help you find the option that works best for you. Browse up-to-date, reliable, and comprehensive information on housing markets. Discover market conditions, price growth, median home prices, average days on market, and more. ZeroDown will also purchase a home warranty for the home when you move in that will cover common repairs and replacements. You will be responsible for making the service requests and paying the appointment service fees.
Our experienced agents will offer a custom marketing plan individually tailored to your specific needs. For example, let’s say you signed a rent-to-own lease that had your rental payments at $1,450, with $250 per month accruing toward a down payment, and a purchase price of $250,000. This would mean you’d accrue $9,000 over three years to go toward a down payment, which would be 3.6 percent of the purchase price.
Federal law entitles you to one free credit report once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com, a website set up by the three major credit bureaus. Rent-to-Own is an excellent alternative for those who want to buy but are either working to improve their credit score or don’t have enough of a down payment saved for the home. For those who are ready to make one last move into a home, but are not yet prepared for a mortgage, rent-to-own can be a great alternative. With this option, a portion of the rent goes toward the purchase price of the home, allowing the prospective buyer to work toward the needed down payment while already living in the home as a tenant.
If a rent to own home sounds like a good option for you, you can either look for rental listings that include this option or longstanding sale listings that don’t seem to be going anywhere. Or you can ask your landlord if they’re open to discussing a change in your relationship with a rent to own agreement. Here's everything you need to know about local demographics and communities, nearby schools, amenities, public transport, market trends, homes for sale, and more. Let’s break down the key differences between ZeroDown and a traditional mortgage.A typical mortgage requires a down payment of between 10-20%.

To get into a rent to own home, you sign a rental agreement and also a document that outlines how you plan to purchase the house. The amount you pay can be negotiated, but you generally agree to pay something that’s above market rent. That extra portion—typically 25% to 30% of the monthly payment—goes toward the eventual property purchase. Renting to own can be an appealing concept for people who are interested in owning property but have thus far been shut out of the traditional homebuying process.
Filter your search to find the perfect possibilities from the thousands of listings on our site. Scroll through the listings to see photos or virtual tours, information about the year built, the home’s amenities, and more. At HousingList we believe home-ownership should be accessible to everyone.
In competitive housing markets, cash offers are increasingly becoming the best way to make sure your offer is accepted. ZeroDown makes a powerful cash offer to ensure you get the home you want. Use our cost of living calculators to assess how much you’ll need to earn to live comfortably in key cities. Move into your dream home, rent it monthly with built-in savings that accumulate towards an eventual down payment. Buy when you're ready -- in 30 days, in 3 years, or any time in between. For sale by owner indicates that a home is being sold without a real estate agent.