The Real Estate Bloggers have a nice post on one of my pet peeves in real estate, the lease option/lease purchase scam:
If you are serious about buying a home, spend the time that you would have rented a lease purchase and save hard, clean up your credit report, and focus on the opportunity. By buying into the opportunity for a lease purchase you are limiting your opportunities to one home and putting yourself into a relationship that could end up setting you further behind in your attempts to become a homeowner.
Songwriter James McMurtry (son of novelist Larry McMurtry) nails the issue in Choctaw Bingo:
Uncle Slayton’s got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He’s cut that corner pasture into acre lots
He sells ’em owner financed
Strictly to them that’s got no kind of credit
‘Cause he knows they’re slackers
When they miss that payment
Then he takes it back
If interest rates rise substantially, we may see a return to the days when financially solvent people purchased homes with carry-backs, wraps or land contracts. But, for now, these tricks are just one more sucker’s bet for folks who got themselves into trouble in the first place by being suckers for just about anything.
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