Please advise, renting verses leasing?

Sammy Tabatt: If you "want to sell my home" then don't rent or lease. Those rent to own or lease to sell ideas don't often end up in a sale. So find a good competent honest local agent and list it for sale. Even if the market is tough in your area - there are houses selling. Look at why they sold and yours did not- and make a change.If you are ok being a landlord then rent- but don't pretend to yourself that it will end up in being a sale.The two terms you asked about (Renting to buy, and leasing for sale) are often used by two different groups of people to mean the same exact same thing....Show more

Matt Gerdeman: Renting to buy is a contract for the payment of rent toward the full payment of the price of the home. If the buyer fails to fulfill his obligation to pay the full sale price, the monthly payments are kept as rent (and treated as such for tax purposes). A rent for sale may be verbal (although that is not advisable). Leasing for sale is the same as a ! rent for sale, but with a contract. In these, the buyers rights to change the property are limited, as though he were a tenant. I think the other option you are alluding to is a Land Installment Contract, where a buyer pays monthly installments for the property, but also pays the real estate taxes and a set interest over a set period of time. You, in essence, are granting him a "loan". If the buyer fails in his obligation, all the money paid is yours plus the property. Legal problems arise with an installment contract when the buyer has paid nearly all the contract price and runs into problems, or wants to change the property. You should consider consulting a lawyer before you enter into either of these contracts....Show more