Consider a Lease Option For Your Raleigh Durham Home

Are you interested in purchasing a home in the fast growing Raleigh Durham market? Are you presently finding it difficult to raise the funds needed for a large down payment? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then a lease option could be an important and attractive way for you to enter this burgeoning housing market. Let’s take a look at how a lease option could make you the owner of a home in the popular North Carolina Triangle Region.

The area of North Carolina that is roughly bounded by the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill is what is commonly called the Triangle. This now six county region is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Well noted for its top notch universities, abundant technology and research companies, and its family friendly environment, the Triangle is experiencing a housing explosion that is adding thousands of new families to the region every year. The housing stock is growing rapidly too meaning that there is plenty of housing available for all.

Of course, not everyone is in the position to afford a new home. Nevertheless there is a way for you to enter the housing market and that way is through a lease option.

A lease option essentially works this way: If you locate a home in the Raleigh Durham area that is for sale, you could approach the owner to see if they would be interested in leasing the house to you instead of your buying it. Essentially, the lease would be for about one year and contain a provision in the lease agreement where you have the option to purchase the home at the end of the year for an agreed to price.

Generally, a lease option contains an upfront, nonrefundable fee to allow you that permit you to have that option. At the end of the lease period, you can choose to purchase the home or walk away from it without any further obligation. You lose the fee, but your obligation to purchase your Raleigh Durham home ends.

Should you elect to exercise your lease option then the price that you agreed to pay for the house would remain the same.

A lease option has several advantages and disadvantages including:

A lease option can help you “buy time” to get the home that you truly want without fear that it won’t be available to you later. In addition, a lease option could help you lock in the home’s price in an ever rising housing market.

In the Raleigh Durham area a lease option could be an attractive alternative for the seller, especially in neighborhoods with a housing glut. A seller may be much more receptive to entertaining a lease option proposal if the home has been on the market for several months.

Even if you elect to exercise your lease option, you could find out that you may not be able to obtain a mortgage. With this scenario, you would forfeit your interest in the home.

Finally, you could also put in your Raleigh Durham lease option a separate agreement where the seller takes a portion of the monthly lease payment and sets those monies aside for your down payment. Essentially, the home owner would help you raise the cash needed for a down payment, possibly making it easier for you to secure a mortgage.

Lease options are popular with investors but less so with average buyers. Investors often seek to “flip” a home quickly, while the average buyer may not be as willing to risk purchasing a lease option. Still, a lease option could be the one method that works best for you to help you close on the Raleigh Durham home of your choice.