Renting to Own Questions about terms...

[myturn]

What is the name of your state? NC

My wife and I are going to be renting a home until we are able to secure a loan for this house.

The person renting the home has made up a rental agreement.

A couple of questions about the agreement I don't know if we as the renter until 6/1/96 should have to pay for.


The agreement states they will lease the home to us until 06/01/06 (18 months) at which time we will be purchasing the home. We can purchase anytime before that if wanted.

The owners in the agreement, state that all repairs to the property done after 12/1/04 when we are supposed to move in, will be the renter's responsibility. This is my first question. Can a homeowner have the renter pay for repairs of the home, suppose the roof develops a leak or the heating unit blows up?

Secondly, the agreement states the renter will pay property taxes for the home for 2005 and 2006. Would that be something we should have to do, or is it one of those things where if we agree to it, they can ask us to do anything?
Would we be able to use those taxes on our taxes even if we don't own the home???

Thanks for your help as always.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by myturn

What is the name of your state? NC

My wife and I are going to be renting a home until we are able to secure a loan for this house.

The person renting the home has made up a rental agreement.

A couple of questions about the agreement I don't know if we as the renter until 6/1/96 should have to pay for.


The agreement states they will lease the home to us until 06/01/06 (18 months) at which time we will be purchasing the home. We can purchase anytime before that if wanted.

The owners in the agreement, state that all repairs to the property done after 12/1/04 when we are supposed to move in, will be the renter's responsibility. This is my first question. Can a homeowner have the renter pay for repairs of the home, suppose the roof develops a leak or the heating unit blows up?

Secondly, the agreement states the renter will pay property taxes for the home for 2005 and 2006. Would that be something we should have to do, or is it one of those things where if we agree to it, they can ask us to do anything?
Would we be able to use those taxes on our taxes even if we don't own the home???

Thanks for your help as always.

**A: hire an attorney to review the agreement. The 2 items are landlord/owner expenses and are not tenant expenses per the L/T law.

[nextwife]

But do keep in mind that he may have factored your rental upon you covering certain expenses. Thus, if you do negotiate out certain financial costs, he may also want to change the rent portion.

Have you looked into any sort of first time buyer DP grant, or closing cost assistance program? Why not just skip renting it and try to buy? There are so many great programs out there.

[dworrill]

If you make below 80% the median income in your NC county, you can qualify for programs designed specifically for that income level. Inlcuding competitive rates, gift programs, etc.

DAM

[myturn]

Originally Posted by nextwife

But do keep in mind that he may have factored your rental upon you covering certain expenses. Thus, if you do negotiate out certain financial costs, he may also want to change the rent portion.

Have you looked into any sort of first time buyer DP grant, or closing cost assistance program? Why not just skip renting it and try to buy? There are so many great programs out there.

I don't think rental amount was adjusted. We will be paying in rent what we guess the house payment will be at 6-7% interest. We can't buy immediately because we have a bk7. We have already checked with one lender, and they stated 2 months ago, that in January 05, they could get us a loan, but it would be around 9% interest. He stated that keeping clean for another year after that, he could get us a prime rate.


Homeguru, thanks for the information. I just got a call from my wife though, that she went ahead and signed a rental agreement just a little while ago, so she could go ahead and get the keys and do some cleaning before moving in Thanksgiving weekend. I guess we are screwed now.
If we do move in, and under the terms my wife signed for today, would we be able to file the property taxes under our taxes??? The thing I didnt like about the agreement was that it said we would be responsible for any repairs done to the home when we moved in.
I could interpret that clause to mean if we put a hole in the wall, we fix it, but if the roof leaks, the landlord will fix it because it wouldn't have been caused by us, but the hole in the wall would have been. (I know, it wouldn't hold up if I tried to interpret it that way).

dworrill, I don't know that I make below 80% of the median in my county. How would I find that information?

Thanks for your replies.

[HomeGuru]

My previous response stands.

[myturn]

Thanks Homeguru.... Have a good weekend.

[FloridaRob]

convert it to a lease purchase agreemnt. Basically the same but you can have the agreement recorded and at least get homestead exemption on the taxes and reduce the amound of taxes you will owe.