When a buyer and a seller of a home are negotiating during the closing process of the home buying experience, there are plenty of things that you need to be aware of so that you are not taken advantage of by the seller of the home.
During the negotiation phase there are certain things that you and the homeowner must work out that need to be paid for. These items that must be paid for are often referred to as “closing costs”. The rent to own financing option offers a unique twist on closing costs and we will talk about that in this article.
In traditional home financing options, the financial responsibilities of the buyer and seller are incredibly clear. With the rent to own option the traditional responsibilities may become a little bit skewed as the length of the contract and the nature of the rent to own model cause exceptions to certain situations.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the things that we can expect the home seller to pay for if we were to purchase a home today.
Sellers would typically pay for document preparation fees including the tax service and set up fee. When we refer to the seller having to pay for these fees, this amount is usually taken out of the overall sell price of the home and transferred to the real estate agent or paid directly to the service provider.
Sellers are also responsible for things such as pest inspections and closing fees. The buyer may split the total cost of the title insurance or the attorney fee if need be.
It is in the best interest of a home seller to pay for these types of things particularly in today’s market. By offering to pay a majority of the closing costs, often up to 6% of the total sale price, sellers are more able to gain attracted buyers to their home.
One of the ways that you can take advantage of this fact in using the rent to own financing option is that if you are approaching a home seller who is offering the rent to own option, you already know that they are ready and willing to sell their home, sometimes out of desperation, because they are allowing for the rent to own option.
Any time you do any sort of negotiation, having the upper hand is not so much about having more or less access to assets but having more or less leverage to use to convince the other person to move up or down in the negotiation process. Because you know that many rent to own homeowners are looking to sell their house for much less than they would normally, or they want to sell their house much quicker than normally, you can use this leverage to your advantage. You may be able to negotiate for the home seller to pay for more of the closing costs than he or she would traditionally pay.
Conclusion
It is important that you treat the purchase of your home much like you would treat any business transaction. It is in your best interest to reduce the amount of money that you are spending, whether you are utilizing the rent to own option or not, being able to negotiate your way to a fair price will guarantee that the home you are considering will be the best option for you.
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