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Renting A House On The World Of Home Ownership

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Buying a home is unlike any other purchase in a consumer’s life. The investment is a major decision, both for an individual’s future and their finances, and gathering the courage to make it is challenging under any circumstances--much less after an extreme financial crisis. But there are many viable solutions to the challenges that “boomerang buyers” are facing today, including (but not limited to) the option of renting-to-own. These strategies enable people who were once “foreclosure victims” to reenter the world of home ownership comfortably, taking gradual steps toward their ultimate goal of buying a new house. This is an essential component of the American dream, and one that everyone should be entitled to pursue. Renting a house on a month-by-month basis is a well-known strategy for people who are not yet willing or able to commit to buying a house. But an equally important--yet much less well-known--housing option is rent-to-own, albeit for individuals who want to begin the process of purchasing a home. Rent-to-own is a fairly straightforward concept--renters pay a set amount of money to the owner each month, with the possibility of buying the house within a set period of time (Siddons &Opfer). At the beginning of the agreement, the renter and the owner must negotiate and decide upon a set rent and sales price for the house, which cannot be changed during the rent period, regardless of the variability of the housing market (Siddons &Opfer). The contract and the

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