How a Lease Option Works

A lease option gives you the right — but not the obligation — to purchase a home at a pre-agreed price before your option expires.

A lease option is simpler than it sounds. Here’s the process from start to finish:

Step 1 — Apply & Get Screened

You join our VIP Wait List and share your situation. We look for a realistic path to financing — not perfection. Our experience and background in mortgage lending means we know exactly what it takes. 

Step 2 — Pay Option Consideration

When matched with a home, you pay a non-refundable option fee to lock in your purchase price. This is your skin in the game — and it demonstrates commitment to the seller. 

Step 3 — Move In & Build Toward Qualifying 

You lease the home while working on what’s needed — credit repair, income documentation, or time on the job. We can point you toward resources. You live in the home while you prepare. 

Step 4 —  Exercise Your Option and Close

When you’re ready — and within the option period — you secure financing and purchase the home at the agreed price. That price was locked in from day one.

Who We Work With

Our tenant-buyers aren’t people with chronic financial instability. They’re typically 1–2 years from conventional financing — and they’re making a smart move.

We are selective — not to be exclusive, but because a bad fit helps no one. A lease option only works if the tenant-buyer has a realistic path to conventional financing within the option period. We’ve been doing this long enough to know the difference between “not quite there yet” and “not a realistic candidate.” We work with people in the first category.

You may be a good fit if you are:

• Self-Employed or Have Complicated Income

Traditional mortgage underwriting struggles with non-W2 income. If you’ve been self-employed for less than two years, or if your tax returns don’t reflect what you actually earn, a lease option gives you the runway to establish the paper trail a lender needs.

• Rebuilding Your Credit

A past bankruptcy, divorce, medical debt, or a rough financial stretch doesn’t disqualify you — but it does mean we need to understand your situation and have a credible plan. Marishka has backgrounds in both mortgage origination and credit optimization. We know what it actually takes to move a credit profile in the right direction, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your timeline is realistic.

• Carrying a Down Payment Gap

You earn enough to carry a mortgage payment. What you don’t have yet is the full down payment. The option period gives you time to accumulate savings while you’re already living in the home — and your option fee is going somewhere, not just disappearing into rent.

• Relocating or in a Life Transition

Divorce, a job change, a move to a new state — sometimes you need to be in a home before you’re able to fully qualify for one. A lease option creates space for that transition without locking you into a purchase before you’re ready.

We do not work with everyone who applies, and we’re transparent about that from the first conversation. If we don’t think a lease option is the right path for you, we’ll tell you — and we’ll try to point you somewhere useful instead. 

Past tenant-buyers have included nurses, dentists, engineers, executives, mortgage lenders, and self-employed professionals. If you have real income and a real reason for the timing, we’d like to talk.

Understanding the Terms

Not all rent-to-own arrangements are the same. Here’s what sets what we do apart.

Rent-to-Own  Informal, often under documented. Portion of rent “credited” toward purchase. Not what we do.

Lease Option  You have the right — not the obligation — to purchase at a locked-in price before your option expires. Properly documented.

The distinction matters. A lease option protects you with clear terms: your purchase price is set, your timeline is defined, and if life changes and you don’t exercise the option, you walk away — no forced purchase.

We encourage all tenant-buyers to review any agreement with a qualified real estate attorney before signing — including ours.

Come Prepared

You’ll need some money saved.

A lease option requires an option consideration fee paid upfront — typically 2–5% of the purchase price, sometimes more depending on the property. For example, on a $300,000 home, that’s roughly $6,000–$15,000.

This fee is non-refundable. That’s not fine print to gloss over — it’s the structure that makes the arrangement work for everyone. It demonstrates your commitment to the seller, and it’s part of why our tenant-buyers close at three times the national average.

For context, FHA loans require a minimum 3.5% down payment — right in the same range. The difference is that your option consideration is money you’re already putting toward the home. In many cases it can be applied toward your down payment and closing costs at purchase, subject to lender approval. It’s not money lost — it’s money working toward ownership from day one.

In some cases, we can structure a payment plan for a portion of the option fee if you’re close but not quite there. Ask us about it.

We take our tenant-buyers seriously — and we expect the same in return. A lease option is not a shortcut or a workaround. It is a real legal agreement with real obligations, and entering into one without understanding those obligations is a mistake we’ve seen hurt people on both sides.

Before we move forward with any tenant-buyer, we want to understand:

• Your Credit Situation

We’ll want to see your credit reports and understand what’s there — not to judge, but to assess whether your situation has a realistic path to resolution within the option period. If you haven’t pulled your own reports recently, do it before you reach out. You’re entitled to free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com.

• Your Income and Employment

We’ll want to understand how you earn — W2, 1099, business ownership, or a combination — and what your income documentation looks like. The more clearly you can explain your financial picture, the faster we can assess fit.

• Your Timeline and Your Goal

What’s standing between you and a conventional mortgage right now? How long do you realistically think it will take to get there? Do you have a lender or mortgage broker you’re working with? The tenant-buyers who succeed in our program come in with a plan, or at minimum a willingness to build one.

• Your Option Fee Availability

The option fee is due at signing. The amount is negotiated based on the property and your situation, but you need to have funds available. This is not a zero-down arrangement.

Think of it this way: we’re looking for people who are ready to be homeowners in training — people who take the responsibility seriously, communicate openly, and are actively working toward the finish line. If that describes you, we want to hear from you. 

Not quite ready? That’s a conversation worth having too.

We don’t string people along. If you’re not ready, we’ll tell you straight — save more, pay down some bills, and call us back when you are. We’ve had that conversation more than once. And more than once, someone has come back a year or two later and said: “You probably don’t remember us, but you told us what we needed to do. We did it. Now we’re ready.”

And they moved in. And in another year or two years after that, they bought the house.

If that’s where you are, get on the VIP Wait List anyway. Tell us your situation honestly. We’ll tell you just as honestly where you stand — and what it would take to get there.

Homes Available Now

We work exclusively with nice homes in good neighborhoods — no major fixer-uppers, no blighted areas.  These are homes worth buying.  Lease option opportunities on quality homes in good neighborhoods are genuinely rare–and the people on our BIP Wait list hear about them first.

Upcoming Events

We periodically host free virtual information sessions for prospective tenant-buyers — a chance to ask questions, learn about available homes, and understand whether a lease option is the right fit for your situation. No sales pitch. No pressure. Just a real conversation.

Our next session is coming soon. Join the VIP Wait List to be the first to know when it’s scheduled and to receive early access to available homes before they’re publicly listed.

Free Virtual Information Session

Date: [INSERT DATE]
Time: [INSERT TIME] Pacific
Format: Zoom (link sent upon registration)

Join Marishka and Larry for a free, no-pressure virtual session where we walk through how lease options work, answer your questions, and share currently available homes. This is the best way to find out if our program is a fit for your situation — and to get in front of available properties before they’re publicly listed.

Ready to Get Started?

The first step is joining our VIP Tenant-Buyer Wait List. There’s no application fee, no obligation, and no pressure. It simply gets you into our system so we can reach out when a property that matches your situation becomes available — and so you receive invitations to our virtual information sessions before they fill up.

When you join the list, tell us a little about yourself: where you’re hoping to be located, your general household size, what’s currently standing between you and a conventional mortgage, and what your timeline looks like. The more context you give us, the better we can match you to the right opportunity.

We read every submission personally. If your situation looks like a good fit, we’ll reach out to schedule a conversation. If it doesn’t, we’ll tell you that too — and do our best to point you in a useful direction.

Questions before you fill out the form?  You’re welcome to call or email us directly.