Buying a home is the dream of many people, but it is also one of the most important decisions since it will be the place we are going to live in the coming years, but what happens when we find a home with a good price but at the moment we are not sure of wanting that property or we do not have the credit capacity to acquire it at that time.
In this scenario, the buyer may lose the property, when it is sold to another person, or its price may increase over time. This does not mean that the buyer should make the purchase of the home when there are still doubts about location, infrastructure or services, security and even neighborhood coexistence, since they are factors that can lead us not to make the purchase.
An alternative that allows the buyer to secure the price of a home for several years is the rental contract with the option to purchase or also known as real estate leasing.
Through a contract, the owner of the property and the person who wants to rent agree on a term to rent the property, and once the established period is over, they have the option and right to buy the property.
Within this lease, it is agreed how the transaction will be carried out, the price of the property, the payment conditions, and what percentage of the rent paid will be taken into account to cover the cost of the property.
This scheme is for those who are not sure of buying the property, since at the end of the time fixed by the contract, there is no purchase commitment by the tenant, that is, at the end of that period they can say: “the property It’s not what I wanted”, which is why this model helps to understand if the location, size and type of housing is adequate, explained Roberto Esses, director of Vivanuncios.
The rental contract with the option to purchase also allows the final cost of a property to be reduced, since a percentage of the rent is used as a capital payment, for example, a house with a cost of 1 million pesos, is rented for 10,000 pesos per month, of that amount, 40% is destined to payment of capital, after four years of rent the tenant has contributed 192,000 pesos to the price of the house, so he will no longer need to contract a loan for a million pesos but for 808,000 pesos .
to take into account
Although the rent-to-own scheme is attractive, there are some risk factors that tenants or future buyers should consider when signing this type of contract.
The director of Vivanuncios considers that before thinking about the rental contract with the option to buy as an alternative, future tenants and buyers must carry out a financial analysis in which they consider the amount to allocate to rent, in addition to calculating how much they can lose if they do not decide to buy the property, since the rents under this contract tend to be slightly more expensive.
“The first thing to take into account are the numbers, you have to calculate how much is equivalent to the percentage that is going to be allocated to capital and how much to income. If there is a maximum term of five years and at the end of that time the transaction is not completed, that money is lost since it remains only as a lease payment”, warned Roberto Esses.
In this regard, Florencia Estrada, president of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals (AMPI), recommends planning how the home will be purchased at the end of the stipulated term, whether it will be through a mortgage loan or with our savings, because if we do not acquire the housing at the end of the term, the price guarantee and even the contributions granted are lost.
Both experts advise visiting the property with a real estate expert in the area where you plan to rent and then buy. The expert will be able to give an evaluation of the possible behavior of the area in the coming years and in this way it can be anticipated if the property tends to rise in price significantly; In addition, you must make sure to carry out all the procedures before a Notary, since despite being an agreement between parties, the property must be deeded.