Find Rent To Own Homes Nearby

ZeroDown offers a faster, more accessible road to homeownership. Pick almost any home listed on the market for sale and rent it while you save up to buy it.

With ZeroDown you don’t have to wait to move into your dream home. Pick the home you want to buy over the next three years, we’ll buy the home now, and you’ll start living there while paying a monthly rent and earning credits to use for your future down payment on the home. You can buy the home from us whenever you’re ready, whether that’s in 30 days or in 36 months. If you ultimately change your mind about buying, you can even walk away!

Think of Purchase Credits as a down payment savings account, that starts at 2% of your home’s current purchase price. Each month that your lease remains current, you earn Purchase Credits. Purchase Credits correlate to a percentage of the home’s value, so 5% Purchase Credits correlates to 5% of the home’s price.

Because the Purchase Credits are a percentage of your home’s purchase price, as the home’s purchase price grows, so does the value of your Purchase Credits.

You can apply your Purchase Credits towards a down payment on your home at any point during your lease. If you have 5% Purchase Credits, then you have a 5% down payment ready! If you choose not to purchase your home when your lease ends, then ZeroDown will refund a portion of your accumulated Purchase Credits, minus a Termination Fee equal to 2% of the original purchase price of the home and any outstanding fees and payments owed to ZeroDown (this will help cover our costs related to selling or re-renting the property)^*.

For example:

• On our 5% Purchase Credit program, you'd get a refund of 3% of the original home purchase price.
• On our 10% Purchase Credit program, you'd get a refund of 8% of the original home purchase price.

^* If the original purchase price of the home was $400,000 or higher, you will not be eligible for a refund of Purchase Credits if you decide not to purchase the home.

Our program is currently available in all major metros in 8 states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, TX, VA, and WA. If you’re interested in the ZeroDown lease-to-own program, but don’t see your state above, keep in touch! We’ll be expanding across the US in the future.

ZeroDown’s program is a type of rent-to-own program, meaning you get the affordability and flexibility of renting a property while simultaneously contributing each month towards buying it. However, there are some important differences between ZeroDown’s rent-to-own program and regular renting:

Easing into Homeownership

Unlike traditional renting, ZeroDown lets you work towards buying a property while simultaneously inhabiting it. Think of ZeroDown as trying before buying—find a home you love, move in, and develop an understanding of being a homeowner, all while still enjoying the benefits of renting. During your lease, you’ll be able to figure out if the home works for you and your family long-term. If it does, you’ll have a headstart on your new life there. If it doesn’t, you can walk away and cash out a portion of the Purchase Credits you accumulated while living there.^*.

^* If the original purchase price of the home was $400,000 or higher, you will not be eligible for a refund of Purchase Credits if you decide not to purchase the home.

The Quality of the Home

Homes for sale tend to be better maintained and more recently renovated than rentals. This means when you participate in a rent-to-own program with ZeroDown you’ll be looking at higher quality homes than if you were shopping for a standard rental.

Because homes for sale include disclosures and home inspections, buyers have more information about the history and quality of a home than a renter would. We provide you with these disclosures as well, and our team of property experts will work with you and our agent partner to make sure that any home you move into and eventually buy will be a smart purchase.

Rent

ZeroDown’s program is designed to get you closer to homeownership every month you live in the home.

At first glance, your monthly payments may seem more expensive than traditional renting, but that’s because you are entering into a long-term lease for a home that ZeroDown custom purchased for you. Your monthly payment won’t ever change during the 3 years, regardless of the inflation environment. And, your option agreement allows you to earn Purchase Credits and participate in equity upside on the home, which can make your effective rent much lower than comparable rentals. Plus, if you decide you don’t want to buy the home you can always walk away and in some cases receive a portion of your accumulated Purchase Credits.

Repairs, Maintenance, and Improvements

ZeroDown will handle all maintenance and repairs to keep your home safe and habitable during your lease - if there’s an issue with your roof or furnace, we’ll get it fixed.

ZeroDown will also purchase a home warranty for the home when you move in that will cover common repairs and replacements. You will be responsible for making the service requests and paying the appointment service fees.

The home you’re renting will eventually be yours, so if you want to paint it, you can! You can even redo the floors, change the kitchen cabinets, and more. Just let us know in advance! We encourage future homeowners to make homes feel like their own. However, because we’re still financially responsible for the home while you rent it, we don’t allow larger scale renovations that require a permit—like changes to the roof, structure, electrical, mechanical, or plumbing systems. For a full list of permissible renovations, you can check our

guidelines

.

Unlike a traditional mortgage, ZeroDown allows you to live in your home without a mortgage or the large cash reserves necessary for a down payment, property taxes, or home insurance. We understand that while a lot of people are ready to be homeowners, their finances may need time to catch up. With ZeroDown, you’ll have a three-year window where you can enjoy all the benefits of homeownership, with all the flexibility of renting.

Let’s break down the key differences between ZeroDown and a traditional mortgage.

• A typical mortgage requires a down payment of between 10-20%. With ZeroDown, you can rent-to-own almost any home available as long as you have 2-3% of the purchase price.
• While traditional mortgages require an immediate down payment that locks you into a 15-30 year commitment, ZeroDown gives you a 3-year period to live in a home before you make a down payment. That means you can try out your home before deciding to buy it.
• Unlike a financed home purchase, ZeroDown buys homes with cash and a quick close. Because we buy homes with strong cash offers, we are able to negotiate the best price when shopping for your new home.
• Qualifying for a mortgage is often a headache with steep requirements for your credit, financial record, employment history, and more. You don’t need to be able to qualify for a traditional mortgage to qualify for ZeroDown’s rent-to-own program. At ZeroDown, we make homeownership more accessible for more homebuyers regardless of what a mortgage lender is telling them today. Even if you aren’t mortgage-ready today, you may be eligible to qualify for ZeroDown’s rent-to-own program.