I've had several inquireies lately regarding lease purchase arrangements. There is sometimes some confusion between a lease purchase and an option to buy. An option to buy basically means you have the first option to buy the property at the end of the lease period, but you aren't obligated to buy -- a lease purchase, though, is an contractual agreement to buy the home at the end of the lease period, which can be any amount of time agreed to by both parties.

A lease purchase ususally requires the buyer to make a down payment which would not be returned if the buyer fails to go through with the purchase. The value of a lease purchase is to secure a home you want but are not quite ready to buy. It's a good way to secure the home and fix any credit problems that might prohibit you from buying right away.

Most buyers think that a lease purchase is set up automatically where part of lease amount paid each month goes toward the purchase of the house, but this is not always the case and it has to be negotiated. Putting together a lease purchase agreement can be tricky for both the buyer and seller. It pays to make sure you have a comprehensive contract that spells out the agreement in a way where there is no misunderstanding. You don't want to get into an agreement where you think you have a way out if you change your mind, only to find out that you can't back out without losing quite a bit of money.

Remember, a lease purchase contract is a contract to buy.