Need Help...Is this a good Deal?

[James Devoe]

Hi everyone, 

I need help with this...

My wife and I are looking to do our first house-hack but we can't get a mortgage due to our debt-to-income ratio (most of our income comes from our design business that has only been making money since last year so we can't claim it). We've decided, instead to use creative financing for the time being.

So, I talked to a seller I found on Craigslist after looking at his house. His asking price is 575k and he doesn't want to do owner financing.

However, he's willing to do rent to own for up to 6 months if I can come up with 10% down payment (which we don't have). He says all of our rent payments and the down payment will go towards our principal when we get a mortgage to buy.

He's also going to have the 2nd floor converted back into an apartment on his own, making it into a legal 1 family w/accessory apartment.

The problem we're having is that the rent + expenses is more than we're paying now at our current rental...

Any advice would be great....