Buying a rental w/ rent to own agreement in place

[Levi T.]

So I talked to a seller today, and they informed me the renter had an agreement to exercise an option to buy the home. I've never ran into this with all the buying we do here in Virginia, so it made me step back for a minute. If we bought a home in VA and the lease had a rent to own option, would I be right to be worried as that lease option would become my responsibility as the new owner?

I was thinking about it, if the tenant had an option to buy the property for lets say 25k, and I paid 85k to buy it, they could exercise after I buy it, and I would have to sell it to them at a crazy loss, or at least ignore them and due the entire lawsuit thing for breach of contract.

Anyone run into this, thoughts, or experience?

[Wayne Brooks]

Yes, you would be stepping in the shoes of the seller....with the tenant having an option to buy.  Of course, if it's not recorded and/or the seller is not sharp enough to make you sign an acknowledgement of the option, then you'd have a law suit on your hands.  But otherwise, yes it would still be effective and you couldn't make it go away, unless the tenant buyer actually Does default.  Obviously you'll want to know the exact terms of the option agreement.