Buying rent to own

[Steve Bell]

Hi everyone,

Would love to hear experience with buying rent to own properties.

I am new to investing. I purchased a SFH earlier this year and started renting it out a few months ago. It is a STR and it's going great and now my partner and I are looking to scale.

However, as we gather resources to buy another property a close friend and colleague who lives near my primary residence has recently fell into some hard times.

She is currently going through a somewhat ugly divorce, but her hope is to keep the house where her teen children go to school. The area she lives in is too expensive for her to rent on a single mom’s salary. She is trying the best she can to find ways to scrape together extra money because she wants to buy her ex out to have the property to herself.

I would love to help her out. I spent the better portion of a year and a half studying and learning about real estate before getting in, so most of my knowledge comes by way of books, podcasts, and my local REIA meetup meetings.

I was curious to hear from someone who knows creative finance. I was wondering if it would make sense to offer to her to try and do a deal where I offer her a seller finance deal where we can structure it so she is in a rent to own situation from me?

Does what I typed even make sense? Could I take the title off her hands and keep her financing (she bought about 8 years ago when the rates were fantastic)?

Does seller financing with offering her a rent to own possibility even make sense? Could this benefit her? Does this offer an investor any incentives?

Thanks for any and all advice or thoughts.