That's a good business model.

There are many different rental business models that are VERY different:College rentals "by the room"  Short-term rentals like vacation rentals or corporate rentals marketed to a particular community like traveling nurses,  line guys,  pipeline guys, flight attendants'Community' rentals for artists, old-folks, sober-houses, and care-homes1) Family opinion:Since you do seem to value the opinion of your family, make sure you are aware of the many different ways to make money as a landlord and be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of diiferent business models when the topic comes up.

Instead of being rent-to-own the model is own-to-rent.

I partnered on a couple of homes down in Houston from 2007 - 2014 and that's basically how our model looked. 

I have been I contact with the SEC and it seems like this business model should be safe.

There are actually stories on this being a 'hostile takeover' model in some areas where the value is greater in an apartment project, or to allow re-development.Now the longer questions....why is the separate units making it harder to purchase?

We have a sears outlet near us that sells new in box models that are 1-4 years old, they just aren’t the latest greatest model.

They also forecast a few years into the future.

If the property was just lip sticked the future and ongoing capex items could crush your cash flow modeling projections. 

They have cut rates in spite of its early year forecast to raise rates by this point.