An historical anecdote on a lease-option I considered …
I once considered buying a house in Ocean Beach on a lease purchase. This was in 1996. The San Diego market really stank at the time. The seller wanted me to rent for something like 12-24 months at a rate that was about $300 above market (to be applied to purchase, if I elected the option). The price was set at two discrete points. 12 months in it was about 7% above the current price (about 200K at the time), then would go up another 7% if I waited 2 years.
This was at a time when the market had been DOWN for 5-6 years. The deal was clearly intended to be a win-win for the seller, not the buyer.
