Lease-to-own your HONK Home
“Why lease before I own?”
If you’ve never owned a home before, leasing to own is the perfect way to prepare.
You’ve been dreaming of buying a home for as long as you can remember, and you’re wondering what life would look like if you bought your home through HONK. Think of HONK’s lease to own program as a test run for homeownership. You’ll go about your daily life in your home, without the commitment of a mortgage.
Let’s break down the details:
It’s Leasing with an End in Sight:
- Few homeowners get the chance to live in their home before purchase. With HONK, you become accustomed to what life will be like as a homeowner. The changes you’ll experience, the challenges you’ll encounter, and the accomplishments you’ll surely achieve.
- If you struggle with managing your finances, a lease-to-own program will give you a chance to tighten up your budget. The ultimate goal is to receive a bank issued mortgage. HONK’s lease-to-own serves as a chance to prove your reliability. Your credit score will heal naturally in HONK’s program if you manage things well (no reckless spending).
- You’ll learn how to care for your home over weeks, months, and years. This means the nitty gritty tasks when you no longer have a landlord (think changing your furnace filter). Your HONK home is your space from the time you sign the lease. You’ll care for it as such. This means HONK expects you to shovel snow, mow your lawn, and perform other tasks that you’ll do when you own. We’ll handle the bigger maintenance duties, should issues arise.
- You’ll participate in HONK homebuyer classes, receiving group support and learning the financial requirements of buying a home. These almost always include a free dinner for you!
- We understand things that come up – we are reasonable and patient. Have an urgent expense? Need to suddenly care for a parent? Switching jobs? Okay, we can delay your timeline a little. If you’re working our program, our program will work for you! Same trajectory, same end goal. We want to help you prepare for life’s uncertainties and be able to handle them while owning a home. On the flip side, you may move faster through our program than expected, and that’s okay too! If you’re ready to assume the responsibility of homeownership, we’ll send you to the bank to get your loan!
Logistics:
- We’re realistic: We set your lease payments close to what your mortgage payments will be. We won’t match you with an unreasonably priced home that you won’t be able to afford now or in the future. We provide a little boost by setting aside a portion of your monthly payments to serve as a paydown when you buy your home.
- You’ll have enough time: For most, HONK’s lease to own program takes 12-18 months. If the client does not meet program requirements, misses multiple payments, and veers completely off track, HONK will devise an exit plan. That almost never happens because we only place clients in homes who show us they’re capable and diligent.
- We help those who need it most: We are able to sell your home to you for less than what it’s appraised for because of generous donors, volunteer labor, and buying homes at foreclosure. Because of this, we want to ensure we’re giving these opportunities to those who wouldn’t be able to achieve homeownership otherwise. We base our program on HUD’s 80% AMI (area median income) limits. This means you must make 80% or less of the AMI according to your family size to be approved for our program.
- Our waitlist doesn’t expire: When you’re approved for our waitlist, we keep you in mind as we finish house rehabs. When one pops up you may be a good fit for, we’ll give you a showing! If we aren’t finding a good home according to your income, family size, location needed, etc., we will keep you on the waitlist until there is a house suitable for you! The house you can see yourself owning for a long time. Don’t worry- we won’t kick you off the waitlist until you’ve signed your lease agreement!
Can you envision starting this process with HONK? We’d be happy to hear from you. If you feel like you’re ready to work towards homeownership- HONK is the place to start. Visit our contact page or call our office at (859)-581-4665. We hope to see you in a HONK home soon!
“I’m paying less on my home’s mortgage than I was on my cramped apartment with thin walls.” – Sarah, HONK homeowner in Elsmere, KY.
