Try before you buy If you’re undecided about a certain property, or neighborhood, a lease option is perfect way to try before you buy. You can structure a deal for one year, two years or even five years. Move in, pay your monthly rent and see how property feels.

Purchase it at end of your lease agreement or walk away and move on to something else. In either case, you can live in a beautiful home and get a lot more space than you could find in an apartment.

Build Rent Credit Most lease option agreements include a generous rental credit towards you down payment. For example, if you are paying $1000 per month in rent, owner might be willing to credit $300 or $400 per month towards your down payment.

If you had a traditional rental agreement after $1,000 per month in rent, you have $0 in credit and would still need to get a sizeable down payment when you are ready to buy a home.

Where can I find lease option deals? You can do quick search on any major search engine or check your local rental listings.

Then, follow up with credit bureaus to make sure information has been added to your file. What type of information are you looking for: social security numbers, addresses, dates on accounts, opened accounts, closed accounts, outstanding debts, negative information that is incomplete or inaccurate.

List of assets Frankly, how much are you worth? Do you have any stocks, bonds, savings accounts, retirement plans or own another home? Again, create a master list with items, account numbers, worth or potential worth if liquidated and addresses or contact information.

If you are planning to sell any type of asset to use money as down payment, try to complete sale at least six months prior to filing out your mortgage application. Mortgage lenders always want to see that you have money on hand for all of costs associated with getting a mortgage. They generally look down on last minute buying and selling to come up with your cash. They want a snapshot of your current financial situation going back at least six months.

Supplemental paperwork If you are getting alimony or child support payments and want this to be included in calculations prepare documentation to show how much money are you receiving and projections for how much you think you’ll receive in future.

Bankruptcies and foreclosures Your lender will be able to find out just about everything they want about your financial history so don’t’ try to hide foreclosures and bankruptcies. Just make sure information is accurate. Gather all of your paperwork including dates, settlements or outstanding balances at time debt was discharged and keep it handy.

Employment History Collect W-2 forms for last 2 to 3 years that show your employment history and income. As with your payment habits, try not to make any sudden job changes within 6 months to 1 year period prior to applying for loan. Income changes are especially suspect. If you experience a sudden dramatic increase or decrease in income be prepared to provide a full verbal or written explanation along with your paperwork.

Remember that purpose of all this data collection is make sure that you have most accurate and update picture of your financial history to make mortgage application process smooth and easy.