Home Partners of America

We entered a contract with HP to rent a house and luckily they backed out during the due dilligence period. We ended up buying the same house almost exactly a year later on our own and SO glad we did. Our mortgage payement is now 1000 dollars (no typo!) less than the rent we would have paid to HP and we did not have to buy it for ~30K more than they would have paid (which would have been the price increase we would have paid after the first year) - In retrospect, if we had gone through HP we would not have gotten a mortgage at all after one year because the HP stated asking price would have been about 15K or so over the appraisal !! As it is, we got it several thousand less. So even though we were heart-broken at the time that they backed out of the contract (for reasons that were not really legitiment in our opinion and this was confirmed with our own inspection the following year - the bottom line is they do not like to buy older homes in historic districts, which actually is understandable), we realized it was a blessing in disguise. HP may work for some folks but from my experience it was clearly best to buy the house ourselves working with a good broker or do a rent-to-own by owner... otherwise you pay way more than you need with HP program (the rent is top of the market) and after one or two years you will have to pay a huge amount over what it sold for... and in many cases the value will not match the new asking price from HP. It is not just 5% but other added costs as well... so do your homework on this one. It might work out for some folks, and my review is positive overall because they did refund my deposit promptly and were very open and transparent about the costs, etc., and I had no issue there. Furthermore, I am so glad they cancelled the contract because I would not be able to buy the house if they had under their terms - so I am happy with the company!! They saved me by backing out. I was just naive thinking it was a good way to go. I also thought I was not qualified to buy a house but if you really work at it and get a good broker it can be done. Don't take no for an answer.
Now I am in the same house, I actually own it, and I paid much less than I would have from HP, and have a significantly lower monthly payment, so there you go! If you find your dream house - try to buy it on your own! Use HP as a last resort or just to find a better rental (but know you will pay more for it than market - at least in our area). I hope this helps someone.... HP is good company but you will pay more for this service and might be priced out when time comes to buy... I wish they would be more flexible on rent and purchase price based more on market conditions and so forth - this would help more people. Further, they would serve more people well if they offered financing (they don't have to service the loans, they could sell them) - to give better piece of mind. I would be willing to bet that 75 to 80% of renters with HP are never able to buy their homes. I wish HP would share the actually numbers!