Lease to own means you rent a home with an option to buy it later: an option fee up front, monthly rent, and the landlord keeps the deed until you exercise the option, usually one to three years in. Golden Path Homes does not lease. We sell homes on owner financing, where the deed is recorded in your name at closing, with no bank and no credit check, so you own the home from your first payment instead of renting toward it. 103 homes are available in 25 states. Down payments run from $22,000 to $60,000, and monthly payments from $484 to $5,353.
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Every lease-to-own deal has the same three parts. An option fee paid up front, commonly nonrefundable, buys you the right to purchase the home later. Monthly rent follows, sometimes with a small rent credit set aside toward the price. And a deadline: exercise the option inside the window, usually by qualifying for a mortgage, or the deal ends.
Until that option is exercised, you are a tenant. The landlord holds the deed, the equity and the leverage. If the window closes without a purchase, because financing fell through, the price moved, or life happened, the option fee and any rent credits typically stay with the landlord, and the years of payments bought nothing.
A lease option gives you the right to buy and the freedom to walk away, minus the option fee. A lease purchase obligates you to buy when the lease ends, whether or not your financing came together. Rent to own is the umbrella term people use for both. In all three, the deed stays with the landlord until the very end, and that is the question to ask any seller: when does the deed transfer?
Owner financing replaces the whole lease period. You buy the home now, the seller carries the financing, and the closing happens at a title company like any normal sale. What protects the purchase:
Buying a home takes a down payment and steady income. Down payments on the homes available today run from $22,000 to $60,000. There is no credit check.
Side by side, the difference is not the monthly payment. It is who owns the home while you make it.
| Owner Finance (Golden Path Homes) | Lease-to-Own / Lease-Purchase | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | From day one | After exercising the option |
| Equity building | Every payment | Rent credits (maybe) |
| Credit check | None | Often required |
| Timeline to own | Immediate | 1 to 3 years of renting |
| If it falls through | You still own the home | Option fee and rent credits are gone |
103 homes in 25 states, as of November 4, 2026, 4:47 PM CT. Every one of them is a home you own at closing, not a lease. The down payment is what each state's homes ask for today. See the terms in each city
| State | Homes | Down payments | Typical down |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 36 | $22,500 to $55,000 | $39,900 |
| Florida | 12 | $30,000 to $45,000 | $40,000 |
| Arizona | 10 | $29,900 to $50,000 | $40,000 |
| Georgia | 6 | $30,000 to $60,000 | $39,450 |
| North Carolina | 6 | $25,000 to $45,000 | $34,500 |
| Colorado | 3 | $40,000 to $56,000 | $43,800 |
| Illinois | 3 | $22,000 to $50,000 | $30,000 |
| Louisiana | 3 | $30,000 to $37,928 | $37,000 |
| South Carolina | 3 | $35,000 to $50,000 | $47,500 |
| California | 2 | $40,000 to $50,000 | $45,000 |
| Idaho | 2 | $39,900 | $39,900 |
| Indiana | 2 | $35,343 to $40,000 | $37,672 |
| Missouri | 2 | $32,177 to $40,000 | $36,089 |
| Ohio | 2 | $38,000 to $40,000 | $39,000 |
| Alabama | 1 | $32,000 | $32,000 |
| Kansas | 1 | $39,500 | $39,500 |
| Michigan | 1 | $32,000 | $32,000 |
| Mississippi | 1 | $35,000 | $35,000 |
| Nevada | 1 | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| New Jersey | 1 | $38,000 | $38,000 |
| Oklahoma | 1 | $38,700 | $38,700 |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | $40,000 | $40,000 |
| Tennessee | 1 | $38,075 | $38,075 |
| Virginia | 1 | $55,000 | $55,000 |
| Wisconsin | 1 | $39,900 | $39,900 |
Each city page lists the homes inside its own area, the down payment and monthly payment on every one, and the same no-bank terms. A city with no homes today still takes your name for the next one.
Yes. Lease to own, rent to own and lease purchase describe the same arrangement under different names: you rent the home and hold an option to buy it later, and the landlord keeps the deed until you exercise that option. Owner financing from Golden Path Homes skips the option entirely: the deed is recorded in your name at closing through a title company.
Rent to own, lease to own, contract for deed, owner financing: the difference
Option fees vary by landlord, and they are usually nonrefundable: if you never exercise the option, that money is gone. With owner financing there is no option fee. There is a down payment instead, and it goes into a home whose deed is already recorded in your name, so it builds equity from day one rather than buying a right you might not use.
Golden Path Homes sells owner-finance homes in cities across the country. Right now Golden Path Homes has 103 homes you can own today. Pick your city in the list above: each city page shows the homes inside its own area with the down payment and monthly payment on every one. If your city is not listed, leave your name and number and our team will reach out when a home opens up near you.
Some lease-to-own landlords check credit and some do not, but either way the credit check that matters comes later, when you try to get the mortgage that exercises your option. Golden Path Homes never pulls credit at any point: not at approval, not at closing, not during the loan. Approval comes down to a down payment and steady income, and there is no mortgage to qualify for later because you already own the home.
Rent to own homes with no credit check: how approval works
In a typical deal, the option expires and the option fee and rent credits stay with the landlord. In a lease purchase you may even be in breach, since that version obligates you to buy. This is the risk owner financing removes: there is no end-of-lease purchase to qualify for, because the sale already happened at closing and every monthly payment has been paying down a home you own.
It can work when the option fee is small, the purchase terms are locked in writing, and you are confident you can finance the purchase inside the window. Before signing one, ask when the deed transfers, what happens to the option fee if you walk, and whether the rent credits are guaranteed in writing. If the answer to the first question matters to you, compare it with owner financing, where the deed transfers at closing, on day one.
Tell us where you want to live and what you have for a down payment, and our team will reach out. No credit pull, no obligation. Get matched with a home or call (469) 421-6170.
More from Golden Path Homes: Rent to own homes, and a way to own from day one · Rent to own homes with no credit check · Rent to own, lease to own, contract for deed, owner financing: the difference · Owner-finance terms by city