In general, nothing is a waste of time because you never know what person might say yes. Renting a vacant house is an option, but in my experience most sellers opt not to because it can negatively impact the sales process. In this market I think there are a couple things preventing sellers from doing a rent to own. The first is that most sellers are not in the kind of equity position that allows them to offer rent to own to buyers and the second is that if a buyer is credit worthy and has money to put down then most sellers think why doesn't this person just go to the bank and get the money. Typically, if a buyer falls behind on payments a seller has to foreclose on them just like a bank does and it can be quite a drawn-out process for the sellers. Any other questions just let me know. - Wed Jul 22 2009, 12:25