Hello Kelly -
My name is Dawn and I work for Dolan Realtors in Washington. If you would like to contact me sometime, I would be happy to help you find something in the Sullivan area. I know that we have had a couple of homes that were available for lease purchase and lease option in that area in the past. We will have to do some homework to find one, but I am sure we can. Let me know if I can be of any assistance for you.
Sincerely,
Dawn Pehle
Dolan Realtors

sorry, I don't work in that area and I don't have access to their MLS. I would suggest that you contact a local Realtor in that area. They are the ones that would have that information. Be aware that when you do a lease purchase, they will want you to do a background check, and a loan preapproval as part of the contract. They will also want to check with your current and past landlords to see how you have paid your rent in the past and what type of a tenant you have been.

You will be doing both a lease agreement and a home purchase contract at the same time with a specified closing date for purchasing the home. You will need to be prepared to do your building inspections now, and to have the seller take care of whatever occupancy requirements must be met in that area. Closer to closing, you will have to run title and get a firm loan commitment and have the apraisal done. With a lease purchase, you will pay a regular rental rate for the home every month and in some cases, you will pay an additional amount each month that is negotiated and goes toward the purchase price of the home if it closes. If it doesn't close, you forfeit the money to the seller. YOu will also pay a deposit that may be strictly a deposit and may be used later as part of the earnest money, if the home is in good condition and there are no concerns when the lease period is up and the purchase period starts. Sometimes there is a seperate earnest money payment as well. Typically the seller holds the earnest money and deposit just as the landlord normally holds the deposit.

There is a considerable amount of work that has to be done upfront with a lease purchase agreement and the majority of them fall apart because the buyer can't get a loan within the specified time period in order to finalize the deal. As a result, many home sellers and agents don't like to deal with them (less than 5% of the lease purchase deals actually make it to closing was the last stat that I heard).

The agents often get paid only a hundred bucks or so, on the rental upfront (and sometimes they don't get paid on the rental at all) and then get paid on the purchase when the home actually sells. If the home doesn't sell, they don't get paid at all and a lease purchase can be far more work than a regular purchase can be so many realtors see it as a losing proposition to work lease purchase deals.