Carolyn,
There is an agent that services Wise County that seems very knowledgeable. She is active on this website and her name is Kathy Fisher. She will probably be able to help you with alternatives if the lease to own option is not available. Here is a link to her site: http://www.kathylfisher.com/

Naima
214-289-8555
naima@sumner-realty.com

I personally don't like this idea. In my experience few people end up buying. This presents a problem as your contract normally obligates you to buy and puts your down payment at risk if you don't. If you want to rent --then do it, RENT. If you want to buy, then BUY, but don't mix the two. We've recently taken steps in Texas to prohibit these types of transactions. There are still people advertising such schemes and think they have a way around it, but the intent and content of the law is clear-NO RENT TO OWN. There's a reason for the law and that is that there were too many bad guys out there taking people's money in a lot of different ways. As a person wanting to rent you put yourself at some risk agreeing to these transactions.

I'm not from your part of the country, but I can tell you that in NY (the suburbs) this is becoming very commonplace. Sellers who have had their homes on the market for a longer than usual period of time are resorting to renting and renting with an option to buy. In this type of scenario everyone wins-- the buyer gets to live in a home he loves without putting down a hefty downpayment and the seller gets a monthly income on a home that would otherwise be just sitting their vacant. One word of caution though, before you get involved with this type of contract, consult with an attorney. Some sellers will consider the entire monthly payment as rent and others will attribute a certain percentage of it towards the purchase price. In the final analysis, it doesn't hurt to ask a seller if he is willing to do this type of option. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and the worst he can say is no. Good luck and I hope everything works out for you