The difference that matters
The terms are the owner’s, and you get them in writing.
This is an installment purchase — usually a contract for deed, sometimes papered differently to satisfy the law where the house is. Whichever it is, it does the things a purchase does and a rental does not: a purchase price, a 30-year amortization, a fixed rate locked with the seller, and a balance that goes down with every payment. You sign it at a title company with a notary, and you get the document in writing.
From the day you sign you can live in it, put a tenant in it, sell it, or refinance into a conventional loan whenever you qualify — plenty of our buyers do after two years of on-time payments. The seller holds title until the balance is paid or the house is sold, as security, and title transfers then. That is the arrangement, and we will not pretend otherwise.