Run the numbers before you call

A lender loans you the purchase price and takes a deed of trust against the house as security.

The deed, from closing. You are the owner on day one and the lender is a lienholder.

The lowest rate and usually the smallest down payment of any path on this page.

Credit history, documented income, a social security number, and two to four weeks of underwriting.

If you can qualify, nothing on this page beats it. Everything below exists for people a bank will not serve.

Some lenders write mortgages against an ITIN instead of an SSN. It is a bank product, not a workaround.

The deed, from closing, exactly like any other mortgage.

A higher rate and a larger down payment than a conventional loan, because fewer lenders compete for this business.

An ITIN, income you can document, and a lender who actually writes them — not every one does.

Worth asking about before assuming a bank is closed to you. A lot of people who qualify for one never find out they do.

The seller sells you the house and takes back a promissory note secured by a deed of trust — the same instrument a bank would use.

The deed, from closing. The seller is a lienholder, the way a bank would be.

A rate set by the seller, normally above a bank's, and a down payment they are comfortable with.

A seller who owns the house free and clear, or whose own lender permits it. Many cannot do this even if they want to.

The strongest form of seller financing for a buyer, and the least common, because it asks the most of the seller.

A recorded purchase contract. You take possession and equitable title — the buyer's interest in the property — and the seller keeps legal title as security until the balance is paid.

Possession from day one, and a contract recorded at the county in your name. A stated price on a 30-year amortization at a fixed rate, and the right to rent the house out, sell it or refinance it. Title transfers at payoff, on a sale, or the day you refinance into a conventional loan.

A rate above a bank's and a real down payment. Taxes and insurance are on top of the principal and interest.

That you read the contract, ideally with your own attorney, and check three things: that it gets recorded, what mortgages or liens are already on the house and how they clear, and how long you get to cure a missed payment.

Both Missouri and Kansas regulate these now, including written disclosure of encumbrances and a cure period that lengthens as you pay the balance down. A seller who will not record the contract is telling you something.

A lease, plus an option to buy later at a set price. The option is a right to buy, not a purchase.

A tenancy. No ownership interest, nothing recorded, no equity.

Option money you can lose, rent that usually runs above market, and an interest cost buried inside the rent rather than stated.

That you still qualify for a mortgage at the end, which is the part people miss. If you cannot, the option expires.

Missing a payment in the wrong month can cost you everything you have put in, because legally you were renting.

A few sellers paper a real installment purchase on lease-option forms because that is what the law in a particular place requires, and that is a different thing from a rental dressed up as a purchase. The test is the substance: is there a purchase price and an amortization schedule with a balance that goes down, can you rent it out, sell it or refinance it, and does title come to you when the debt is paid? If the answer is no, you are renting. Ask us which document a given home uses and we will show it to you before you sign.

You pay the purchase price and take the deed. No lender, no appraisal, no financing contingency.

The deed, free and clear, at closing.

Nothing in interest — and every dollar is tied up in the house.

Verifiable funds. A serious seller will ask to see them.

A cash offer wins against a financed one at the same price, which is worth knowing whichever side of the table you are on.