Another option is to find properties that offer a take-over-payment option. This situation often presents itself if the owner is having financial difficulties, they are facing bankruptcy or foreclosure, or if they are moving and have had trouble selling their home. In some cases the owner will ask for a downpayment, and in other cases no downpayment will be necessary. If the home has an FHA assumable loan then you can just take over payments without qualifying and without a lot of paperwork that is often associated with home finance. The benefit to taking over an FHA assumable loan is that it is also contains a Streamline Refinancing Option that allows the borrower to refinance easier when interest rate are lower.
Lease/Option
The lease option scenario gives people who are self-employed a way to get into a home and earn "quasi-equity" before they need to qualify for a traditional loan. In this case, the "renter" lives in the house and makes monthly "rent" payments. At the end of the lease term (1 year, 5 years, etc.) a portion of each rent payment is applied towards the downpayment if the renter decides to exercise the option to buy the house. If the renter decides not to buy the house they can walk away from the situation without any further obligations, however, they lose the "quasi-equity" that they have accumulated.
For example if a house rents for $800 per month and offers a 5 year lease with an option to buy, with 50% of the rent applied towards the downpayment, and a purchase price of $150,000. After 5 years of renting the renter will have accumulated $24,000 of "quasi-equity" that can be used as the downpayment and they will only need to finance $126,000 in order to purchase the house.
The advantages of this situation are that you can lock in a lower purchase price and have five years (depending on the lease) to make your final decision to buy or not. You also have time to get to know the house and neighborhood and to see if these things fit your needs and wants for a community. If the house is too small, too big, or need major repairs at the end of the lease period you can walk away without worrying about selling the house or paying off your home loan. You also don’t have to pay homeowner’s insurance or property taxes during the lease period because you are technically just renting the house. This can save you thousands of dollars per year.