1. Rent-to-own in Ontario, plainly
A lease plus an option: what the Residential Tenancies Act covers, what it does not and where the option agreement stands on its own. Start here.
Learn: rent-to-own in Ontario, explained plainly
Five guides, written for the person about to sign something. Each one opens with a plain definition, shows a worked example with its assumptions on display, names what it does not cover and ends with the questions worth asking out loud. Sources and check dates sit at the bottom of every page, where you can verify them yourself.
Everything here is general information to help you ask better questions — not advice about your situation.
2. Is rent-to-own a scam?
Some of it is and the pattern is consistent. The red flags that mark a deposit harvest and the habits that mark a legitimate programme.
3. Where your money goes
The three ways the final purchase price gets set — locked, escalator and appraisal — priced on the same example home so you can compare them honestly.
4. Will you qualify at the end?
The stress test, the GDS and TDS ratios and the credit record a lender will examine when your term ends. Plan the runway from month one.
5. FHSA saving versus rent-to-own
Renting while you save inside a First Home Savings Account, set beside a rent-to-own term over the same three years. Neither route is sold here.
Sizes, loads and spaces
Four drawn diagrams in plain terms: the six storage footprints to scale, what counts as a load of laundry, a mobile home on its lot and a self-serve wash bay from the front.
Then: the readiness calculator
Five inputs and a plain verdict: ready now, close or building. Your result appears on screen first and no email stands between you and it.
A standing caution
These guides are education, not legal or financial advice and they describe the Ontario structure in general terms. Your agreement is a specific contract with specific words in it. Have your own lawyer read the actual document before you sign and treat any operator who discourages that as having answered your most important question.