The problem with most rent-to-own scenarios is that they usually prey on people with not much financial sense, so they're overpriced. People focus on the monthly payment instead of the sales price and the interest rate, and get ripped off. The best thing to do would be to buy it outright, at a market price, with a traditional mortgage.

If you have good, steady employment history and sufficient income, you can get a traditional mortgage, even without a credit score. You'll need to work with a local bank or credit union, and they'll have to manually underwrite it and portfolio the loan (i.e., not sell it on to Fannie/Freddie).

I just went and googled the company's name and found the following. NOT good reviews.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090424133544AAQKpUQ

http://www.ripoffreport.com/consumer-services/american-standards-o/american-standards-online-mis-bc5b4.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/real-estate-services/american-standard-on/american-standard-online-is-a-fba6f.htm

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/american-standard-online-ventura-california-c193677.html

http://www.thesqueakywheel.com/complaints/2011/AUG/complaint46792.cfm

http://flakelist.org/page/viewpub/tid/1/pid/3665

http://www.trulia.com/voices/Foreclosure/Has_anyone_ever_heard_of_American_Standard_online_-220569

TANSTAAFL

How low are your scores? How much do you have to put down and what would the loan amounts be? With something like FHA or USDA(if the area qualifies) loans you may be able to get a mortgage, they are pretty lenient compared to the banks.

hollysprings, I had to google that one!

I want to thank you all for helping us out with this. We called our VA Rep that we have been working with for the last few months and she told us that she has Heard Nothing about them. But If something sounds as good as that then its better to leave it alone.

My husband and I have never bought anything on Credit . My thoughts was the way my grandma told me to be . If you dont have the money for it Never use credit. (lol My grandma had a lg farm and everything was theirs . they had No payments on anything other then Normal house hold bills . So I lived by that . From New cars ect. I just saved Money and paid cash for everything. last yr my told my husband that I wanted my own home something that we can grow old in he said Ok. I started looking and found out that we would have to build our credit because we have never used it. We have No bad marks on our scores just dont have any. last time our Rep checked our scores where Now in the low 600's. They Need our scores to be at 650 or better. So Now we just keep working on it and stay where we are at till we get it going.

thanks again all

Have you gotten something like a Cap One low limit card? They offer funded cards for those with no credit BUT will report to all there credit agencies each month. That will start adding to your scores in a few months.

Does your area qualify for USDA loans? They will often take "non traditional" credit histories.

We are working with VA home loans. they want us to build our scores to a 650. 1st time in our lived we went to a bank and bought a pickup on payments. added credit cards ( still have hard time using those) but we are building the credit . VA told us if in a year from where we started this all we have on time payments they will us our other "Non Trasitional histories" .
plus or scores.
So after looking at all the info on this company we have decided NOT to use them. We will just stay in the house we are in till we can buy something outright with a normal loan.

VA is a horrible deal. More closing costs, higher interest rates. Find a bank that will give you a conventional mortgage. And save up your money so you can put at least 20% down and avoid PMI.

And you don't need to pay interest to build your credit. All I've ever had is credit cards that I paid off in full each month, I have a mid-700's credit score, and I had no problem getting a mortgage. If I were you, and you have the cash, pay off the truck. It will still show up on your credit report, but you won't be paying stupid interest.

Also try Churchill Mortgage. Dave Ramsey, Mr "no debt" endorses them, and they supposedly underwrite people with "zero credit" but good financial histories.

American Standards seems to be in the business of collecting the $199 up-front fee.

Here's how the classic "rent-to-own" scam works ...

1 - They rent at an above-market price, with the overpayment going to the "down payment".
2 - They rent to people who will have a hard time getting financing.
3 - The contract says you forfeit the overpayment if you don't qualify for financing.
4 - At the end of the year, you have to qualify for a loan, you don't, and they kick you out, pocket the profits, and rent to to another desperate person.

One realtor in Phoenix got so angry at one of these sleazes that he arranged to have most of her places rented by people he knew who were going to be unable to get financing, and then made them a private loan when the year was up.

In about 6 months, she lost most of her houses to her tenants at less than market prices :) and he had private mortgage income.

Weedy,
The VA is a great deal for people who do not want or have a down payment. For accepting a loan w/o a downpayment and PMI, the rates are bumped up accordingly.
The VA program got me into my first home probably 10 - 15 years before i would have under a conventional program.