5) Description of housing product/service offering: First, there is no real shortage of houses since there is a 15,000,000 +- surplus of houses sitting empty and neglected. (see www.census.gov -housing)

The product is the millions of low value empty houses sitting uselessly vacant in every community all across the nation.

The aspect is that most of the empty houses are low value houses that can be cheaply acquired and easily repaired to be acceptable as homes by the low income folks. The aspect of allowing the 'standards' of quality of the houses be set by the prospective tenant/buyers instead of some other entity, (who set the standards too high); example; Most older houses are not insulated and have old sheetrock inside walls - most construction companies would tear out the old sheetrock (causing much mess and labor) insulate and rewire and put up new sheetrock - a better way is to leave the old sheetrock in place, strip the studs and rewire in the air space and add new sheetrock, thus creating a new double wall with insulation and wiring at 1/4 the time and expense of normal / standard method.

Plumbing can be easily and cheaply replaced by bypassing old corroded iron pipes with pvc - many times by ditching around the circumference of the house and going through the outside walls where needed - this can be quickly/cheaply done compared to the normal method.

The activities in acquiring and repairing and occuppying these old houses has been practiced by Leslie Lloyd of RENT TO OWN HOMES INC for 30 years and is now being broached in a Booklet titled HOW TO ACQUIRE REPAIR AND SELL A LOW VALUE HOUSE-instructions on how to find owners and make low offers (I have bought several houses for $10 each) and how to use the legal ADVERSE POSSESSION laws, also called SQUATTERS RIGHTS.

The beneficiaries are; the low income folks who can start 'owning' with no down payment and with no good credit history, can 'own' a home within their monthly range.

6) Description of innovation: The approach of RENT TO OWN HOMES INC can be seen in website of www.homesezown.com - it is; to bypass the obstacle entities that 'caused' the millions of empty houses, namely the Attorneys, Realtors, Title Companies, appraisers, Lendors, Insurers, high cost of materials by recycling building materials, high priced labor and technicians-etc - hereinafter termed DEALERSRE (dealers in real estate) who have shunned the low value houses for the main reason of not enough commission/income for them to be worth their while, and for the ELITIST factor of being beneath their dignity to associate with old houses and low income people.

The further innovation of acquiring houses for free- or so near free as the cost of acquiring is inconsequential to overall cost, this can be done even on properties with lots of back taxes that can be deffered for those who qualify.

The RENT TO OWN concept is that of selling on a 'contract installment agreement for deed' with no down payment, with contractual wording of making it easier to reposses the property in case of default the same as 'renting' - but even if necessary to foreclose through posting in the courthouse and selling the note on courthouse steps the RENT TO OWN HOMES company can do that without any attorney expense, as any citizen can do by the real estate laws.

Another innovation in the areas where evaporative air condition works good I have developed a 'concrete air cooler' which is built on the strategic side of the house and blowing through the wall same as a metal A/C does.It is build of a concrete water pan with decorative concrete (cinder) blocks with galvanized wire protruding inside to hold excelsior pads, pvc pipe for water distribution, and a blower to air movement. materials = $100, labor app $100 - 1/2 the cost of a standard metal air cooler.

7) Benefits to clients: It is a simple matter of radio and newspaper advertising to let folks know that the RENT TO OWN low cost hames are available and they will come running in their many thousands in every community. The low income folks are starved for the opportunity to easily own a home within their monthly income, for most it is the ONLY opportunity they have ever had. They will jump at the chance to start ownng at a monthly cost lower than their rent and with no down payment and help with upkeep.

I have many calls where the person heard of me by 'word of mouth' - I have many calls where people found me on a search engine - yahoo had me 'on top' under 'housing' recently on their search.

Cities are notorious for the code enforcement personnel to have egos that interfere with practical application of housing construction, especially in certifying plumbers and electricians. Electricians in city limits are nearly always overcharging for service, especially new service where a permit must be obtained. They are making so much easy money in the city limits, even when they do not actually do the work but have their journeyman do it, that they do not want to work outside the city limits, in the county, where restrictions are much less and they cannot charge as much.

RENT TO OWN HOMES intends to have an electrion for a large area that can have several journemen working in any location and keep in touch with the MASTER ELECTRICIAN by cell phone - should be legal since they do it this way all the time, and have been for years.

8) Key operational partnerships: Partners are not necessary except in the financing aspect. If it is kept simple with no restrictions on perceived quality, and let the tenant buyers be their own judge of quality so they can own within their means, and pick their own to fit their desires and needs. Most entities for housing standard set standards so high that cannot be prepared within the cost range that will allow low cost ownership. Many standards are unrealistic, and some unwanted, by low income folks who are not accustomed to them. I have installed central heating in several houses only to have it removed by the tenant/buyers when they only wanted a simple space gas heater that they had lived with all their lives. One family put in a wood burning heater in place of the gas central heater - they eventually finished paying for the house and a deed was given to them.

I have attempted to recruit partners, such as banks and moneyed individuals, they all want to input their ideas as to quality/standards/outside appearrance - their demands would make the house unaccepable to the low income buyers - one banker friend had several of his inherited older houses demolished as 'eyesores' instead of giving them to me - he later said he should have given them to me.

The HOUSING AUTHORITIES of any city will not partner saying the houses would have to meet their 'standards'- their standards cost several thousands of dollars per unit extra making them unaffordable.

9) Financial model: The products are old low value houses restored to be sold for from $50 per month to $300 per month (avg) - in some cases 'given' to folks who can do full scale restoration and remove themselves from 'housing support' and be a benefit to the community.

The model of $5000 cost and $15,000 sale at 10% is the avg 2 or 3 bedroom house in central Texas. This brings a monthly payment of $198.23 which pays back $23,787.60 in the 120 months (10 yrs)-a X 4.75 gain in value. insurance and taxes- Most are comfortable with fire insurance in amount of $10,000, adequate to cover cost of restoration.

We file 'homestead exemptions' at the tax office and make any other tax deductions allowed.

WE notify and encourage tenants to call us in cases needed repair

          • Costs as percentage of income: ??

          • Financing: Shares in RENT TO OWN HOMES INC are for sale to finance the project - the corporation was founded in 1995 with five million shares of stock and wishes to sell one million shares for $10 per share with intentions to set up operations in several communities locally here in West Texas, including Midland, the President's home town, which has 4200 empty houses, most of them low value in the older parts of town but all viable for restoration for the low income folks.

Each house developed and sold will show a 4X + increase in value and will increase value of stock when fully registered and reported.

The financing would be used to purchase a defunct lumber yard; use part for LANDLORD'S CAFE and offices and bins for restoring lumber, doors, windows, fixtures etc.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: About 100 have benefitted from the RENT TO OWN HOMES project, fifty can be pointed to as still living in the home that was originally sold to them. Many others are still in homes that the note was sold to a Mortgage company and the tenants paid off the note. It is better for RENT TO OWN HOMES for it not to be necessary to sell notes (at the big discount) in order to raise funds but show profit from operations and sell shares to raise funds for expansion. I have been stymied by four major surgeries, lack of cooperation by financial institutions, conspiracy against me by the DEALERSRE, law suits and bad tenants. I expect to be very effective with funding to start LANDLORD'S CAFE to post bad tenants and get help from all landlords in identifying baddys.

          • Number of clients in past year: ONly 6 in the last year, due to surgery and age related physical capabilities loss I am slowing down considerably and concentrating on finding help for the project, as I am doing at this moment.I repeat, what has been done here can be replicated a

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 100

          • Potential demand: Magnitude is app 30,000,000 folks considered 'low income', with only about 15,000,000 empty houses to restore and supply. About one million houses are demolished each year across the nation as 'eyesores' - 56,000,000 since 1950 - most could have been saved and restored under this plan - that can be extrapolated into the future and maybe all old houses can be saved for use as low income homes.

The demand will always be there for there will always be lower income.

Thomas Jefferson said; FREE PEOPLE ARE NEVER EQUAL - - - EQUAL PEOPLE ARE NEVER FREE

WORK abolishes three evils; boredom, vice and poverty !

If the number of houses restored and sold for avg of $20000 were to be 10,000,000 out of the 15,000,000 available and not considering the 1,000,000 per year we could save from the demolitionists, the currency would be around $100,000,000,000.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: To acquire financing of ten million dollars and set up operations in at least 5 cities in West Texas and register the corporation with stock exchanges and prove viability through showing value increase of the corporation then sell increased value stock for more expansion - also explore grants and other forms of financing.

12) Origin of the initiative: Leslie Lloyd is the originator of the initiative, and as far as can be determined the only person to actively pursue the RENT TO OWN A HOME plan on a large scale, even though there are many individuals who let folks pay out a house with no down payment and these can be recruited to work with RENT TO OWN HOMES INC. I have noticed the empty houses all my life as a result of being brainwashed at the age of 13 by my mother who coached me into memorizing and reciting the Joyce Kilmer poem of THE HOUSE WITH NOBODY IN IT. I have noticed a few industrious individuals who restored old houses and wondered why it was not done on a large scale. After my retirement from Texaco at age of 62 after 35 years of work in a LPG plant I put all my savings into many old houses and worked on them myself until disabled by needed surgeries. But I learned the tricks of the trade.

Contact Information:
Leslie  Lloyd
retired but wanting to get into this
GIVE A HOUSE TO SAVE A HOUSE INC non-profit
(Incorporated as non-profit)
United States
Website: www.homesezown.com,