At the end of her one-year lease, Mary Pitman, a 54-year-old Vero Beach nurse, decided she liked the house so much she wanted to buy it. She offered her landlord a lease/option deal and, in December 2007, she closed on the house — with no money down.

"My pitch to him was he would still own the house but have none of the expenses," she says. "Although I didn't have a portion of my rent applied toward the purchase, I had proven myself to be a reliable, responsible, trustworthy person."