The current housing slump has some home buyers and sellers taking a second look at lease options, something normally associated with people who are trying to reverse bad credit.

These rent-to-own agreements allow prospective buyers to settle on a price early and then live in a home before deciding whether to purchase. Part of the rent money, generally around 20 percent, goes toward a down payment.

It’s an attractive option in today’s market, where financing is hard to come by and home values are at a low.

Amanda Powell, a Windermere real-estate agent who specializes in lease-options, says she receives over 10 calls a day from sellers interested in renting to own.

“It’s a great chance to build equity while you’re renting,” she said. “If you can’t buy today, what do you have to lose?”

The Washington Square development in downtown Bellevue now has 20 lease-to-own agreements in effect, with plans for adding another 20.

COO Mike Nielson says the program has helped draw new interest in an otherwise sluggish market.

“It started out as a sales tool, but it’s serving us well in this economy,” he said. “We’re getting good traction from it.”

Around 10 people tour Washington Square each week with an interest in renting to buy, Nielson said.

Lease-options often require non-refundable money up front, but that is not the case at Washington Square. The maximum amount of time a tenant can rent there before making a decision is 12 months.

“We anticipate quite a few will end up purchasing at the end of the day,” Nielson said. “We’re probably about four to six months away from getting the first one.”

Washington Square consists of two residential towers, with up to seven multi-use buildings eventually expected.

The existing high-rises include 379 residential units, of which 193 have already sold. That number is down from a high of over 200 before skittish buyers started forfeiting their earnest money.

Nielson says the lease-to-own program will be available at Washington Square on a trial basis as he tests how much it really helps during the down economy.

Not every development in town sees these deals as a solution to the market downturn. Bellevue Towers, the main competitor for Washington Square, has refused to consider them.

“We’ve tested it in Portland, and it met with limited results,” said Patrick Clark, a principal of the company that markets Bellevue Towers. “It really didn’t help us get to the end result with buyers.”

Consumers at this point are also slow to seal the deal on lease-option agreements, mainly, Powell says, because they’re waiting for the market to bottom out first.