What you're experiencing IS common. It is rare that anyone offers their property for sale on a rent to own. In order to work that sort of deal, I actually advertise to get sellers calling me, then negotiate the deal after gathering details about the property.

An idea you may want to try is calling for rent ads for properties you might be interested in buying. You can explain to the owner that you are looking to eventually purchase a property on a rent to own and would like to know if they would be interested in selling their property at some point in the future. This may yield some results. It may take a lot of calling before you find someone willing to do this, but it's probably your best shot.

Good luck and let me know if I can help any further.

Matt Bowman
Related link: www.REItoolbox.com