Your copier lease is winding down and you actually like the machine. Now you are wondering if you can just buy it and keep it. In most cases, yes, you can buy your leased copier at the end of the term. But what you pay depends entirely on the type of lease you signed, and there are a few traps that can turn a simple buyout into an expensive mistake. Here is how it works.
Yes, Most Leases Let You Buy the Copier
Nearly every copier lease includes an end-of-term option to purchase the machine. When the term ends, you usually have three choices: return the copier, buy it, or in some cases keep leasing it month to month. Buying it means paying a buyout amount to take ownership. After that, the machine is yours with no more monthly payments.
Whether buying is smart depends on the price and the condition of the copier. A machine that has run reliably for three years and still meets your needs can be worth buying, especially if the buyout is low. A worn-out unit near the end of its life may not be worth another dollar. The first thing to figure out is which kind of buyout your lease uses, because that sets the price. For the full menu of choices, see our guide to copier lease end-of-term options.
The Two Main Buyout Types
There are two common ways a lease sets the buyout price. A $1 buyout lease, sometimes called a capital lease, is designed so you own the machine at the end for a single dollar. You pay slightly higher monthly payments during the term in exchange for basically owning it when the lease ends. This is the option to pick if you know from the start you want to keep the copier.
A fair market value lease, or FMV lease, sets the buyout at whatever the copier is worth on the open market when the term ends. That could be 10 to 20 percent of the original price, sometimes more. FMV leases have lower monthly payments, but if you want to buy at the end, you pay real money to do it. The trade-off is simple: $1 buyout costs more monthly but almost nothing to own, while FMV costs less monthly but more to buy out. We compare them in detail in FMV vs dollar buyout copier lease.
How the Buyout Price Gets Set
With a $1 buyout, the price is right there in the contract, so there is no guessing. With an FMV lease, the leasing company sets the fair market value near the end of the term, and this is where buyers get surprised. The number is often higher than you expect, because the lender wants to capture the remaining value of the machine. On a copier that cost $6,000 new, an FMV buyout after 60 months might still run several hundred to over a thousand dollars.
You can and should negotiate an FMV buyout. The leasing company usually prefers a clean sale to the hassle of picking up and reselling a used copier, so there is room to talk the number down. Get the quoted buyout in writing, compare it to what a similar used copier sells for, and do not assume the first figure is final. Knowing how a copier holds value helps you judge a fair price, which we cover in copier lease residual value.
Watch the End-of-Term Deadlines
The biggest risk at end of term is not the buyout price, it is missing the deadline to act. Many leases have an automatic renewal clause. If you do not tell the leasing company what you want to do by a certain date, often 30 to 90 days before the term ends, the lease can roll over and keep charging you monthly payments. People lose real money this way, paying for months on a copier they meant to buy or return. Mark the notice deadline on your calendar the day you sign, and send your intent to buy in writing well before it. This one habit protects you more than any negotiation.
What Most Guides Miss
Most guides explain the buyout types and stop. What they miss is that buying your leased copier is not always the smart move, even when the price looks fair. Here is the thing: a copier you have leased for three to five years is now three to five years old, and the newest machines print faster, use less energy, and cost less to run per page. If you buy the old unit for, say, $800, you own aging hardware with no service contract and rising repair odds. Sometimes returning it and leasing a newer model, with fresh service and toner bundled in, costs about the same per month and gets you better equipment. Before you buy the machine you know, price out a new lease side by side. The familiar copier feels like the safe choice, but the math sometimes says walk away and start fresh, and that is the comparison almost nobody runs.
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