Can we stop making payments on house/foreclose and sign a rent-to-own lease?

My husband has been out of work but has found a good job a few states away. He has been staying with my sister rent free and I have stayed back with the kids (not easy doing it alone as we have 3 under 2!!!). Our house has been for sale for a long time (even before the job we had it listed hoping to get a cheap apartment somewhere so we could hopefully avoid short sale or foreclosure) with only 2 showings. My husband has seen a lot of nice rent-to-own homes in his new town and we were wondering what would happen if we stopped making payments on our house and signed a lease in a rent-to-own house. I don't know too much about rent-to-own but at the end of the rental term, when you are expected to buy, (or however it works), what happens if you have a foreclosure on your credit? Can you still follow through or have you wasted all of that money? I thought it would be a good way to repair your credit, too. What do you think? We have excellent credit now, no debt besides the house. Thanks