Basis of Presentation - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended			3 Months Ended												3 Months Ended					3 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012 Investment	Mar. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2011 Investment	Mar. 31, 2012 Employees Base Compensation Maximum	Mar. 31, 2012 Employees Incentive Pay Compensation Maximum	Mar. 31, 2012 Non Employee Directors Cash And Stock Director Fee Maximum	Mar. 31, 2012 Restricted stock units	Mar. 31, 2011 Restricted stock units	Mar. 31, 2012 Restricted stock awards	Mar. 31, 2011 Restricted stock awards	Mar. 31, 2012 Stock options	Mar. 31, 2011 Stock options	Mar. 31, 2011 Restricted stock units and restricted stock awards	Mar. 31, 2012 Fixed Rate Long Term Debt	Dec. 31, 2011 Fixed Rate Long Term Debt	Mar. 31, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership	Mar. 31, 2011 Sales and Lease Ownership	Mar. 31, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Customer relationship intangibles Year	Mar. 31, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Non-compete intangibles	Mar. 31, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Acquired franchise development rights	Mar. 31, 2012 HomeSmart	Mar. 31, 2012 HomeSmart Customer relationship intangibles Year	Mar. 31, 2012 HomeSmart Non-compete intangibles	Oct. 14, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Store	Mar. 31, 2012 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary	Dec. 31, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary	Mar. 31, 2012 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Maximum	Dec. 31, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Maximum
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Line Items]
Number of securities in unrealized loss position	27		38
Number of securities	56		44
Lease merchandise adjustments	$ 11,000,000	$ 9,500,000
Acquired goodwill assets on business combination																2,700,000					216,000
Acquired intangible assets on business combination																		368,000	222,000	126,000		26,000	18,000
Aggregate purchase price of acquisitions																5,500,000					397,000
Estimated useful lives of intangibles																		2				2
Amortization expense																572,000	500,000				255,000
Compensation expense related to unvested stock option grants	425,000	599,000
Compensation expense related to restricted stock unit ("RSUs") awards and restricted stock awards ("RSAs")	596,000	478,000
Restricted stock granted							22,000	225,000
Options exercised	401,000	161,000
Restricted stock awards vested										137,000
Aggregate number of shares of common stock that may be issued or transferred under the incentive stock awards plan	14,678,704
Percentage of deferred compensation arrangement				75.00%	100.00%	100.00%
Deferred compensation plan liability	7,900,000		6,300,000
Cash surrender value of company-owned life insurance ("COLI") contracts	7,400,000		5,800,000
Deferred compensation expense charged to operations	78,000	101,000
Deferred compensation benefits paid	41,000	27,000
Uncertain tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect the effective tax rate	1,200,000		1,200,000
Increase in weighted average shares outstanding assuming dilution							181,000	101,000	4,000		876,000	906,000
Anti-dilutive Securities excluded from the computation of earnings per share assuming dilution												293,000	424,000
Assets Held For Sale	12,117,000		9,885,000
Percentage of common stock outstanding																								11.50%
Number of retail stores																								46
Investment included in prepaid expenses and other assets																											1,000	1,000
Held to maturity securities	118,568,000		98,132,000																						16,800,000	15,900,000
Gains/losses related to the investment																									504,000
Maximum exposure to any potential losses associated with VIE																									16,800,000
Assets held for sale, carrying value			10,400,000
Assets held for sale, fair value			9,885,000
Write-down from carrying value to fair value			453,000
Long term debt, carrying value														137,000,000	137,000,000
Long term debt, fair value														$ 135,853,000	$ 135,031,000