I think part of the confusion is that I think the term “lease” is being used in place of “lease option”
a lease is basically a rental agreement, and as such would have no bearing with regard to the price or value of a property. it will only refer to how much is being paid each month in rent and the amount of time the place will be lease for.
a Lease option refers to a ways to couple the lease with an option agreement in order to purchase a property.
an option agreement gives the holder the right, but not the obligation to buy a property at a given price within a given time frame. Option consideration is given to the person assigning the rights to the buyer.
For example, I just did one where we gave an option to the seller to buy a property for $154,000 within the next two years, for this option they gave us option consideration of $5000.
In conjunction with this option we also have a lease in place with these people for a $1000 per month payment (rent) in a two year lease agreement.
If you are buying from a motivated seller, I try to buy “subject to” or on a land contract, and sell using a lease option.
You can also do a sandwich lease option, where you buy on a lease option and sell on higher terms.
Because of the flexibility of a lease option for buyers, and the fact that they don;t have to get bank financing for few years, we can get a price premium from them on our option price of typically up to 10% over market value for a property.
If you are starting out, these may be pretty deep waters for you initially.
You can probably do better with less risk by aligning yourself with a mentor and Bird dogging deals for them. You will be able to learn the fastest and safest this way.