New to Lease Options...have a question or two

I’m new to this forum and REI and I’m trying to find a good place to start before I invest in a course or a book or a REIA…I’ve got some logisitics questions about LO’s

Say a person lands a deal and manages to close it…is it necessary to be in close proximity to the property? Say I’m in Washington, DC half the year and CT for the other half with a few weeks out of country. Is this a feasible situation? Or do these conditions make this relatively difficult if not impossible?? Especially to a beginner? Or is it possible to communicate with the tenant/buyer and seller without being able to actually be at the property? What types of complications could arise from this type of situation??

Thanks guys !

Ron LeGrand or Todd Toback have the best L/O’s courses. I’ve got these and several others, so I can say with authority which to buy, if possible. You can find Ron’s on Ebay. Todd’s are not …that I’ve ever seen.

You will have difficulty attempting to prospect and close on l/o deals a long way from home.

You’ll have little difficulty maintaining the deals, even if you move away part of the year. Good L/O agreement are set up so the tenants take care of their own repairs and maintenance (up to a certain point). If something goes really wrong, then you should be able to have the tenant/buyer handle it, even if you end up having to pay for the repair, etc.

Adam King (theFrustratedinvestor) has an excellent course and it’s FREE! im a Newbie and i closed on 2 deals using Adam’s free course. Michael Carbonare is considered by many as the Authority on Lease Purchases. i dont have his course but he is very active on his forum Naked-Investor.

good luck

A lot of the deals I do I never even see the houses or meet the sellers or the tenants. GRanted I have reps that work for me, but you can do the deals long distance. There are some slight adjustments to it, but don’t let distance stop you.
I would recommend the naked-investor.com as the best starting point. MC’s manual is $97, but it’s not full of fluff and gets you the solid concept down. His forum has great free info and support.
I don’t know Adam’s course, but he’s a good guy so I’m sure it’s solid.

Thanks for the responses!

I’ve spent a little time on NI (what a great site) and I was thinking about his manual so I’m glad you guys can vouch for it.

Also, I’ve been reading Peter Conti’s ebook about it (it’s one of the free ones on here) and I’ve been taking notes and such and now I’ve got another couple questions. I suspect I’ll have more as I learn more too.

He says that you can avoid paying upfront money to your seller out of pocket by telling him something along the lines of “I’ll give you the $$$ as soon as I find a suitable tenant for the property.” Then, using the t/b’s option payment, you take a chunk and give it to the seller as your upfront money.

Is it as easy as he describes once your find your t/b? Or not quite?

I don’t pay the seller upfront, outside of $10 consideration.

Wow thanks. This book says that while you don’t have to pay anything other than a tiny consideration he suggests paying over $1000 for the sake of being “able to close more deals”. I’ll trust your real world experience. Thanks again

Oh, now if you’re talking about paying part of the option fee, I do pay the owner about $1k onceI close the deal, since there is no deposit.
I used to not pay anything, but by offering $1k or so when I close it it does help bring more deals.

tcs, every deal and every homeowner are different. Some may drive a hard bargain and insist on option consideration in their pocket. But many are motivated to the point of being happy with having their monthly payment off their backs. In other words, they want debt relief. Provide them with that and you’ve got the deal.
Either way, the money should never come out of your pocket. If you do need to pay them some cash, it’s only after you collect it from the t/b.

Thanks again for clearing up my questions. One more question I have for now. After looking around at classifieds in the newspapers, newspaper websites, and Clist, I’ve noticed there are a lot of condo’s for sale. I’ve never read anything about Lease Optioning a condo…is it a no no?

Condos are perfectly fine for lease options. You just need to be aware of the condo association rules and restrictions. Sometimes they don’t allow rentals or only a limited number of rentals.