I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. I spent mine in Houston, Texas getting training for SEO.
I’ve been getting emails from some of my lease option real estate investing students lately about numbers on their deals and some of you are willing to pay too much right now for your rent to own deals. Many areas of the country are down real estate markets and if you pay too much you are going to find yourself upside down when the time comes for your tenant-buyer to purchase your lease option deal.

It’s very important to stick to your guns about buying right in these kinds of real estate markets with your rent to own homes. Use the profit calculator I have in my lease option investing course so you can make sure your numbers work. Remember, you don’t get paid until you sell and if you are upside down you aren’t going to be able to sell your lease option investment.

When Wendy Patton first got started with real estate investing she thought no money down meant using credit cards to make the down payment.  Take a look at this video to see just how many real estate investing deals she did with credit cards early on.

It took a few years but Wendy Patton learned better.  No money down real estate investing is much better done with lease option or rent to own deals.  Now Wendy Patton is one of the nations leading authors and trainers in no money down and low money down real estate investing with lease options or rent to own.  In fact she has a lease option training bootcamp coming up in June that will cover in depth training in lease options and other soft market real estate investing techniques.

Any real estate investor, home owner or home buyer that does a rent to own deal needs to understand the process involving the appraisal of a lease option home when it comes time for the end buyer to purchase. The purchase price is agreed upon at the onset of the rent to own.  Because the sale of a rent to own home takes place over time the home may go up or down in value by the time the end buyer is ready to purchase their lease option home.   When it comes time to buy the rent to own home the buyer’s lender orders an appraisal.  Three things can happen with that appraisal.

1. The lease option property appraises for the amount of the agreed upon purchase price.  If this is the case everything can proceed forward without problem for the real estate investor, the home seller and the home buyer.
2. The rent to own home appraises for MORE than the amount of the agreed upon purchase price.  In this case as long as the buyer has lived up to all of their obligations in the option contract, the home seller or the real estate investor MUST sell for the agreed upon purchase price.  The buyer benefits from the extra equity.
3. The lease option home appraises for LESS than the amount of the agreed upon sales price.  Of course we hate to see this happen, but sometimes if real estate markets are in decline it can.  If this is the case, the home owner and the real estate investor are only obligated to sell for the original sales price.  The buyer wouldn’t be able to qualify for a mortgage at that price so the deal would fall apart.  While the home owner or the real estate investor are not required to sell the rent to own home for a lower price they may choose to.  Let’s face it, the home has gone down in value, so they won’t be able to sell it to anyone else for more.  The may want to drop the price to the appraised value so the buyer can complete the sale.

These terms are part of the lease option contracts that are so important when doing a rent to own sale.  I explain them in great detail in my books, Rent to Buy, and Rent to Sell.

Also, take a look at this video where I talk about the appraisal versus sale price.

When buying lease option or a rent to own home, either as real estate investing or for your own home there are several steps you need to take during the process.
I’m going to look at 2 of them here.
The first step I want to focus on when buying rent to own homes is verifying the rental rates. As a rent to own home buyer you want to make sure the rental rates are both realistic for the area you are looking in and affordable to you personally. As a lease option real estate investor you need to know the rental rates for when you are finding tenant-buyers for the home.
One of the best ways to find out market rental rates for your rent to own home home is by looking at the local newspaper as well as the rentals online in sites like Craigslist. See what other properties in the area are renting for. Of course you need to make sure they are reasonably comparable to the lease option home you are interested in.

Another important step in the rent to own process is checking the title work. You want to make sure that whoever is on title is actually the one selling the home! This seems pretty obvious, but it sure can lead to big problems if you don’t make that verification. This means that everyone who is on title is selling the rent to own home. If a husband and wife are both on title they BOTH need to sign everything. You also need to make sure that the title is clear and can be sold, which we’ll talk about another time.

Take a look at this video where I talk about both of these steps to buying lease options.  Here is a lease option article too, if you want more information.

When we are putting together rent to own deals sometimes our tenant-buyers don’t have that much cash available for an option fee.  Many tenant-buyers live check to check which doesn’t leave a lot of room for saving up.  Or they haven’t yet had time to save up an option fee as they were trying to deal with other bills, or just recently started working again.  Whatever the reason, just because they don’t have a lot of cash doesn’t mean you can’t still work something out.

If a rent to own tenant-buyer is qualified for a lease option property in every other way but just doesn’t have enough money for the option fee – DON”T KILL THE DEAL!  Work something out.  Get creative in helping them find ways to come up with more cash for the lease option fee.

What are some ways?

• Borrow money from relatives or friends.  They could either borrow all of the money from one person or they could borrow smaller amounts from several.  If they could borrown just $500 from 4 relatives that isn’t all that much for each relative but added together it’s $2,000.  That can go a long way towards a rent to own option fee.
• Sell stuff on Craigslist or Ebay.  If they have some things they don’t use very much anymore have them sell it off.   Most of us just accumulate stuff instead of selling it so it would be a good time for them to clean out the closets and so forth and find some sellables.
• Have a garage sale.  Some things are not worth enough individually to be worth selling on the internet but they could have a local sale to sell those things and help come up with some money.
• Cash in on some jewelry.  Gold is at a high price right now and if they have some things they don’t want anymore it would be a good time to cash in on the high price of gold.

These are just a few ideas for lease option tenant-buyers to come up with an option fee.  If a tenant-buyer is reluctant to put in the effort to raise money for their rent to own option fee they need to ask themselves how serious are they about wanting the house? 

Take a look at this video clip where Justin Ryan talks about helping rent to own buyers come up with an option fee.

I get asked about simultaneous closings in sandwich lease options a lot.  They are a critical component for real estate investors to getting cashed out of your rent to own deal, so it’s important to understand simultaneous closings.  The concept itself is really quite basic.  You will close on the buy side and the sell side of your lease option investment the same day at the same title company.  All this really takes is some coordinating.  The seller is pretty much ready to go whenever you are, after all it’s not like they need to move out or anything.

The coordinating really comes on the buyer’s side depending on when the buyer’s lender is ready to close.  Work with the buyer’s mortgage broker so you know when to set this up.  I go into a lot more detail on simultaneous closings in my book, Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject To Deals.

Take a look at this video where I explain about how simutaneous closings work

Seeing is one of the best ways to learn.  Take a look at this video as Wendy Patton walks you through a potential lease option home.

This is the first time Wendy has seen it and she is looking at it to see if she wants to make an offer on it to put together a rent to own investing deal.  She points out how she looks at the home through buyer’s eyes – noting things like curb appeal, the nice hardwood floors, the condition of the kitchen, even the wallpaper.  When you look at a potential lease option investment you need to see it through your tenant-buyers eyes.  They are not as picky as regular buyers because they know they have fewer options, but they also aren’t going to want a complete dump either.  Wendy points out a few little, inexpensive tricks she can do to help improve the look of the home, like paint touch ups and buffing out scratches in the hardwood floors.

This home is listed with a real estate agent.  Many real estate investors don’t like to look for investment properties that are listed with real estate agents, but it’s Wendy Patton’s favorite way to find lease option deals.  Real estate agents have control of most of the “pretty” houses on the market, which are the best ones for lease options.  Plus they tend to know what sellers can and what sellers can’t consider a creative solution like rent to own.  Take a look at this lease option investing article where Wendy talks about working with real estate agents when doing your rent to own investing.

I wish I had a hundred dollars for every time over the last 12 months I heard a non rent to own investor say, “I would be investing in this market right now, but I can’t qualify for any more financing.” They are referencing the maximum 4/10 investment property guideline.

My response to that statment is constant “If you were to use the lease option strategy, you would not need to use your credit.”

This is just one of the many reasons/excuses I heard from real estate investors and students day in and day out.  It is as if people plan to fail, instead of succeeding.  It truly is amazing to me!  If you’ve capped out on the number of mortgages you can get find a strategy that doesn’t require mortgages – like rent to own.

I believe there are two reasons people are unsuccessful in the real estate investing arena.

1. There are those that do not know the necessary information and actions needed to be successful.

2. There are those that have heard what they need to do, and yet they refuse to make the necessary changes in their lives to accomplish and that they want and need.

I have a list of five key steps that you must do to be successful as a real estate investor and truthfully, to be successful in life.

I am going to share these five essential action steps in my webinar tonight as well as share how you can get past the 4/10 cap by doing lease options.  The webinar is tonight, May 6th at 8 PM EST.  It is free so I encourage you to register quickly as space is limited.  You can register here on my Wendy Patton website.

So if you want to find out how you can become a successful investor and enjoy overall success in life, then join me tonight.

I am going to give you the roadmap, all you will need to do is be present on the webinar.

-Wendy Patton

p.s. One of the five key steps to success is, “Don’t make excuses.”  I challenge you not to make an excuse tonight and be on the webinar.  I promise you, it will be your first step towards success!

If you’ve been a real estate investor for more than just a couple of days then you probably know that most “gurus” and investors believe that you should not use Realtors to help you find your deals.  I’ll tell you that I, Wendy Patton, as a lease option or rent to own investor, disagree.

Why do the gurus believe that?

Maybe it is because Realtors, just like all of us, like to be paid for their efforts.  On the other hand, we, as investors, do not like to give up part of our profit on any given deal.

About 15 years ago I struggled with this exact problem as I was trying to find lease option properties.  A good friend of mine (who happens to be a Realtor) suggested I find a way for Realtors to take my offers seriously.  Unfortunately, at that time, they were not.

I struggled with how I could get them on my side when presenting my rent to own offers to their clients.  It was then (15 years ago), that I discovered I needed to develop a way to entice Realtors to want to work with me.  As simple as it sounds, the solution was to pay them!  Not only to pay them, but without it costing me a dime, sound weird?

I now have Realtors bringing me deal after deal in my local market.  I have one Realtor that has brought me a deal or two every year for the last 7 years.  From each of her deals, I have made a minimum of $30,000 profit.

My question to you is, how many of these types of deals do you need to generate a good living?  Please don’t say, just one!

During my webinar on Wednesday, May 6 at 8PM EST I will share with you how you too can have Realtors bringing you deal after deal.  Instead of fighting with other investors for the table scraps, you can have a pipeline flowing with quality opportunities day in and day out.

Would you like to hear more about how you can create this type of opportunity for you and your family?  Then you need to reserve your spot by getting registered for my webinar now!  The registration is free and you can do it at my Wendy Patton website.

Now is one of the best times I have ever seen for buying and selling homes as lease options or rent to owns.  Real estate market conditions are practically ideal for this type of real estate investing.  There is a glut of homes on the market forcing sellers to consider alternatives to selling their homes.  Many sellers think their only choice is to rent their home if they can’t find a buyer.

Since their minds have already gotten past the hurdle of having renters in their home they are the perfect candidate for selling on a lease option or rent to own.  They may not know about selling their home as a rent to own, but they need it.  This is the time when lease option investors should be going out and putting together lots of deals.  This is the time when real estate agents should be learning how to put together rent to own home sales to help their buyers and sellers.

Financing is harder to get now than it has been in quite some time.  This means that many would be buyers are getting left out because they can’t qualify for a mortgage right now.  There are lots of potential buyers out there like this right now.  Every time I post rent to own ads on Craigslist I get tons of responses.  It’s so funny when I hear people say there are no buyers right now.  What they mean is there aren’t many conventional buyers.  Lease option buyers are everywhere right now.   This is also the time when rent to own investors should be making use of free marketing to attract buyers.  Real estate agents should be doing the same thing.  In this kind of market if you have the buyers you are golden, even if they are lease option buyers.

As I said now is the time for rent to own or lease options.  This is one of the greatest times there has been for lease option investors to be putting together deals.  This is also a great time for real estate agents to learn how to do rent to own sales and really boost their business.