Whether you are a lease option investor or a lease option buyer it can make all the difference in the world with a home seller if you build a little rapport with them. This is part of my lease option training to my students.  Make that effort to build some rapport.

If you were trying to sell your house, who would you give a better deal to?  The buyer who came in saying, "I don't like your carpet color.  Are you going to replace it?  The walls won't match my furniture.  This kitchen is just not my style"? or the potential buyer who said, "I like the layout.  I see there's a ding in the wall.  You don't mind if I fix that do you?  I just want to make this my home.  I love it."  You would choose the second person, of course, because they are reasonable and are trying to work with you.  You would instinctively want to work with them.

Building rapport with the seller is key to making a deal, to getting them to consider selling you their home on a lease option.  If the seller doesn't like you, the deal will probably never happen.  Therefore, if meeting people and being reasonably conversational and interested in the seller's home isn't your strength, take someone with you who is warm and friendly and can bridge that gap for you.

Real estate agents know of a dirty 4 letter word in real estate.  They cringe whenever they hear it because it means all of their hard word, all of their advertising, all of their time will have been for nothing.  They hear this horrid 4 letter word when a seller has a home that's been sitting on the market too long.

The seller grows impatient.  They want their home sold and they are running out of time.  That's when they call their listing agent up and say "Realtor, if you don't sell my home soon I'm going to have to RENT it!"

Rent is that dirty 4 letter word.

If you are a real estate agent you need to learn not to fear this.  You can still get your full commission from this seller because now they are a prime candidate for a lease option sale.  One of the biggest hurdles sellers often have to overcome with considering a lease option is the idea of having tenants in their home.  But they've just told you that they are now considering just that.

Selling on a lease option is obviously not the first choice, but it sure beats losing the listing or just renting the home and not getting paid squat!

Real estate investors who are trying to find real estate agents to work with need to keep in mind that real estate's dirty 4 letter word is your key to networking with agents.  Most agents don't know what to do when they hear the word "rent."  You can show them how you can help both the home seller and the agent.  Plus if you let the agent double dip when you find the tenant-buyer the agent is really going to appreciate you.  You did all of the work finding the buyer, they come out looking like a hero, and everyone gets what they want.