Posted by B.L.Renfrow on July 25, 2003 at 10:49:02:
If you are not getting any interest in your lease options, it’s probably for one of only a few possible reasons:
The proposed monthly payments are too high to be affordable by those to whom you are marketing; the properties are in need of repairs; with the easy availability of owner-occupant loans these days, anyone who can fog a mirror is buying, meaning the only ones left over who would be interested in L/Os are the chronic deadbeats and the no-money crowd.
Contrary to what some of the gurus profess, not every technique works in every market. If you can reliably determine your rents are not out of line and your properties are in good shape, there’s not much you can do otherwise, unless you can afford to lower your prices.
If rentals are working for you and are profitable, perhaps it would be wiser to stick with them. Or consider selling on a land contract, or Section 8, or some of the many other methods available to make money in this business.
Sorry about the nasty subject heading but I thought it might be a good way to get some experienced lease optioners to click.
Recently my husand and I bought a nice single family home in a decent neighborhood and rehabbed it. We have since not sold it and have become frustrated with the whole experience. We think it might have been a bad time to put it on the market what with July 4th, and around here all the local fairs are the next few weekends. Peope are taking vacations etc. We placed the house on the market a few weeks before we advertised one of our vacant rental properties, the phone has been ringing off the hook, and always does for our rentals making me think we need to stick with those. Our rentals our in a lower income but safe neighbohood, certainly not the location, location, location we are told by books to look for. Single family homes are cheap there too, I am wondering if we would have luck lease optioning them. People in that area ae just thrilled with how well we renovate the properties and that maks us feel great.
What I would really like to do is 10 - 15 homes a year, have a nice office and maybe even be a mortgage broker. Pull peoples credit, sit down with them and discuss their options such as if thy have ok credi but no$$ go FHA with a grant program, bad credit but some cash lease option and tell them the things they need to fix on their credit in the next year so they can buy the house. We have a banker that gives us cash to buy and fix the properties than puts a mortgage on it. They only hold the note for 6 months, while we either sell it or refi it if it is a rental. we have an awful tme finding someone who will refi if it is owned less than a year and I have a mortgage broker contact who can do amazing things with getting BAD credit people mortgages but only if we have wned th property 1+ year, so I am goingt see if our bank will carry the note for 1 year.
Long story short I am looking for someone who successfully lease options homes in low income areas. what they get down etc. Thank-you anyone who stuck with me and read this whole thing. It’s just scary when you are thinking of completely restructuring your business plan around something you have litle experience with.