I submitted an offer using the form from Sheets’ course which the sellers attorney promptly substituted his own and transferred the pertinent information. Unsurprisingly enough, he failed to transfer any pro-buyer clauses but did include anything that was in favor of the seller. I told him I was not going to sign anything like that and if we are to make a deal, he can use his form but I want all of the other clauses from my form included as well - if anything were in conflict with his form, we can negotiate. The biggest lesson I learned is to stand your ground and you will definately be in a better negotiation position - the cash is in MY pocket and that puts me in the drivers seat as far as I am concerned. Remember that YOU are the buyer and have the option to either buy or pass - the seller HAS to sell, if they didn’t then the house would not be up for sale. Don’t deal with unmotivated sellers or someone who is “testing” the market, you will spin your wheels and get stuck in the mud.
I feel great! I lease optioned a property that was listed with a realtor who was adamant about the owner wanting cash at closing. It is a 3/2/2 where the owner had passed away and the heirs wanted out immediately to settle the estate. The closest relative lives 1,300 mi. away and nobody wanted to pay to have the utilities turned on - no utilities means no inspection, which in turn means no bank will finance it. I explained all this to the estate attorney and he agreed that something had to happen, someone had to be flexible and fortunately it did not have to be me. I was allowed to speak to one of the heirs directly and explained how a L/O would benefit both of us - there was no “out-of-pocket” cost for them to have the utilities turned on, I am giving them a down payment (which goes toward the purchase price) of $1,500 to pay the 3-month lapse on the mortgage, along with $400 a month to cover payments on the existing mortgage so the bank does not foreclose. At the end of 1 year, I will secure a mortgage and buy the property and it won’t cost them a dime. Keep in mind that this house is 1,200 miles away from me and I am relocating to that area where rentals start at $650 per month (if you can find them at all), and houses for sale are all within a couple thousand dollars of eachother, this one being one of the much better houses on the block at a very low price. Hey, this stuff really works - I asked a few questions over the past few months but most of my answers came from reading other posts - my thanks goes to everyone on the boards at CREOnline! I think this was a pretty good deal and if anyone has questions, I would be happy to answer them.
Steve
PS - It took over two months of haggling but I stuck to my priorities and remained committed to the outcome - it worked!!!
I did see the house in person, it is an area I have been wanting to move to for some time. I have a couple friends in the area as well so I was comfortable with that neighborhood.When this house became available, I waited and watched for a while and when there were no offers for about 5 months I made the lease option offer and they snapped it up.
Re: Lease-Option Deal Successfully Negotiated - Posted by Charlene Pye
Posted by Charlene Pye on July 06, 2001 at 20:37:45:
Hi Steve,
Congrats!!!
I’d like to know if the contract you used was from Sheets’ course or did you use your own? If your own was used, I appreciate a completed copy of it.