Lease Options: A Great Way To Make Money In Real Estate

Lease Options: A Great Way To Make Money In Real Estate

Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2008 · 40 posts · 12 votes

For all of you aspiring real estate entrepreneurs and investors who want to make money in the real estate game Lease Options and Options are great way to accomplish this with little money or no credit. Let's examine the beauty of making money in real estate using this creative way. Lease Options and Options. Lease options are a great way to take control of a property without owning it. In a lease option scenario you would take control of the property by leasing it from the owner with the option to buy it.

When you lease the property from the owner of course "subject to" their existing mortgage you must have in your lease agreement the right to sublease to a tenant buyer. Buying a property "subject to" the current mortgage loan it simply means that you don't get new financing, you would just leave the existing loan in place and take over the payments.

Once you have made a "subject to agreement" with the seller you would then sublease it to your tenant buyer. When you sublease to a tenant buyer, the difference between the payment on the mortgage and the rent that you would collect from your tenant buyer would be your "spread" or the monthly cash flow that you would receive.

In addition, to this fabulous arrangement you would also make money when that tenant buyer has paid you a non-refundable deposit to move into the house. The deposit would go right in your pocket. Sounds pretty good doesn't it?

This non-refundable deposit would be applied as a down payment for them on the house and subtracted from their purchase price. Furthermore, you make money on the back end when that tenant buyer finally gets financing and buys the house from you.

When the house is bought by the tenant/buyer the owner's loan balance is paid off and if they had any equity and they were willing to leave some on the table, your back end profit would derived from that.

Your back end profits would be the difference between the price that you optioned to buy the house for from the owner and the purchase price that you gave to that tenant buyer. Sound easy doesn't it? Well, in reality it is.

Let's move on to examine a straight option. In a straight option you would simply get an option to buy a property at a specific ideal price. An ideal price would be a price that would allow you to make a substantial profit when you've have sold the property.

For example, a house by the lake is appraised at $700,000 and has been on the market for a while and the owner is willing to sacrifice some equity to get rid of it.

You've negotiated with the seller to get an option to buy the house for $600,000 and you then turn around and sell that option to a buyer for $650,000 .You just made $50,000 and everyone benefits from your efforts. The seller sold a house they had trouble selling and the buyer of your option and the house instantly gets $50,000 of equity from the house and of course you made your $50,000.

In conclusion, as you can clearly see using the Lease Option and Option methods are creative ways that A Real Estate Investor or Entrepreneur can use to easily make money in real estate.

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Attorney · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2008 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
18y
Originally posted by "tonnele":
I am an ultra successful real estate investor

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I wouldn't need to buy houses.

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  • Real Estate Investor · OH · Member since 2008 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    18y

    tonnele,

    You are confusing two different things here. When you purchase a property "subject-to" the existing mortgage, you are NOT "leasing" the property - you own it.

    Again, this is wrong. When you buy a property sub-to, you can not sub-lease it because you are not leasing it.

    This too is wrong. The difference between the mortgage payment and the rent you collect is NOT your cash flow. You still have a LOT of operating expenses to pay.

    Security deposits can not be non-refundable in most states. That money belongs to the tenant and must be returned if the property is returned in the condition that it was rented. What you are talking about here is the "option premium". Yes, you get to keep the option premium, but it often takes a lot longer to find a tenant-buyer (with a big option premium) than to find a normal renter. So, the option premium is offset by the lost rent.

    The vast majority of tenant/buyers never buy the property.

    I would advise that you do some studying before you post any more how-to articles.

    Mike

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  • Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2008 · 40 posts · 12 votes
    18y

    I am an ultra successful real estate investor, rather than go back and forth replying to erroneous comments they only one I will respond to is by Mike's and the rest I will take a pass.

    All "subject to" means is taking over a property subject to the existing financing.

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  • Attorney · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2008 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    18y
    Originally posted by "tonnele":
    I am an ultra successful real estate investor

    If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I wouldn't need to buy houses.

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  • Real Estate Investor · Harrisburg, PA · Member since 2008 · 35 posts · 1 vote
    18y

    Good comments Mike & Tim - that is why you guys are some of the most repected individuals on here...Thanks - K

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  • Attorney · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2008 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    18y

    Credit goes to Mike on this one. He put time into his response for the benefit of forum members and there was frankly nothing to add to his scrutiny. I just made a passing observation.

    Thank you though, that was very kind.

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  • Real Estate Investor · Millsboro, DE · Member since 2008 · 480 posts · 26 votes
    18y

    Yea, I think you meant lease. You will take the deed, then simply lease the house out. A sublease could be during a sandwich lease situation, because you are actually leasing it from the seller.

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  • Jersey City, NJ · Member since 2008 · 40 posts · 12 votes
    18y

    There Are Four Ways To Make Money In Real Estate

    1) Wholesaling- finding bargains and selling them to bargain hunters.

    2) Retailing- Where you would keep the bargains yourself and fix them up and sell them at retail price

    3) Getting the deed-taking over ownership of properties "subject to" the existing mortgage

    4) Lease option/Option- taking control of properties in cases where the owner won't deed you the house until they get cashed out or their loan is paid off.

    In Wholesaling you wouldn't hold on to a property. Your goal would be to simply find the bargain and make money by assigning the contract to an investor who is interested in fixing it up and selling it at retail price.

    When you're Retailing you are simply buying a property at a low price then fixing it up and selling it at a high price to the end consumer. So when you think of retailing just remember that it basically means buy low and sell high.

    Getting the deed involves taking over ownership of the property by taking over the payments on the existing debt. The right way to doing a "subject to" is by never assuming the loan. Just let the loan stay in the previous owner's name while you just simply take over the payments.

    Lease Option/Option- This is a great way to take control of a property without owning it. In a lease option scenario you would take control of the property by leasing it from the owner with the option to buy it.
    When you lease the property from the owner of course subject to their existing mortgage you must have in your lease agreement the right to sublease to a tenant/buyer. The difference between the payment on the mortgage and the rent that you would collect from your tenant/buyer would be your "spread" or the monthly cash flow that you would receive.

    In addition, you make money when that tenant buyer has paid you a non-refundable deposit to move into the house. The deposit would go right in your pocket. This non-refundable deposit would be applied as a down payment for them on the house. Furthermore you make money on the back end when that tenant buyer finally gets financing and buys the house from you.

    When the house is bought by the tenant/buyer the owner's loan balance is paid off and if they had any equity and they were willing to leave some on the table, your back-end profit would derived from that.

    Your back-end profits would be the difference between the price that you optioned to buy the house for from the owner and the purchase price that you gave to that tenant buyer.

    a straight option- In a straight option You would simply get an option to buy a property at a specific ideal price.An ideal price would be a price that would allow you to make a substantial profit when you've have sold the property.

    Once you've negotiated the option price with the owner, you would locate a buyer and do what is called a simultaneous close and walk away with plenty of cash if you structured your deal the right way.

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  • Rental Property Investor · Mercer Island, WA · Member since 2008 · 22k+ posts · 14k+ votes
    18y

    That reply was unnecessary. Its a verbatim repetition of parts of what was in the original post. Thread locked.

    Jon

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  • Member since 2009 · 1 post · 0 votes
    17y

    -I am an ultra successful real estate investor

    Hopefully I'm ultra successful also to make money in real estate


    -If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I wouldn't need to buy houses.

    Yes! I think we do not need to buy houses to make money :idea:

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