Which way should I go with this seller? wholesale? L/0? list?

[Christina R.]

I'm going to see a house that I first looked at this past May. It is a single-family in a desirable school district, an older house with a somewhat dated floorplan , where the owner originally lived in it . . .subdivided the lot and sold off the back portion where a 700K plus house now stands. This house is on a "main" road (2 lane) - probably set back about 50 feet or so, not in a subdivision. There are these expensive fairly new (10 years or less, with the new build mentioned above) colonials in a subdivision across the street and down the road about a 1/4 mile. This house is a 3, 1.5. The nearest sold SFH that sold in the last year is a 5 bed/6 bath moderately updated house. Clearly not an apples to apple comparison.

Turns out the owner has made some improvements since May, like a new roof (which I verified by driving past it today), re-tarring the driveway, improving the garage - this is everything I could see from the driveby - will see the interior on Friday.  He says he's put 30K into it. 

As to motivation - he's what I'd call a warm lead - not hot yet, but the new build behind on his spun-off land is complete, while he wasn't the builder or GC I know he kept tabs and visited that project alot . . . he lives about an hour away . . . he's open to owner financing . . and he called me back, not vice versa. So he's warm. No, he has not stated a figure but he knows I'm not paying 325K for it, which is what he wanted in May and with his improvements now I can see as a viable retail ARV.

My question is - I've really been wholesale focused up to this point.  He may accept a wholesale offer.  But with making these improvements, I'm really thinking maybe a lease option -which I know zippo on executing it. It's not a rental area and I don't think rents to purchase price will be acceptable to an investor in my area unless I can get killer terms on the owner financing angle. I keep coming back to the lease option but I don't know how to do it, and do it the right (legal) way, and I'm interested in making money on it. 

If I could structure it up where I could get in mostly on OPM I may be interested in it for myself for a rental because then the rents would be in line with investor pricing and it would easily rent because of the school district, I believe. 

Last thought - I'm sitting for my RE license this Friday. It will be a week or 2 before all paperwork is processed and my license is hung (assuming I pass). Should I present all possible options (wholesale, L/O, list) and state that within 2 weeks I could list it for the seller?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Christina