Lease purchase to buy investment property?

[Rumen Mladenov]

I was approached by a homeowner who wants to sell her house off market. I do not have the liquidity to buy it outright at the moment, but expect to be able to do so in a couple of years. I first thought about "subject to" deal, but I am not comfortable with the risk of the "due on sale" clause. So I am now thinking of a way to use a lease purchase instead. Assuming a sale price of $95k and current mortgage amount of 80k, I plan to structure it like this:

Lease option fee paid to the seller: $15k (equal to their equity)

Monthly payment: equal to the mortgage payment (I plan to pay the bank directly)

Purchase price: the payoff amount at the time of the purchase ($80k minus whatever principal was paid down)

This way, the seller gets their equity and gets rid of the mortgage payment. I get to rehab the property and rent it out (sublet).

My concern is, how do I prevent the seller from taking a HELOC or something without my permission? Can I record a lien based on the lease purchase agreement?

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated.