Feasibility of BRRRR'ing a lease-to-own

[James Cerasoli]

Hi All,

I'm planning a move to Charlotte, NC in June 2020 to get out of LI and experience living somewhere new and exciting like Charlotte especially with its thriving real estate market. I am looking to buy my first property in Charlotte with little money down and was initially thinking of marketing to find seller finance prospects. Then I thought of the idea to instead market to properties saying that I'm interested in 1-3 year lease-to-own deals.

I figure this would be a win-win for both sides considering the seller would collect a non-refundable deposit, cash-flow for the years I'm leasing it and they wouldn't need to pay a realtor. Another plus for them would be that I plan to make renovations on the property and fix it up cosmetically so that I force equity into it. I would care for the property as if its my own and handle issues and repairs so the owner wouldn't even need to worry about needing a property manager.

And then the advantage I would have is to acquire a property in a high-appreciating market with little money down, have the option to rent it out to a 3rd party (If agreed to by the owner) and if at worst case, the market for some reason plummets I can back out of the contract. Then once the 1-3 years are up, I purchase the property outright and hopefully forced some equity into the property along with natural market appreciation so that I don't have to come up with too much for a down payment on the mortgage. 

If anyone could give any insight on how feasible this idea is based on experience it would be greatly appreciated and I'd love to hear anyone's experience if they've actually tried this for themselves.

Thanks!