10 situations in when a lease option is a great idea.

[Shiloh Lundahl]

There have been a lot of negative opinions about lease options on BiggerPockets by people that have done a lot of different types of real estate. That's confusing to me since the lease option strategy has worked out well for us and several of our tenants. It got me thinking about why somebody would choose to do a lease option. I can come up with 10 reasons why somebody would choose to do a lease option. Here they are in no particular order. Please feel free To ask any questions about these scenarios.

1. Wanting to buy now but you need to sell your house first
2. Wanting to buy now but you need to save up for a down payment
3. Willing to do work to increase the value of the house but you can still buy it for the contracted price.
4. You think the value will go up and you want to control the house with only a a little bit money.
5. Your credit is too low to qualify for a loan right now.
6. Your credit is low and you can qualify for a loan right now but you want to improve your credit score first in order to get a better interest rate.
7. You have good credit but the interest rates are still too high right now and you want to wait until the rates come down before you get a long term mortgage.
8. You just started your own company and you don’t have 2 years of tax returns so you are not very bankable right now. 
9. You want to pay off the house with big installments and you don’t want to get a loan.
10. You are not sure you want to buy but you do want the option to buy the house in case you decide that you want the house.