Is lease option sfm to rent feasible?

[Tom Tran]

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie and without significant saving for downpayment. I live in Portland Oregon, whose bubble I believe is bursting any day now. I have a day job and can only work on investing at night.

The recession is coming and I want to get enough cash in my hand by the time it comes. Here is the overview of my plan.
To finance, use lease option to be given permission to use a property however I want, improve it and rent it out.
The math only works if I select my property right. I need to target sfh from not my local area but somewhere else (still looking). As long as the market is growing and the seller is willing to sell, and not willing to put more work into renting the place out, I should be able to provide value and earn some money out of this. And the improvement doesn't cost much either.

I think this plan is difficult to achieve but not impossible. The payoff might be small to other but significant enough to me. (my target is at least $500 net after all proper reserves per home)

Do you see any major strategic flaw in this plan? Please give me your thoughts.

Thank you!

Tom