Looking for Real Estate Agent with Lease Option experience!

[Brandon Heath]

My wife and I are looking to purchase a larger house for our family. An ex-coworker has listed their home on the market and is open to a rent to own/ Lease option type deal. Everytime they mention this to the real estate agent he knocks the idea down. The one time I talked to him he stated that it sounded illegal and also mentioned capital gains would be an issue for the seller.

Im not an investor or an agent. I onnly know about this technique from listening to the podcast years ago. I'm wondering what else I can do before giving up. I feel that having an open minded Buyer agent on my side could help this process. I wouldnt know how to start looking for one though. We are located in San Diego Ca. 

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

A lot of agents don't like lease/option deals, because they're worried about getting paid. They'll come up with a lot of excuses why you shouldn't do it, but I think that's the number one reason. The only L/O operators that I've seen do a lot of volume with these deals, have figured out ways to pay the agent their commission on the front end, often out of the option fee. This makes it a worse deal for the seller, but is often the only way to get some agents involved. You don't necessarily need an agent, because people looking to buy an L/O often aren't working with one.

Also, it is possible that there are legal issues, depending on how the deal is structured. A lot of L/O deals were done by the worst kind of people in this business in the last downturn, and a lot of states created consumer protection laws that made the strategy difficult to implement. I have no idea about CA though. If that is the agent's only real objection, then consulting an attorney should clear the issue up pretty quickly. My guess is the agent will then find another reason not to do it.