Real Estate Workshop: Protecting Your Legal Rights in a Lease Option

Did you know you can represent yourself in a lease option?  A lot of times, a lease option or a lease is not recorded at the courthouse, yet there is usually an instrument that can record your interests.  It’s different in every state, in every county, and in every jurisdiction.  That’s why you want to make sure you have this document and review it with your attorney, and you want to have it signed and notarized and recorded in the courthouse so you have an interest in a property and that the seller is not going to sell the property underneath you while you’re in the deal.  Make sure you have a memorandum of option or some interest recorded at the courthouse so that your interests are protected because this rarely happens but sometimes it does and you need to protect yourself.  I wanted to make sure you know of this important step for readers outside our real estate workshops.

Did you know that in a lease option you can protect your interests and have an instrument recorded at the courthouse, so that the world knows you have an interest in the property? So in your real estate business opportunity, and since this is legitimate work from home opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors, you want to protect your rights and profits. The Memornadum of Lease With Option to Purchase is a short document that is recorded at the county Recorder’s office putting the public on notice of that you have a lease and an option to purchase the property, and that the owner is bound by those terms. Recording evidence of your option to purchase is one of the best ways to protect it. The recording of your right may put a cloud on the title of the property and make it more difficult for the owner to sell the property to someone else in violation of your option. You can record this document yourself, but we usually recommend using a local title company who will be sure to use the correct legal description of the property and ensure proper recordation.

You definitely want to do this because on a lease option, usually leases are not recorded at the courthouse, therefore it leaves you vulnerable.  If you have an unethical seller who happens to sell your property underneath you, that leaves you and the tenant buyer in a very unstable situation if the seller no longer is cooperative with the deal.  The tenant may even try to file suit against you because you promised them a chance to buy the property and if a seller changes their minds then you've got a problem.

In our GuaranteeProfits.com workshops for real estate investing business opportunity, we teach individuals to record a Memorandum of Option and interest document or some type of similar type of document, which is usually drawn up by your attorney and protects your interests.  This document can be recorded simply and inexpensively and can offer tremendous protection for your rights in the property. You can file these documents at your local Registry of Deeds where the mortgage has been recorded. Example: The seller tries to sell the same property to another person without you being notified. The memorandum clouds the title and the owner is not able to sell the property without dealing with you first.

It lets the world know that you have an interest in the property, therefore, when the seller sells the property, what is usually done before a property is sold is the title company will run a title search to see how many liens are on the property.  If you did this correctly, or with the aid of your attorney correctly, that interest document or Memorandum of Option will show up in the title abstract.  They have to satisfy all liens before they sell that property.  Make sure your interests are taken care of and make sure you have the interest document or Memorandum of Option recorded at the courthouse so you protect your rights.

For more information on how to protect yourself and other strategies visit www.GuaranteeProfits.com