All Forum Posts by: Will Sholy

Hey Anyone and Everyone,

I wanted to tell people about my first lease option deal and the experience I had in case it helps anyone in similar situation or to lear from my mistakes.

I found a somewhat motivated seller through direct mail who owned a townhome in mid-town Ventura that needed quite a bit of work. He wanted to sell it and roll the proceeds into a 1031, but he didn’t want to invest the money to fix it up. His current tense at had been living there for 20+ years. ( I think, BING!! I have a solution for you Mr. Seller. We can lease option the property and sell it “as is” and still receive a good price.)

Anyway, he liked the idea so we set up the contract and I started marketing. I found a well qualified buyer within a few weeks. The owner excepted and he needed to notify his current tenant. We needed to give the current tenant, who wasn’t thrilled about moving by the way, a 60 day notice. I left it up to the seller to handle that issue believing he would.

Few weeks go by and I decide to touch base. The tenant is having issues finding a place. I didn’t think too much about it because we still had another month. So a couple more weeks go by and the tenant/buyer calls me saying the seller needs to push back the move in date because the tenant won’t be out be then.

So, come to find you the seller did not give the tenant notice in a timely manner which turned an unhappy tenant into a disgruntled tenant. On top of that the seller was impairment with her and making things personal so that made things worse. To move out by the new move-in date the tenant stated she wanted her full deposit back, the last months rent free, moving and storing expenses paid.

Needless to say, she had us. She knew that she could squat and cause a big delay and that we couldn’t do anything about it with the current COVID situation. We had to scramble to get things in line.

I ended up covering some of the cost with the seller (which I will not do again) to get things moving and get the tenant out in time.

Now that I went through this, I realize some of the issues that can arise with occupied properties and sellers who aren’t on top of things. I can’t rely on anyone to get done what needs to get done in a certain time. Also, I will try to avoid being caught up in a landlord/tenant feud.

Overall, it was quite a headache, but a great learning experience. I learned more in this first deal than I have in the last year of studying REI.

Hey @Nathan Smith,

I joined the military and used the VA benefits to go to college. I don't regret it at all and I would take more advantage of the benefits if I did it over again.

To be completely honest, and this is coming from someone is about the earn an MBA, you don’t need it. A education will benefit you in a sense that you will gain general knowledge of the corporate work and be able to see the larger picture of things. This is beneficial, but could be learned by experience and self education.

If you have a desire to constantly learn and improve you should have no problem. I didn’t realize the cost vs benefit of my education until about a year ago. I could of quit school and saved the money, but I need to finish what I start.

Anyway, the point is, and like others have said, a degree only looks good on your your resume. If you don’t intend to go corporate then there really isn’t a point to earning it.

Hi @Jason Amurao and @Reyna Montoya,

I run a small business out of Ventura, Clear Estate Solutions, that focuses on lease option deals.

It’s a good way to get started, build capital, and learn more about creative financing/investing.

Anyway, great to meet you and welcome!

I have focused my marketing on LOs and have found Craigslist to be the best source to find sellers who consider creative deals. The best part is it's free. I have had issues with being blocked though so I recommend being careful how many emails you send per day, the message, and frequency.

 I spent thousands on direct mail with very little responses. To me, direct mail is not a good pairing for LOs. I am testing out some text messaging campaigns in my area to see how it work out. Ventura CA is probably not the best place to text blast though....

@Michael Plaks

Great! Thanks Michael. I’ll shoot him a message.

I’m looking for a Real Estate Attorney in Ventura County or nearby county that is familiar with lease options and other creative finance deals.

Any recommendations would be highly appreciated!

Has anyone participated in this program? I’d like to know what your thoughts are if you did.

@Melodee Lucido

Ventura is awesome! Except for the whole cost of living thing... Anyway, thanks for sharing that information. I don’t want to make hasty uneducated decisions. I may just try to find someone local to pick their brain.

@Melodee Lucido

I saw you had mention in a post quite a few years back that John played a role in improving your business. Do you mind saying why the change of heart? I inquired about his training.

@Noah Howells

With seller financing you have a separate contract agreement set up with the seller that contains the purchase price, payments, interest rates, and terms. There is no bank involved. As far as the deed, I will be using a RE lawyer to handle the paperwork so I don’t screw anything up.

You don’t get a contract fee, but you can collect a portion of the down payment for the new buyer (tenant) if you are doing a lease option.