If you are taking the potential rent and subtracting her current or potential new mortgage payment, that is not a relevant exercise to determine if it is a good investment.There are weekly posts on BP from new members wanting to convert their old primary residence to a rental and, in many cases, it's a bad investment decision and, in all cases, it's limiting (only one property is being analyzed).  

You will learn a TON about apartments through that exercise.

If the option is not exercised, the seller keeps the option fee. 

Just know to always exercise caution when entering a partnership, people aren't perfect and so you need to be sure to play things safe and allow professional relationships time to grow and mature.I will also DM you with a couple other resources. 

But I recently did this exercise for a client via searching recent "solds".

As much as people site it as their favorite book, it seems as obvious as saying eat right and exercise.

with lease option.. you still have a tenant, and you're a landlord, with seller finance you're the bank..........in lease option, I hear tenant takes better care, higher down payment, higher payments, maybe even does some rehab work, and often doesn't even exercise option,, this is attractive..the con is I've heard, if they stop paying, its not a simple tenant eviction, and could be long and expensive a year or more...maybe there are ways to avoid this by not crediting rent payments to purchase..its still not clear yet to me...I'am attracted to try this on a property i own in raleigh....or maybe just try a first seller finance....any local I talk to, agents and attorneys, they say dont do lease option and scares the crap out of me.....Im not convinced though yet....but seems like seller finance is an easier exit strategy for cash flow control..

@Adrienne MeltonYou will find many different opinions in this topic ..Most recommend to form LLCs in State you are doing business..I’m aware Nevada’ and I believe some other States are popular States to form Series LLCs.I learned the hard way starting out, most banks will give you hard time financing thru a LLC and the few that do you might end up paying higher rate..There are ways around that people purchase w their name and then transfer title do their LLC but then theres the possibility the bank may exercise “due on sale clause” although it seems nobody knows somebody that bank went forward on “due on sale clause” with today’s rising rates banks might have more incentive to do this..Here’s my 2 cents, it’s great that you’re thinking about asset protection.

They will exercise the same judgement on your property and economy.

We will buy it as-is and close quickly but before I can speak to them I would like to agree on the price and if you would be willing to give me an option to buy it at that price within the next 10 days (or 20, 30 days).An option contract gives you the right to buy an asset (house) but not the obligation to buy it until you exercise your option.