I'd like to believe that Portlanders don't conform to cookie-cutter standards (i.e. the notion that everyone wants a nice car and a 3/2.5 home with good schools), and that getting Portland right is about knowing the different neighborhoods well and targeting a specific niche (e.g. maybe secured bike parking and a rooftop garden is more important than a garage and a yard), but we might still just be like everyone else.  

It might be better to focus on an area that is less "cookie-cutter" and the home are older.

I realize pay is somewhat regional and a pay cut might come with moving.Ideally live in a center-of-town area...sidewalks, trees, community, the more walkable/bikeable the better, trying to stay away from the cookie-cutter homes and suburban sprawl.Bonus points for universities nearby, airports and highways within reasonable driving distance.

Not to be flip, but did you also offer them a warm glass of milk and a cookie?  

Colts or Cookies?

@Karen CookI would compare the rate, the private lender profit, with the profit margin on the property. 

They are much more fun for me to remodel because they are not cookie cutter and you definitely don't get economies of scale, so probably not the best criteria to go by, thus my low number for the time period, but even balance for me.

Dodd-Frank, I don't believe uses the words "lease-option financing" what you will find is that the DF encompasses the SAFE Act and establishes authority over any consumer RE transaction that is designed, intended to or facilitates the transfer of title in a 1-4 family dwelling by doing so.You will be very busy looking up the statutes that have been modified, adopted or the recension of regulations, going back to 1938 that I noticed.Much of this stuff lies in definitions, you can't just read the word "make" or "makes" or "maker" of a financial obligation and assume it means the same thing as a car maker or one who makes cookies, the English word has different applications.

Bake me some of those soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies!

I am almost leaning towards sending a general and "cookie-cutter" letter to these homeowners because I don't know how I would feel receiving a letter from a complete stranger with some personal details about my life and family.