They do plan on buying it after a year but currently cannot come up with a down payment or acquire financing.

I say this as someone who made a title insurance claim within a month of buying my very first home.This is always true in general; in your case if you are acquiring from distressed/motivated sellers even more so.

Hence the reason you typically need to buy with cash or a hard money loan to acquire these properties.

If I can acquire this one now, should I take the offer? 

Hey BP Community,My wife and I just acquired our first property to house hack.

Hey BP Community,My wife and I just acquired our first property to house hack.

I'd like to acquire a multi-family home, using a FHA 203k loan, rehab, and house hack the living hell out of the deal.

I am excited for your venture, may be in the near future we'll be able to acquire a bigger facility.

That aside, as I dig deeper, and delve further down the rabbit hole, it seems to me that this "acquire subject to and lease option" stuff is an REI Trojan horse.  

They're teaching people to "acquire" property using "subject to" and cash flow it via lease options.