In my market place 75% of options were not exercised, so 75% of the time the seller just rented out his property in effect while the investor pocketed some option money and the monthly rent spread.  

I would focus on making great deals - rather than trying to acquire an arbitrary number of properties.For an option to buy to be profitable, it has to be significantly below the purchase price and you have to have the down payment to exercise the option - which would be 25% of the option price on most loans.The margin is needed because you have realtor/marketing/carrying costs if you buy and flip. 

That construction agreement may not be valid without a license.Forget any construction financing, you can't give the property as collateral.If suppliers extend credit for materials, they will generally want the address and owner to sign or a licensed contractor with a valid construction agreement allowing liens to be created.You can file your option and cloud title, but that cloud doesn't prevent an owner from selling the property subject to that option, the new owner will be obligated to sell it under the option, but if you fail to exercise it as agreed, they will own the place.

I'm reading one right now that would (if I signed it) require ME, the Buyer, to pay the Broker 3% or $2500 (whichever is greater) WHETHER I BUY A LISTED PROPERTY OR NOT.Now, my Realtor assures me that they would only exercise that if I bought a FSBO, but the paper doesn't lie: Some of these contracts are a liability. 

If the buyer is not satisfied with the information in the inspection report or cannot get the seller to agree to requested repairs, the buyer can exercise his right to terminate the contract before his option period ends.

Plus with lease options, assuming their prices aren't retarded (didn't run comps yet) they actually can much more quickly and easily get their property under contract for maximum price, if they're willing to accept monthly payments before the tenant-buyers exercise their option to purchase.

I personally had to go through an analysis exercise today, and I figured I’d share it here, just to provide another example of how some basic mathematical concepts can govern our investment decisions.Here was the situation that I found myself in today:I bought a property a couple weeks ago with the intent of doing some trash out and minor repairs, and reselling to another investor.  

The RE agent who sold it to me is hesitant to go through the exercise of driving out to the property, being present while I show it, then perhaps having to repeat the process if the buyer wants to see it again.  

RE isn't an exercise machine, if they have enough sense to be "affluent" (LOL) they can make a decision.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angeles/608-E-23rd-S...Here's the calculations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13ieez4soHg...I just kind of did this as an exercise to test my analytical skills and see if other more savvy investors think that I'm calculating things correctly.