. - Because it ultimately comes down to a human underwriter's judgement call once actually in escrow, many lenders do not want to deal with it.If you want to share your owner occupancy motivations, I'd be happy to give you my ballpark opinion on the odds of it flying.

You will never see that money again even if you get a court judgement.

Mike:I'm enjoying the back and forth and understand the position of considering all sources of capital/cash as the same from an "everyday practicality" position ... but, I'm not certain my, or your, accountant would agree.Perhaps it's my background with operational companies (software, telecommunications, etc), but there was always a distinction between earnings & cash flow from operations and capital raised through other means (debt, asset sales, judgements, etc).  

Paying off your primary does have some benefit because of the safety of having your primary secured from judgement depending on the protections offered by TX. 

However, just know that you'll probably end up in the same spot you are now, just with a judgement.

I'm in California, the property is in Texas.I have total faith in the real estate agent, as I have known her for 15 years and trust her judgement.

With a lease option you always run the risk of the seller not wanting to close on the eventual sale, inability to do so due to attached liens, judgements, etc.

In one of those cases, I evicted and got a judgement that included late fees.

None.Well the original plan was to file eviction just to make sure that she goes when she says she was going but attorney says I won't get a judgement before she is due to be out, which is true.If a tenant is intent on leaving in 3 weeks and is saying keep my security deposit, I'm not planning on paying anything else, the only leverage you have is the threat of a civil suit but if she's leaves with no forwarding address where are you going to serve that.So the question is whether there is better idea than filing the civil suit before she leaves so that it can be served on her current address and whether that is a good idea in the first place.

Once you get a judgement, then you can go through collections if they refuse to pay. to my knowledge, you cannot go through collections without a judgement, as a landlord. however, I have never taken someone to collections before. you may want to confirm that this is the correct process in your state