You would still have to put time and money into maintenance, TIs and lease ups but at least you're compensated by not tying up a downpayment and getting an instant equity boost when you exercise the option.

I researched what i could, seems like IRS stand in line chronologically only having right of redemption. but if they don't exercise it,the lien follows the property ? 

@Sam Ball Yeah I've heard about the capital gains tax but wasn't sure exactly how it works.

One "curve ball" (baseball reference courtesy of the World Series which starts tonight) in this calculation is: Do any of these loans have an adjustable interest rate?  

So if a lender has low-balled their fees, you won't get an accurate APR anyway. 

You have to adjust for repairs of course and I never  (well almost never) buy odd ball houses. 

Then when you exercise the option and purchase they could 1031.2. 

This reduces the investors activities to:Making the purchasesomeone else does the operationsyou collect monthly profitsFor rentals, my experience has been that NO property management company will exercise the diligence that you would - - they get paid for rents collected and the maintenance and tenant selection process is usually not up to snuff, and thus drive up your expenses.Active Management means you make the decisions, hire the work out to professionals, learn Fair Housing Regs and review+select the tenants for yourself. 

Is playing hard ball going to hurt your reputation?

These factors are:(1) the taxpayer’s purpose in acquiring the property;(2) the purpose for which the property was subsequently held;(3) the taxpayer’s everyday business and the relationship of the income from the property to the taxpayer’s total income;(4) the frequency, continuity, and substantiality of sales of property;(5) the extent of developing and improving the property to increase the sales revenue;(6) the extent to which the taxpayer used advertising, promotion, or other activities to increase sales;(7) the use of a business office for sale of property;(8) the character and degree of supervision or control the taxpayer exercised over any representative selling the property; and(9) the time and effort the taxpayer habitually devoted to sales of property.If you review Flood v.