I'm not sure if my agent is just not on the ball or perhaps inexperienced with HUD, or is HUD just 'like this'.

Frederick,In a lease option arrangement, you are a landlord until your tenant exercises his option to purchse the property.

It's helpful to read the language to understand what does - and what doesn't work to legally avoid due-on-sale clauses.Exemption of specified transfers or dispositions: With respect to areal property loan secured by a lien on residential real property containing less than five dwelling units, including a lien on the stock allocated to a dwelling unit in a cooperative housing corporation,or on a residential manufactured home, a lender may not exercise its option pursuant to a due-on-sale clause upon— (1) the creation of a lien or other encumbrance subordinate to the lender’s security instrument which does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property;(2) the creation of a purchase money security interest for household appliances;(3) a transfer by devise, descent, or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety;(4) the granting of a leasehold interest of three years or less not containing an option to purchase;(5) a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower;(6) a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner of the property;(7) a transfer resulting from a decree of a dissolution of marriage, legal separation agreement, or from an incidental property settlement agreement, by which the spouse of the borrower becomes an owner of the property;(8) a transfer into an inter-vivos-trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property; or(9) any other transferor disposition described in regulations prescribed by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

I tried the low-balling approach when I first started and get zero offers accepted.

I said this in a previous topic...It takes balls to take calculated risks.

To me notes are securities so trying to distinguish them from bonds is an exercise in futility.

Without writing a 1,000-word post, my feeling is that you may have a harder time going this route as opposed to using a full-service listing agent.First, I think you're prone to get more low-ball offers, because buying agents will think you're not very sophisticated.Second, I think some agents will not work hard to show a flat-fee listing because (1) they think this kind of seller is unreasonable and tough to work with (it's a sign you're trying to milk every dollar from the house), and (2) I think some full-service agents are a little concerned that their high-priced business model is in jeopardy, and they're not going to help anyone who uses a flat-fee service.If you insist on going the flat-fee route, you might consider offering a 4% fee to the buyer's agent (or some other bonus).

That takes balls buying your first property 2500 miles away.

sometimes it's tough to quote per job, so it's good to find a metric like price per unit, per sq ft, etc...my cleaning lady cleans for 10 cents a sq ft...although if it's real dirty, she negotiates for 11 cents a sq ft..man does she play hard ball...

REI to the criteria that everyone has in the US would be impossible over there so i'm really looking forward to getting the ball rolling.I look forward to learning a lot on these forums and in time I hope to be able to contribute myself.