After he finished rehabbing it and renting the property, he was able to refinance and pay off the credit cards before the 0% introductory period expires and replaced it with long term financing.

You can purchase lists with different motivations like absentee owners, 60-90-120 days late on mortgage, pre-foreclosure, delinquent taxes, water cutoff, code violation, evictions, probate, divorce, etc. and mail or cold call.Other methods are driving for dollars, door knocking, wholesalers, craigslist, Realtors, FSBO sites, expired listings, put out bandit signs, billboards, newspapers, other offline publications.You can use pay per click/adwords, motivated seller website with SEO, facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, and other forms of online and social media marketing.If you have a big budget you can do radio, TV and billboards.

Do not show you got 260K.What he does not realize it will cost you 30-40K to tear and gutted the place on you.Also give tell him you will give him a few more days to think it over but your offer will expire on XXX day.

Is there any kind of company that will act as a third party and hold the deposit until the option period expires?

Do you recommend waiting until my lease is about to expire to buy the first property?

It cannot be used for current tenants or tenants that are holding over on an expired lease."

The properties they sent were not true off-market deals at all but rather just recently-expired MLS listings, marked up 15-20% above what they had failed to sell for.

Happy to work with tenant until lease expires, so eviction is not part of the discussion.If you know of an attorney experienced in real estate issues, please send me a personal message with contact info.Thanks,~Susan 

When our lease expired we moved out and got rid most of our stuff. 

You can also buy lists from companies like list source and there are some REI software companies that have a cash buyer search feature.Best way to find motivated sellers is to purchase lists and compile lists from city and county for 60-90-120 days late on mortgage, pre-foreclosure, delinquent taxes, water cutoff, code violation, probate, divorce, high equity, etc. and mail or cold call.Other methods are driving for dollars, door knocking, wholesalers, craigslist, Realtors, FSBO sites, expired listings, foreclosure sites, put out bandit signs, billboards, newspapers, other offline publications.You can use pay per click/adwords, facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, and other forms of online and social media.