Aligning yourself with a buyers agent who understands the STR market is absolutely critical. 

You owe your counter-party a standard of honesty and transparency - be sure they understand that you are an agent, but don't represent them, and are looking at their house as a for-profit investment.The pros and cons have been discussed endlessly on BP.  

Your goal is to build a passive real estate portfolio (we can discuss what passive means to you), so while I don't condone throwing $100k into a deal without even a basic understanding, alternatively doing so will teach you far more lessons than reading a book will.  

Seller wants $160,000 cash out which leaves $50,000 in equity for the buyer.I had a taker from CA but he couldn't come up with the cash.I was not aware of anyone that understands that kind of deal.  

I like this option better than a Wrap because for me its just easier to understand and navigate, especially if lender calls the loan.With all this being said...I am just looking for those that have direct experience with using Lease to own to get into Multifamily and Apartment building type projects.

We have built REsimpli with a very specific purpose that our users once understand love it.

3) Understand what works in this market. 

I don’t want to just cut cost though I want to understand what I’m doing and be super hands on.

As someone else said, check the history of prior gas bills and the average bill in your zip code, and understand that you might have to eat that cost.

From my understanding few lenders loan on just empty land.