And the next time a buyers agent asks me how I plan to buy property I can be totally straight forward and tell them I will buy homes with other people's money the way wholesalers do.

Just ask them straight up, "Is there a reason why you haven’t signed yet"?

I only use private lenders, straight conventional, or cash.

The loan was 0% intrest $0 down (I think) and it was a straight principle loan with a 10yr ballon amortized over 40 years.

A hard money lender is the simplest, but since you want two years and you're living in it that may be more difficult than a straight hard money loan on a fixer.Do you have the income, cash, and credit score to just go to a bank and get a HELOC?

(after paying roughly 5k in attorney fees in foreclosing, etc) I am thinking going straight to the owner may be an even better option.

And you need to find a bank that will go along with it.Under new Fannie Mae guidelines, (well not so new this was done in May 2009) You can have up to 10 properties financaed in youro name as long as the following is met....actually I am gonna make it easierfor you: here it is straight from Fannie Mae....https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/guides/ssg/annltrs/pdf/2009/0902.pdfAgain hardest part is finding banks who will agree and do the loan.hope this helps,Chris

Not to mention great post Dion DePaoli ....and to all the BP gurus thanks for setting this straight!!

That being said, I also have hardworking, non-drinking straight laced people... but of course these aren't the tenants we are really talking about.My suggestions:-Treat them with respect.

I probably didn't explain my premise right, so I'll take another crack at it.The Option to Purchase seems pretty straight forward to me in that I will pay some monetary consideration to the seller for the right to purchase the property for X amount of dollars within X number of days.