Or waiting for "natural" rises in property values?

I would also make sure you have the lease agreement and the option agreements as separate agreements and that you pay consideration for the option agreement.

It might become a little less competitive to purchase as interest rates rise, but the fundamentals are too strong in the area for anything nasty to happen.  

The exchange has gone up considerably since we first started negotiating.  

To set this up and cover yourself correctly an attorney might eat up most of your anticipated profit with fees.Once you take the fees into consideration you wouldn't be getting 20% return even if it materializes.You could ask an attorney to co-participate in the upside and make no money on the front end but they might not go for that.

The issue with venting it through the soffit is heat rises and in the winter time in New England it can increase ice dams.

However, it does take a considerable amount of time to find & work the MLS deals, whereas you can outsource a lot of the work involved in marketing for off market deals....Also, while I might recommend that someone with virtually no experience purchasing real estate use a realtor when buying, off market or not, I don't see why someone who has closed a few deals should continue to do so...It's really not so complex that you can't learn to do it without the help of a realtor...

Constraining permits and inventory while input prices (land, labor, materials) rise is a recipe for smaller margins and more dumb money and fewer good developers building.  

There has to be consideration for the deal to be legal anyway.  

Chance Cooper There are many considerations when deciding on one over the other.