I can move into it now and turn it into a rental later or just use it as a "Mustachian" retirement home.

Should the seller reject your offer, call them back a few days later to see if they would reconsider.

From my personal experience, me and a partner purchased a 2 unit in '95 for cash, put the house in our names and couple of years later added his wife's name.

It is still, 11 years later, our biggest flip by difference between purchase and sale price (we did pretty well).In our case it wasn't a thoughtful choice--we became real estate investors after finding an opportunity.

The best advise you have been getting is to cut your loss, refund her money and get to getting another tenant sooner rather than later.

You'll thank me later.

We are in a white hot market here so I was not surprised to get a full price offer in 5 days...however the buyer backed out and then I found out that he had 3 other offers in on other properties...I do not understand this...we are NOT talking about REO and flinging out offers hoping one will stick but full price SFR on the MLS...found out later the buyers agent was aware and it must be frustrating to her as well...maybe the buyer thinks he can play sellers off each other and get someone to come off their price but not in this market...as I said it's a hot market...just irks me the property was tied up for 10 days...another seller told me the same thing had happened to him ...next time I will ask the buyers agent if the buyer has made any other offers on other properties...if it's a seminar trick I don't get it !

If your goal is to operate and manage all the units as one large complex and package them for sale as one complex some time later then you might want to consider obtaining a commercial loan at today's low interest rates.

He's already offered to sell his entire company/portfolio and we are starting small to establish the relationship.I think if I can make it work, I'd the sell the properties later and hold the notes, or vice versa, whichever would make more sense long term.Here's the info on the notes.Note 1: Balance $17,849, Purchase Price $12,494, Asset Value, $50,568, Rate 9%, Payment $456, Payments Left 45Note 2: Balance $56,272, Purchase Price $39,390, Asset Value $60k, Rate 12%, Payment $600, Payments Left 275Note 3: Balance $46,340, Purchase Price $32,438, Asset Value $50k, Rate 12%, Payment $523, Payments Left 219Note 4: Balance $63,698, Purchase Price $44,589, Asset Value $75k, Rate 10%, Payment $613, Payments Left 239

I don't think I'll get back into sandwich lease options, which I might write a post later about the pros & cons of my experience with sandwich lease options.