Lately there has been much talk about high rents preventing people from living in the better areas of town and they are throwing blame at everything from gentrification to greedy landlords.

One of the best ways is to make sure that your option is "assignable", which means you can sell it.This gives you flexibility in case you have to move or you can't get financing.Another way to protect yourself is to "record the option" at the county recorder's office, which basically "clouds" the title, preventing the seller from selling the property.Legally, properties can be sold "subject to options," but just recording your option to purchase will help protect your contract with the seller.Another way to protect yourself as a buyer on a lease to own is to use a third-party collection company, like www.notecollection.comThe note collection company will take your money from your bank account, and pay the mortgage company their PITI payment that the seller is supposed pay every month. 

I just had a toilet run for about 6 hours (tenant was gone) that happened to clog, came home to water dripping in the garage which is directly under the bathroom.  

How do I prevent this person getting sellers name and phone # and doing their own deal?    

That's really great advice and will allow you to knock out a bunch of important tasks before your hectic work day prevents you from getting those tasks done.

However, while a DBA/LLC may prevent your personal name from coming under scrutiny, it will not protect you from losing your license if a "few deals go wrong".

To prevent this in the future I try to sign up November & December renters to modified lease, such as a 13 or 14 month lease.#5 Finding specialists is key.  

A simple service call, or visit from a landlord to fix the problem could be all you need to prevent a serious problem with a costly repair bill.

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This will prevent him from selling this home until he resolves it with you.Keep us informed, I'd love to hear the end of this story, but it sounds like you will be ok if you let the Title Company know in writing exactly what you discovered, and copies if possible.