Use that to practice.

At the moment, I wanted to see if this is common practice and/or if I have some kind of legal claim here.

Given the office maxim "you're buying the lease and the building comes free", can someone confirm how empty suites are treated in practice?

I truly enjoy navigating through BP, it offers tons of practical information I can certainly apply and benefit from.

I have been enjoying my time here so far and am seriously considering pivoting my practice to tailor it toward real estate investors.

Says its very standard practice to have this done.

Newbie here - this is one of the first deals I took a look at but unfortunately it required a lot of TLC and was too far away to be practical for me to work on it.

Look into amazing tools and resources like:Weekly webinars:https://www.biggerpockets.com/webinarOr the forums, or great guides and books:https://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investin...https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/01/3...https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/01/0...http://get.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook/Or you can analyze deals to start getting practice before you actually jump in:https://www.biggerpockets.com/flip-analysisI would also suggest you look for local Real Estate Investing Associations or clubs meetings to begin networking with people in the industry.

The non-refundable lease option fee IS applied to the purchase if the optionee exercises the option.It looks as though your realtor friend proposed a seller-financed deal.  

Please do not confuse my business practices with traditional business practices.