Then the investor assigns the agreement to a tenant buyer with the approval of the seller and the tenant buyer assumes the rights and obligations in the lease option agreement and the investor collects the assignment fee and moves on.How would a real estate agent assist the investor in this process?

Listen to the last 50 or so bigger pockets podcasts and spend at least a month reading this forum and you will learn a lot and be much closer to buying something safely that will be worth it

Spend a little time over there and you'll get a better feel for the nuances.

If you are spending no money and making money that’s great but that’s not investing that’s a job.  

Happy to network and assist.

We were told the house was undergoing renovation and it would be leased after completion. well, after a few emails and the assistance of one of BP members we found out the house is actually occupied..

this happened to me in TExas on virtually every house we did there.. values rising to rapidly and and all your buyers VA FHA  who also need closing cost assistance.. tough place to do vanilla retail flips ..same with many areas of the country were values have been stagnate for years. 

Do my own marketing where I need to spend almost $2500 to potentially find a dealAs of right now I'm leaning to #2 but wanted to know how other rehabbers handle these situations?

I'll spend a few minutes to offer some guidance, but the vast majority are time wasters.

And I tell them make sure the rent money is in the bank on the first.Another tenant, slightly better qualifications, missed one electronic payment recently, but tells me he had to help a relative out, and spend $29K.