So, if you do a lease option, the main upside (if you believe buy and hold is better than financing) is hoping they don't exercise the option to buy and you keep the option money.

We installed a nice fence with a gate and it enhanced the look of our building dramatically, which stopping random trash from appearing.

You can always listen when you are doing something else such as exercising, riding in the car, etc.

If he does end up exercising the option I am selling at a price that I am very happy with and don't care what he does with the place.

Trying to identify a particular note, then going to the bank to buy that one, will be an exercise in futility...see "wild goose chase".

This is a great market to help you enhance your portfolio.I hope to hear from you soon!

Currently under contract and when we did a title search we found out there is an IRS right to redemption on the property which expires on the 21st.I've done some research and it appears that these things normally don't get exercised but I wanted to see if anyone had some input on the process because I don't really trust any of the parties involved with the sale.

If you are not filling the void of each other's weaknesses and enhancing each other strengths the partnership will be stressed over time.Is your partner just the money guy and does not want to do any work and is very interested in getting involved with real estate but is really just wanting passive income from the benefits of REI, thats fine too but know that he is really a money partner, which is also important but that would mean a different type of partnership and different expectation of you. 

. :)You asked a really good question because from what I've seen all of the training new agents get for real estate consists of a) the real estate exam, which in real life teaches you very little about how to do real estate on a daily business, and b) tons of advice on marketing and getting sellers to agree to 'your price' and 'your marketing plan' - without ever actually teaching new agents how to correctly evaluate a home's market value or come up with a value-enhancing marketing plan to begin with.

In general, if the work was done correctly it should not be very expensive and more of a dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s exercise.