Have any of you ever heard of this?

Question

I am trying to get rid of a home that I have and this Real Estate Agent does some sort of FSBO. Here is the email he sent me. Can someone tell me if this is a good deal, or does it seem like a scam or something.

Chance,

The way the process works is very simple. I would lease the  home from you with the agreement that I purchase it in the near future. A lawyer would draw up the necessary paperwork and it would be recorded at the courthouse. I would market the home and look for a tenant buyer. The tenant buyer would move in with the agreement that they would lease the home until they can purchase it. I would be responsible for all maintenance and repairs.

I would pay your monthly payment directly to the bank and we would set the purchase price to match the loan balance whenever the tenant buyer obtains their new loan.

You may not be able to obtain another mortgage for another house until this one sells. That is why I asked you if you would be purchasing another home soon.

I have two homes in Fayetteville right now under this very same agreement.

I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you,

What are you thoughts?

David Dachtera · Answer

Some folks call this a "sandwich lease option". When used as a substitute for "Subject to", it circumvents "Due on Sale" because the title doesn't "change hands" right away.

Seems a bizarre way to sell your home unless you need to do a "subject to" or you have little or no equity and can't raise your share of the closing costs as the seller.

The agent may be a "wanna be" REI without enough education or ethics to make a go of it at this point.

I'd find another agent...

David J Dachtera

"Success is not a destination. Failure is not an event. Success is a process, failure is a choice."- DJ Benedict

Account Closed · Answer

@Chance Cooper Is this person an agent of a real estate company whom you've contacted to have your house listed for sale? Or have you listed your home FSBO and this is someone who's contacted you? If this is your agent, id make a call to his company asking why he's not acting in your best interest.If this is a response to your FSBO, he's an investor just looking to gain cash flow off your property until it sells.

If you proceed with this course of action, be VERY weary of the "we pay all maintenance" line! Do you think a person who is technically just "leasing" your house, will pay for an HVAC unit if it goes out? Nope. They'll either make you pay for it since the property is still yours, or simply tear up their option and walk away. I was stationed at Bragg for quite awhile and our little investor network of former SF dudes are always looking to buy investment properties around there! Shoot me a message and maybe we can help each other out. Lloyd Stanton.American.

Curt Smith · Answer

Lease and an option is a value to many sellers, there's nothing wrong with an investor or and agent acting as an investor making such an offer!!!

Sellers who have homes that need repairs, but no cash to make the repairs are stuck.  Sellers at break even with their mortgage are stuck.

This is a great solution for sellers who need to move but are stuck.  It's a white hat strategy helping a seller move on.

Elmer Foster · Answer

Hi yes this is a basic lease with an option to own but he will sublease the property to a buyer that is willing to pay more then he is.  He will agree to give you a small but reasonable deposit and agree to a reasonable rent and future purchase price.  He will then advertise the property as a "Rent to Own" where he has the same agreement with the prospective tenant as he has with you except he will require a deposit equal to or more than what he agreed to give to you and the monthly rent will be more than what he agreed to give to you.  He will also negotiate a sale price higher than what he agreed to give you.  When the prospective tenant is ready to exercise the option to purchase, he will exercise his option to purchase from you and do a double closing where he never takes custody of the home but collects a check for his profit from the transaction.

As the homeowner you can simply advertise your property as a Lease to Own in Craigslist or a similar publication and achieve the same without the middle man.  A word of caution however,  under Dodd Frank, in this sort of transaction you may be considered to be acting as a mortgagor and therefore you are required to follow the same financial disclosure rules mortgage companies are.

Full Disclosure:  I am a Realtor and I would of course advise that you simply use a good Realtor to list your property and you will net the maximum profit in the shortest amount of time.

Hope this was helpful

John Turner · Answer

@Chance Cooper

Seems like there are too many issues with this deal. Walk away from this and list your property on the marketplace here.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Chance Cooper

@Chris Martin   Chris I unwound about 30 of these for a similar model that a group of investors did.. were they really got sideways is recording the lease option and or they also did some contracts of sale..

the end buyer defaults but won't move.. the middle buyer is fine until to many go south at one time like what happened in this case.. title company would not insure without a Judicial foreclosure  12 months in Oregon with 6 month right of redemption..  All the wile the original loan is in the Original sellers name.. and if payments are not made guess who's credit gets trashed or worse they have a foreclosure on their record.  I know every state Is different.. These folks made a mess of it and Sellers turned them into the AG and they got in some hot water.. I bailed them out of many of them.. but some were beyond help.

So if I was in Chance's position I would want to know what effect RECORDING the lease option has on my Title and how long would it take to get it off how much would it cost etc

These deals all sound great up front its what happens when they turn turtle that creates the havoc.

Now with a seller who does not care.. their credits trashed and they just want to move on I can see that.  At least in a purchase money state were no deficiency judgment could be obtained.   curious on your thoughts if you care to comment further..

Chris Martin · Answer

@Brian Gibbons thanks for the plug.

This is nice. Chance, this looks like an opportunity to see how well this broker understands lease option requirements. In the general case, I think a property executed lease option can be a beneficial tool. When not property executed, the tool can be dangerous. Since the agent said "I have two homes in Fayetteville right now under this very same agreement", I'd look up the documents in Cumberland county records.

If I were in your shoes, this is what I'd do.

1. review/read the details of minimal requirements (see Brian's link)2. compare the agent's proposal against the requirements and see how they match3. determine your comfort level and decide...

Sidebar: I took a few minutes to see if I could find any recent L/O agreements in Cumberland county. I found one reasonably quickly. I am not implying that this document is related in any way to any parties in the original post. It is for educational purposes only. Recorded 3/11/13, the document I found failed to meet a majority of the statutory requirements. It was prepared by a person who I googled and found out that the person advertises (via trulia) as an NC agent. I looked up the person in North Carolina Real Estate Commission license search and came up empty. Per NCREC, he's not licensed. If the person was licensed, he probably wouldn't be for long. The document says on it "Prepared by and return to" the person I looked up. Drafting legal documents should be done by an attorney, IMO. Certainly not a broker.

I found in about 120 seconds: a date mismatch (document signed on different date from notary), missing legal description, failure to meet sections 47G-2(b)(3), 47G-2(b)(5), 47G-2(b)(6), 47G-2(b)(8), 47G-2(b)(9), 47G-2(c) all, 47G-2(d) record within 5 days, 47G-2(e) all. The company (buyer) has done other business in the county but the name is not registered with the NC Secretary of State. They may be perfectly legitimate and have filed an alais (ficticious name) in the county... but I couldn't find it, although I did look.

The upshot: The above is an example of the kind of L/O 'deals' out there. If anything goes wrong, the parties in the above example will have a nightmare on their hands. Be very careful. Getting back to the original post, follow Brian's advice and have an attorney look it over if your answer to #3 above is 'it's a go!'

Brian Gibbons · Answer

if this property is in nc see

http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/H...

Get an attorney

@Chris Martin

Is awesome in nc

Have any of you ever heard of this?

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