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The other day a very cool thing happened to me which I’d like to share. But first … a bit of background.

I’ve been peddling the Rent2Own idea locally as much as I can … to anyone who will listen. Most of my property deals are regular deals and come from estate agents, and so I’ve naturally targeted them (among other routes).

Now the EAs have proved a bit tricky. Most don’t want to know about lease options or rent 2 own. Some don’t understand. Others can’t get their heads around it. As a group they have failed to produce a single useful R2O deal or even really demonstrate they understand it. Some have even been happy to try and then I’ve realised they just don’t get it from the way they try to explain it (‘Equity Option’ anyone?!?).

I regularly tread my patch chatting to them all, asking about new props / deals etc … and I’m constantly trying out different angles as hooks to get them into the R2O thing … and to get a deal.

Now that just hasn’t happened. In fact, worse, the opposite has happened. The one time I did find a perfect deal, got the vendor on side, agreed terms, and was all ready to get the paperwork out … the agent couldn’t understand it and scuppered the deal … very frustrating! He told the seller to turn me down and then lied to me about the reason!

So … yesterday I popped in to an estate agent to go over an existing deal we’re doing and I casually asked if he’s got anything else.

And he actually suggested that I do a Lease Option on a particular deal of his (well actually it’s 4 deals!) I nearly fell off my chair. Here was an estate agent who understands what lease options are, what financial ingredients are needed, he knows I’m into Lease Options, gets how they work, and knows this is an ideal opportunity to use the concept.

Fantastic result!

Suddenly all those months of blank looks and glazed eyes seem worth it.

There’s still some way to go on this particular one … but I’m overjoyed. I’ve actually found an EA who gets it, he gets what he can get out of these deals, how it can work for the vendor and how it can work for me.

Here’s the idea: it’s a new build of flats and we’re taking advantage of the fact that it’s very hard to get a mortgage on a new build flat at the moment (not impossible but you need a big deposit, certainly way bigger than the 10% a FTB might normally have). That means the developer can’t easily sell right now, so he’s open to ideas … and with a lease option the developer gets something along the way (a monthly payment) and he knows he’s going to get a sale out of it in the end. And for me … I get some rental income in the mean time before buying and we can both establish the property as ‘USED’ quickly because there’ll be a tenant in place so I can buy / sell on at a later date.

And regardless of the specific result on this one, it just seems like finally a tiny crack has appeared in the armour of the large army of disbelievers!

Now that really is cool!