Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Lease Purchase Option

The purpose in retaining a professional to represent each of you is primarily to market the property (not necessary here), negotiate on your behalf the terms of the deal (very important here) and document the agreement (critical in this instance). The time to hire professionals is not later, its now. You need to have any lease-option prepared by a professional, and more importantly, you need to discuss with a professional the possible implications of a lease-option agreement. As the property owner, there is some up side for you, but also a great deal of downside. I would not enter into such an agreement without professional consultation and documentation of the deal.

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Re: Lease Purchase Option

It depends upon your confidence in your business skills, I suppose. Many people do both the marketing and the closing aspects of a real estate deal without an agent's help. You should use a licensed escrow (and title) company to draw up the documents, at least. Maybe the best compromise here would be to find an agent who will assist with the documentation, disclosures, etc. for a greatly reduced commission, since there is no selling to do, just the "easy" part (paperwork). Who put together the lease-purchase option deal?