Thread: Legality of Lease Options

Hi All,

I’ve recently run into a few people here (in Oregon) that have told me that participating in lease options (when you aren’t the Owner of the property) is illegal unless you have a real estate license. I believe that ORS 696.010 (15) states it as practicing “professional real estate activity”, but exceptions to that can be found at ORS 696.030. Although I’m certainly not opposed to getting my license, I’d rather not. If I can be the middle-man in a sandwich lease option without a license, why spend the money and time to get licensed?

At this point I’m consulting a few attorneys to see what my options are. I’m wondering if there are ways that I can structure a sandwich lease option in such a way that it is legal. Every states laws are a little different. Are you doing something unique in your state to get around this? I’d love to hear what it is...

Thanks in advance,
dB

Greatly appreciate the response NoMoneyDown.


Yeah, I had heard about that law down in Texas. I just hadn’t really heard where Oregons laws stood on the issue until recently. You’re right, if you are the Owner (on title) of the property then you can do what you wish. I’m just trying to figure out how I can do this without taking title. Here are a couple things I’ve heard so far from the people I’ve spoken to:

• Find a partner who is licensed and do deals with them. Maybe they could even help me sell my homes. Possibly look into making them a ‘managing partner’ in my LLC and then do everything in the LLCs name.
• Get a home under contract and then assign the contract (directly from Owner/Seller to Tenant/Buyer) for a fee.

I know there are other ways, I just don’t know about them (yet). You don’t know what you don’t know! Look forward to hearing from others out there...

~dB

Someone sent me the attached link that I thought was worth sharing...

Hope you find it useful!

Bill Bronchick - Do You Need a License to Flip Real Estate?

~dB