Why Some Central Oregon Investors Are Moving Away from Traditional Rentals
At a recent Central Oregon Investor Network meetup, Suzanne Moore brought in her real estate investing coach Andrew to walk the group through a strategy that had quietly transformed his portfolio over more than a decade: selling properties on lease option. Andrew started investing at 21, coming out of a hospital stay with over $80,000 in debt, and has since completed over 500 lease option deals. What he shared that evening gave several longtime landlords in the room a reason to rethink how they exit their next property.
Sarah Lynch already has one property in Bend on a lease option—rare in Oregon, but it exists. Suzanne purchased a property in North Carolina earlier this year and is selling it on lease option rather than renting it long-term or flipping it. After this session, the reason why is clear.
What a Lease Option Actually Is
A lease option combines two separate documents: a lease and an option to purchase. The tenant rents the property and simultaneously holds the right to buy it at a locked-in price, typically within a one-year term. Before moving in, they pay a non-refundable option deposit—what Andrew calls an NROD—which goes toward their down payment when they eventually get a bank loan and cash out the seller.
The tenant is responsible for all maintenance and repairs during the lease period. That single detail changes the cash flow math entirely.
The Three Paydays
This is the core of why Andrew prefers lease options over both fix-and-flip and traditional buy-and-hold.
- Payday one: The non-refundable option deposit collected the day the tenant buyer moves in. Andrew's average across his deals is roughly 10% of the purchase price. On a $300,000 property, that's around $30,000 upfront.
- Payday two: Monthly cash flow. Because the tenant handles repairs, the spread between what you owe and what they pay you is net profit—not subject to the surprise expenses that eat into traditional rental income.
- Payday three: The back-end payout when the tenant qualifies for a mortgage and cashes you out. There are no realtor fees, no holding costs, and no price negotiations at that point. They agreed to the price when they moved in.
"Work once and get paid three times. I even forgot I owned some of these houses by the time my team texted me a picture of the cashout check."
Real Deal Examples
Andrew walked through several actual transactions. In one Indiana deal, he bought a property for $128,000 by taking over an existing VA loan. The house needed cosmetic work, so instead of spending money on updates, he offered the tenant buyer a reduced option deposit in exchange for handling the repairs themselves. The tenant put $5,000 down and paid $1,195 per month against his $748 mortgage payment. Years later, the property cashed out and the total profit across all three paydays came to over $74,000.
In a second example, he brought a property out of foreclosure on a wraparound mortgage, with $7,800 needed to bring the loan current. The tenant put $13,000 down and paid $1,050 per month against his $850 payment. That deal generated $61,347 on the back-end cashout alone.
For those in higher price markets—more relevant to Central Oregon—Andrew described a community member named Jason who took over a seller's VA loan at 2.75% and sold the property on a lease option for $550,000. The tenant buyer put $55,000 down, exactly 10%. Jason is netting $1,611 per month above his payment, and estimates another $52,000 on the back-end cashout.
Who Buys on Lease Option
Andrew estimates that over 80% of the market cannot currently qualify for a conventional mortgage. That pool includes self-employed buyers, people new to an area, those recovering from a credit event like a medical bill or divorce, buyers who need more time to save a larger down payment, and people waiting for interest rates to shift. Mortgage brokers are a particularly good referral source—they see applicants who get turned down every day and still want to buy a home.
Marketing and Finding Tenant Buyers
Andrew's team uses Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, Google ads, and local Facebook groups. He said the highest volume of leads comes from online, but the highest quality buyers consistently come from physical signs placed on every main road leading to the property, as well as near high-traffic retail areas within a half mile or so. The signs read something like "lease option your own beautiful home, bad credit OK" with a phone number.
Contracts, Insurance, and Closing
Andrew is firm on one point: always close with a real estate attorney, both when placing the tenant buyer and when they cash out. The two documents—the lease and the option—are distinct and both matter. The seller carries homeowner's insurance throughout; the tenant buyer carries renter's insurance until they purchase. Andrew noted that his contract templates have been used across many states, but recommends having a local Oregon real estate attorney review any documents before use here.
What This Means for Central Oregon Investors
Lease options are not common in Oregon, as Suzanne noted. But that's not because they can't work here—it's because most investors haven't been shown how to structure them. For anyone holding a vacant property, sitting on a long-term rental coming up for turnover, or looking to exit a deal without paying realtor fees and holding costs, the lease option is worth a serious look.
Suzanne closed the session with a thought that stuck: every time one of her long-term rentals comes vacant, her plan now is to convert it to a lease option.
Keep Learning With COIN
If this session raised questions about how lease options could fit your portfolio—or how to fund the deals that feed this strategy—the PRIMO Private Money Academy is a good next step. And if you want to keep learning alongside other Central Oregon investors who are actively doing deals, join us at the next monthly COIN meetup. Details are on our site and social channels.
Adapted from the video: watch on YouTube →