I am not sure what program you were reading about and what process they advocated but let me tell you some of the differences between the strict lease option and the strict owner financing scenarios:

Lease Option:

- The pure lease option must have 2 seperate contracts:

1) Rental Agreement
2) Option to Buy Agreement

- tenant is merely renting with a seperate option contract to buy (do not mention the option contract anywhere in the rental agreement!!)
- the tenant can be evicted for non-payment of rent or breaking the terms of the lease (do not use the term foreclosed upon!!) Also a key term of the option contract should be to pay rent on tiem and make needed repairs to the premises. If you evict them for non-payment of rent then they have violated both contracts and can't claim thier option is still valid.
- the down payment is called option consideration is is NOT refundable. It is merely money needed for the option contract binding (i.e., consideration). The amount of money should be about 2 to 4 percent of the purchase price. You also should have a lump sum payment at the end of the term.
- You do not foreclose a tenant like this you merely evict them. (terms in the contract should specifically say eviction and tenant NOT buyer and foreclosure)

Owner Finance:

The buyer holds the title and you are a lien holder

You may have to pay taxes on any capital gains earned during the year of the initial sale rather than at the time all the payments are collected.

The buyer is not a renter but a purchaser in possession

You will have to foreclose in order to close out the buyer's right and interest in the property

You should see how all of these concepts are discussed in these programs. If the writer is discussing all of these concepts interchangibly then they may be confused. If they are confused then you will be in big trouble if it goes to court.

If you would like you may send me the contracts and I can give you an answer. You have to look at the rights and interests which are granted to each party by the contracts. Some of these 'guru's' don't even understand what interests they are conveying in these boilerplate contracts.