Miami Real Estate: Some Helpful Tips About Lease/options

Buying a residential property is not a likely prospect for everyone. Perhaps it could be due to lack of funds or maybe because of the need to relocate frequently. Whatever the reason may be, you still have a myriad of rental options in the Miami real estate market.

When it comes to renting a house or an apartment, you should always be mindful of the possible consequences of each contract. More often than not, a lot of people find the Miami real estate lease/options to be cool and cost-effective. However, you shouldn't readily jump on the same bandwagon seeing as these arrangements usually involve certain drawbacks. To avoid being entangled in such pitfalls, make use of the following tax and legal tips.


Lease/options are actually terrific, except when the home seller chooses not to meet his end of the deal. Certainly, you may take legal action to oblige him to sell you the Miami real estate property. Then again, taking this route may cost you a fortune in legal payments and may take a long period of time to achieve. Thus, you need to make an effort to put yourself in a better spot if you wish for your investment to be safeguarded. Here are some of the things you can do to safeguard your option:

Log The Option

If your lease/option was signed in the presence of a notary public, you can log your option in the public real estate registry. This will serve as a public notice of your intent to purchase the Miami real estate property. If the lease/option wasn't notarized, you can still sign a sworn statement known as a "memorandum of option" before filing the option in the registry.

Escrow The Title Deed

In case your seller dies or disappears, you'll definitely have a problem. Because of these possibilities, you should have an escrow created in advance wherein an attorney or a company is tasked to hold a completed deed. When you're ready to purchase the Miami real estate property, you simply hand in the money to the escrow representative and receive the executed deed.

Keep Track Of The Mortgage

More often than not, a mortgage is noted down on a promissory letter so as to secure payments. Know that a mortgage can definitely be recorded in order to guarantee implementation of any arrangement (i.e. purchase option). As the prospective buyer (optionee), you will now function as the lien holder, which is in the similar position as that of a secured lender. In case the seller of the Miami real estate property changes his mind about selling, you have the option to foreclose. If this happens, the seller will be compelled to go to court in an effort to protect himself, instead of the other way around.

Vanessa Arellano Doctor

More Topics:
National Notary Association
The nation's professional notary organization. Notary education and training, supplies and news from the NNA.

Notary public - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... private law is based on civil law rather than common law, a notary public in the ... or other lawyer can perform, as part of their notary public duties, ...

California Business Portal - Notary Public Main Page
... appointed or reappointed as a notary public on or after January 1, 2008, ... is available online or by calling the Notary Public Section at (916) 653-3595. ...