Doug Pretorius (ON)

Excellent! Thanks guys it all makes sense now. I don't know why I had such a hard time getting my head around that one little issue. In the end I don't think it matters which way it's done (Michael's or Adam's) because the end result is the same for all parties. Thanks again for your help. Time for me to start talking to sellers again.

Adam, The silly thing is that I understand exactly how it works the way you're doing these deals (assigning back to the seller). Where I'm confused is how to do it when you're assigning to the buyer. Hold on ... I could include it in the assignment agreement and have the the seller, buyer and myself all sign it (that way the seller is acknowledging that the money will be applied to the purchase price) in that way my release of liability with both of them can even be wrapped up all in the same document. Hope I didn't lose anyone there! I'll try to clarify: Assignment agreement passes rights from me to the buyer for a fee (which will be applied to the purchase price). The seller signs the same agreement to acknowledge that the assignment fee will be going towards the purchase price. Finally, all in the same document, the seller and buyer both release me from any further liability. All that remains is a receipt to the seller IF they're getting part of the assignment fee. There! That reduces the amount of paperwork to just 2 (or maybe 3) documents. Unless I've missed something? If not, sorry for answering my own question

A little sooner than I expected, but here goes with my first question on CA's... While obviously one of the simplest real estate transactions possible, there is one aspect of CA's that has continually eluded me: How do you apply the buyer's assignment fee to the purchase price? ... Or don't you? I'll use a local associate's deals as an example since he's done far more than I have (no CAs though, he buys houses for cash and then LOs them). He's collected anything from $2,000-$40,000 option consideration (this is on houses in the $150-$200k range). Obviously a $2k fee could easily just be a fee, with none of it going towards purchase. But when we're talking $40k, most of it MUST go towards the purchase. I'm just unsure how you work this variable into the deal when you don't know how much you'll get until you get it

Chris & Kez, Completely agree. I've read more outstanding threads here in the last 24 hours than I have in the last year anywhere else. I really like the willingness to discuss the thousands of ways to do essentially the same thing. Many other forums have the attitude: "This is the way it's done and you're stupid to try it any other way." Sounds more like a realtors conference on maintaining the status quo, than a CREATIVE investors forum.

Amazing but true! Haven't you heard? We Canadians are fiercely patriotic about our ale, we're ready to lay down our lives for our ALE! It might take WMD to move an American, but a Canadian? Hell all we need is a beer commercial -- I...AM...CANADIAN! In fact Bush made a very simple mistake. If he'd sent the Navy Seals in to take our beer, and then told us Saddam had it, we would have reinstated the drift! Tony: Thank you, I'll do my best to share my experiences.

Ahhh, that's better. Thank you for the warm welcome, Michael. I used the term "warm" very loosely. To be more exact, it is warmer than the 20 below it's been in recent weeks! Hmmm, Adam neglected to mention that little requirement. Hmph! How about I just send you a few maple trees so you can collect your own syrup right there? Absolutely! I think they're a great tool. It turns my stomach to think of all the deals I've passed up, which could have worked beautifully as CA's.