Can I stop repossession with a lease option offer?

@ALL jfw@ariangroup.co.uk @ArianGroupNews I'm also on LinkedIn & FB & if you want to look me up. But no spam please! Oh, snd please let Mark know if I try to upsell you anything.

@Mark I understand your scepticism & agree with your cautious words. However, please don't tar everyone with the same brush. Am content with discussing this further offline if you wish.

@John Wallis - thank you for sharing your credentials. I have taken a look at your LinkedIn profile, your Twitter account and your website and it is clear that you have a pedigree in business and credit management.

May I ask how and when you got into property and, perhaps more importantly, when you first took an interest in the scheme structures you have referred to in this thread and who taught you about them?

Even the top professionals have coaches and mentors, you only have to look at the top performers in any sport to see that. However, in property, many of the self styled coaches and mentors are crooks. I'm not suggesting that you are one of them but I do suspect you may have been influenced by them.

@Mark ~ As I said, I don't think an online debate would serve any purpose; especially as you seem to make sweeping generalisations; many of which are negative and/or inaccurate. I appreciate that this is your forum (I, too, have done my due diligence), and so will withdraw gracefully. My time is better spent helping people solve property problems that the mainstream market is either unwilling or unable to resolve.

@John Wallis - all I ask is that you are very careful and I can assure you that's a genuine remark and not intended to be at all patronising.

I worked in business rescue with Coppers and Lybrand Leeds (now PWC) in the early 90's I can see why you would find these schemes intriguing.

I have also seen accountants and solicitors get sucked in to these schemes only to have their credibility abused and torn to sheds. They do a few deals based on their credibility and go on to become the perfect marketing tool for the guru's. They get brainwashed into no upsell but then recommend their own trainees to attend super conferences and training courses operated by their mentors and their mentors associates, many of which pool resources for their mutual benefit.

Have you searched the names of the people you are networking with on Property tribes as part of your due diligence?

I wish you well and as we are both based in Norfolk I might well take you up on that offer of a debate over a few beers some time.

Gosh - that did open up a new direction. Thank you Mark for taking the time and trouble to elaborate - good to hear the cynic in you coming out again! I am an avid reader of your forum - it's great goes without saying - and also property tribes etc. I find them all extremely useful, especially for legal-type advice, but I often read about so-called property gurus and wonder why anyone would ever use one. I have always found out what I want to know by asking questions, investigation and research and whilst I have no interest in these schemes, it is interesting to understand the jargon and the thought behind it all - which in this instance, I didn't. I still think there must be a better way for people to settle their debts other than suffer repossession though and it was interesting to note the opposing reactions to this "deal".

@Gilly, for some people, those who have massive negative equity and unsecured debts too, repossession and bankruptcy can be a God send.

However, what surprised me was how many thousands of people are repossessed with less than 50% LTV. These people are the ones who are falling prey to the guru trained inspired amateurs. In my mind they would be far better served by a decent estate agent or auction house. They may well need to take a big hit on the value of their property but at least they would still walk away with a decent chunk of cash from equity with which they could begin to rebuild their lives.

I rented to a person once who had just done exactly that. They explained their circumstances and showed me evidence of putting £20,000 into a relatives bank account who was far more financially savvy. That relative acted as a guarantor and they turned out to be excellent tenants and stayed with me for 9 years before deciding to buy another home again.

How the banks and mortgage companys use their powers is always interesting to me.
Why? Because only those like Mr Wallis who see a great many deals go through or not as part of their job see the whole range of responses. As such in a year they may see 200 cases and examples with a few fishes being able and smart enough to slip out of the fishermans net whilst I might see just a fraction or a different situation.

What interested me was that the arrears had to be paid back in full - most people try to pay back some I would guess 'to help' but clearly only the full repayment makes a difference.
Outlining the likely outcomes of a repossession the range of house prices below the marketing price would be a sobering experience.
So I can see how that makes a difference clearing the mortgage company off the owners back to then enable a normal deal. How to make sure all sides are 'safe' with escrow accounts etc I would not know.
As a one time estate agent I saw a few deals go through below what previously the owner had rejected due to time & cashflow pressure. What is certain is auctions are far lower on average than the highest paying top 10% at the estate agents door.
Another parallel is if you have to sell never appoint just one agent always appoint two or three on a higher win only commission. You get action and not a backroom deal.
Most interesting quote I remember is "Its not that it just wont sell , . . . its just that they you too much money"

I share Mark's scepticism.

I thought the "Gurus" had all shut up shop and gone back into the woodwork since the financial crisis (well, at least I assumed that's what the drop in my email spam was telling me.....). I was a landlord before these gurus arrived and I'm still that same landlord today while they've disappeared off the face of the earth, dragging many of their nice but dim followers with them. Maybe that is telling us something ??

As they say, "....if it's too good to be true.....etc.)

R