A woman at the end of an open house asked me to rent her house for two years

I was at an open house on a Sunday, mostly for comps, and the seller was there instead of staying away like sellers are told to. Everyone left, I was writing notes in the driveway, and she came out and asked if I was an investor. Then she asked if I'd consider renting it for two years and buying it at the end.

Her situation was that she'd moved in with her sister, she didn't want the house sitting empty through winter, and she'd already turned down one offer she thought was insulting. She wanted 340. She would take 2,100 a month, and she'd credit some of it, she wasn't sure how much, she'd have to think.

I told her the whole thing turned on one number, which was the price two years out, and that 340 today priced as 340 in two years is a different deal than 340 in two years priced as today's 315. She said nobody had explained it that way. Her agent had mentioned a lease option once and then moved on.

I didn't do it. The rent didn't cover the payment I'd want it to cover if I ended up walking. But I sat in the car for twenty minutes afterward thinking about how the most flexible conversation I had that year happened in a driveway after everyone else had gone home.