[Greg]

It is lender specific. Most lenders in sub-prime treat a lease option as a lease.

In most cases they need to be deeded 6-12 months or longer.

Are you possibly using a lender that considers the lease option a purchase and trying to see if deeding the borrower will qualify it as a refinance?

The answer in most cases is no.

I suggest Aegis Funding on this. They should consider it as a refi and use appraised value. They even do "Unrecorded Land Contracts" using appraised value.

FF is a good one too for LC/LO.