House 2: Deal Not Dead Yet?

I got a call from the wife of the couple who fell in love with the house over the weekend. It seems that FHA doesn't flat-out disallow 2nd notes, it's more that they have strict guidelines about the purchaser's credit that must be met in order for them to allow a 2nd note to be carried by the seller. One of the stipulations calls for some percentage to be 43% when theirs (or, more specifically, his) is 45%. I'm assuming some debt ratio, but she didn't really clarify. In the meantime, I've already got everything lined up to list the home on the MLS using the flat-fee listing service. I ordered the electronic lockbox and broker's sign today, and they should arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I need to finish the paperwork and get it all faxed to the agent tomorrow, too.

Also, the wife mentioned that her broker said her credit would be in a lot better shape within a year, and with her credit repaired, they could probably qualify for the whole purchase amount. In the meantime, maybe she could LEASE the property from me, and do basically a Lease/Purchase. Unfortunately, Texas all but outlawed L/O's on properties where a mortgage exists, so I have to be careful if I tread down this path. From my nderstanding, L/O's are legal when the property has an underlying Deed of Trust, but the lease term is limited to no more than 180 days (6 mos). I still need to run all this by my wife as she pretty much wrote the whole deal off, but if we can get a nice chunk of change each month while our debt is paid down, it'll all be worth it IF they buy the place next year. I may even have to tell them that in order to do this, I would have to account for market appreciation over the year and jack the option price up a little. We'll see.

Also, I need to update the offer I got and my wife an I need to initial and fax back to the agent first thing tomorrow morning. I'm thinking the people will either accept the new offer or counter again. I have a feeling they won't kill the deal. My agent said they were under contract on a same exact home down the road, but it fell through when the inspection uncovered foundation problems. They also had it appraised, and they are using that appraisal amount for their offer price on this home. I'm not sure if the appraisal accounted for the foundation problems, though.