Seller Financing/Creative Finance

[Marlon Brillantes]

Hello!

New to investing, still trying to get my first property.

I was able to reach out to an owner who is selling his home in the hopes that I can get a better deal with Seller financing/creative financing versus a commercial lender. I reached out to my lawyer, to confirm what I can actually do and was told that:

Option 1: If the owner currently has a mortgage, I can assume the mortgage but would have to pay the Seller the difference in what he has paid already (example: 400k home, he paid off 200k. I assume the 200k mortgage and half to pay the owner 200k)

- This doesn't make sense to me - I thought part of seller financing was, the ability to negotiate down payments. 

Option 2: Seller keeps his mortgage, I pay him, he forwards the money to the mortgage -> Bad idea, because the seller can stop sending the money to the lender.

I think I am missing a step in how this works, because if this is the case, I feel as if most sellers I reach out to, will have an existing mortgage. Is there something I can do here?