Owner Financing on 4-Plex that's mid-rehab

[Catherine W.]

Hi All -

Looking for some owner financing advice.  The owner purchased this property 7 yrs ago and is currently selling it for about double that.  It's vacant and looks like he's started to rehab it himself (he's done some demo and reconstructed some walls thus far) but seems to be continuously working on it. My husband and I are interested in purchasing it and taking over the reno ourselves before he goes any further.

We are looking into the possibility of making an owner financing offer, mainly because we don't want to sink a chunk of cash into the actual purchase and then have to pay for a rehab of 4 units on top of that.  We were thinking something along the lines of x% down now, then having him finance the balance.  We would plan to pay him in full within a year or so of purchasing it from him (just need to bridge the gap between time of purchase and time the house is in good enough condition to get a mortgage on it ourselves).

For him, it would mean not having to pay for the remainder of the renovation himself, property taxes, insurance etc so I can see that being a benefit to him - and who knows, it might even take him several more months of work to get the building sold without our offer (it's already been on the market for 2 months).

If anyone has any thoughts on how to make a strong, enticing offer, we'd love to hear them.

Thanks,

Catherine