Creative financing - Owner financing for a primary residence

[Carrie Hallensleben]

Hello BP friends,

I have been reading @Brandon Turner 's book about no and low money down along with listening to podcasts several times a week. I need some advice about a potential change in my primary residence. I've noticed in many of the recent podcasts along with the message at my spiritual home, the idea of dreaming bigger, visualizing, and taking action to bring your dreams to fruition. Mindset matters!! 

So...we have now own 2 rental properties along with our own house. Our house is 1/2 paid off and we are on a 15 year loan with 12 years left. My husband's income has increased recently with his business taking off as has mine with yearly raises. I've been dreaming of moving to a house that is lakefront in my current neighborhood. I came up with a plan to put away money each month to save for a down payment but had in mind that we would make this move in a couple of years. Well being the go getter that I am...I wrote a letter to a few of the owners of moderately sized houses here at the lake telling them of our wishes in case they would want to sell in the future. I asked if they would be interested in some creative financing such as we start paying on the property before we even move in. 

Fast forward a few weeks and I've heard back from two owners. The reason I'm posting is two fold. One, I'm super nervous to even really speak to one of them because I guess I'm not sure what I can offer at this time. Secondly, I am not sure we can afford to get on the lake at this moment so I'm wondering if I am wasting everyone's time. 

Here are the very limited details I have about the two:

Property #1:

Excellent location - Property was owned by the current (middle aged) owner's parents (I think it was built by them) and is very likely not carrying a mortgage 

He is an agent and has it currently listed for 425,000 which is close to market value (it has been listed for almost a year)

He responded to my letter by saying that he doesn't think we are on the same page with objectives but would be willing to meet with me - I haven't called him back just because I am so nervous about what I would say!

Property #2

Lake front but in a cove with not as good of a view

It has the right amount of square footage, and many new things (new deck, dock, new exterior paint, etc.)

These are friends from church who are really motivated to figure out a deal because she lost her job and they will end up in foreclosure

She mentioned us taking over the mortgage payments without a down payment - however, they are 2800 per month which is more than double what we are paying now

Her house is valued in the low 300,000's

If we were able to make this work, we could hold onto our current residence and rent it to grow our portfolio which would be great with not too many years left on the mortgage

What I would like to offer would be us paying what we would be comfortable per month (i.e. more like $2300) but then wonder how that would work for them

If they were to go into a short sale, that would require us to sell our house to get the equity for the down payment and I'm not 100% sure I want to do that

Please help with any and all ideas. Thank you to this amazing community! I never would have done anything like this without BP.