I want to purchase a rehab using a land contract. Need help, please!

[Tim Wilkinson]

Hello BP community,

My family must move and we are not quite in a position to purchase through a bank. I have been in business only 6 months in REI, so my income is not worthy of a loan. My wife earns a 6 figure income, but properties near Boston are very expensive and she has a foreclosure on record from 7 years ago with her former husband.

However, her company moved this week and will increase her commute to 2 hours each way five days a week. Needless to say, I can wholesale and rehab anywhere, so I have to move closer to her work. 

I am interested in buying a home (hopefully one that is owned free and clear) from an absentee owner that needs to be rehabbed. I am a retired GC in Massachusetts. Is it reasonable to think that a homeowner who has a burdensome property here would allow me to rehab it on their dime, and then purchase the home under a land contract? 

Unless the seller has cash for rehab, there is a good chance they will take out a HELOC on the property and they would no longer own it free and clear.

My sweat-equity in the rehab would be for a pre-determined price, I assume, and could be applied as a down-payment. The thing is, I would want that money to be available for the actual down payment when I pay off the land contract with bank financing. 

Hopefully that is clear enough and you all see what I am trying to do. Any and all advice is welcome. Thank you all in advance.