Suggestions on buying a property through seller financing

[Kyle Pease]

Hello BP members-

My wife and I want to present an idea to one of our great family friends to purchase their house from them. They have a beautiful home on the water that they own and currently live elsewhere and are flat out doing nothing with the property. They started ripping up the floor and doing little other projects but each project they start does not get finished and now this beautiful home is sitting unoccupied. I'm assuming they own the home outright and just do not know what to do with it as they have a ton of money and can afford a beautiful home to sit unoccupied. They just bought a house in a different city and they have no plans of selling their other home, which is very weird to me. So, I guess what I am wondering is how to go about proposing a plan to purchase the property from them for far below what the home is worth. If they put the home on the market it would sell for far more than anything my wife and I could afford. I know that seller financing could be an option, I am just confused on how long of a mortgage plan to come up with because I am sure they do not want to collect money from us every month for 30 years like a normal mortgage plan. Does anyone have any creative ideas for a situation like this? All suggestions are greatly appreciated.