Liens As "Financing" When Purchasing For Cash

[Bryan Hancock]

I read about the thread subject in a book from an expert last week and it made me think about things a bit. With institutional lending on a project I am assuming you will virtually always have to pay off liens at closing to get the debt since they will want to be in first position. Have any of your ever used liens as "financing" when buying a property for cash? In other words, instead of getting financing you can reduce the amount you pay to the seller in cash and leave the lien on the property until you exit.

This is quite creative and I was wondering if there are gotchas I am not thinking about for this in the real world. Ideas? Experiences? Some debt will follow the seller so this may not work as it reads in the books. In that case maybe it could be split or some such.