Off market sale, how do we negotiate?

[Jeremy Blevins]

Hey BP my wife and I recently sent out some direct mail letters to duplexes we were interested in. We did get some response and just finished looking at one in person yesterday that we would like to pursue. We have a buyer lined up to purchase our home and so the purchase of the duplex would be contingent on us selling our place. The seller of the duplex is aware of our situation and the contingencies.

This will be our first investment property and house hack and we want to make sure we don’t get taken advantage of by the seller. The seller is a licensed broker and will be selling the home himself. He also works for a company that he has mentioned could do the financing and he would offer us an incentive for going that route, if we want. He seems trustworthy and we don’t get any bad vibes from him but again we want to make sure we protect ourselves. Any advice on how to move forward? We thought about having our listing agent double check everything once we get into the paper work part of it all.

One last thing, will we need to provide a down payment on the duplex before we receive a down payment on our place?

Thank you all in advance for any advice and recommendations!