Seller finance on condo? HELP!!!

[Martin White]

Let me give the breakdown... I was contacted by an owner of a condo who wanted to see if I could help him. The condo is a 2 bed 2 bath, 1430 sqft property that was built back in 2011, so fairly new.  He contacted me because he saw some of my marketing online and thought I may want to invest.  To be perfectly honest, I was really looking for older properties that needed to be fixed up, and not really properties that are over $200k.  I figured I would get more info just to see if there was any way to make this deal work for both of us.  Sooo, he proceeded to tell me that he is aking for $225k (about $5-10k too high even for a retail).  He told me he listed it with an agent and is getting nowhere with his open houses.  He also told me that he owned it free and clear.

I let him know that if he has it listed then all offers should go through his agent (I don't know if he has lost confidence in the brokerage).  I let him know that I don't do deals at retail price.  I even told him he should try to rent it out.  He said he is down-sizing and he already purchased a smaller condo so now he is paying for 2 properties and just wants to get this sold!  He doesn't want to rent it and it seems like even though he says he is motivated, he doesn't appear to be in a situation of despair.  Not to mention, why list it with an agent if you are going to try to sell it yourself?

To me, I feel like this would be a great time to see if he would be interested in seller financing at my price, not his.  I know there are some other plays like "subject to" most likely, but I really need to know what you all would do.  Seasoned investors always seem to come up with things that haven't dawned on me.  I am still growing and this deal seems a little different than what I originally was looking for.  I do like a challenge though.  Here is another thing... I have to give him a call tomorrow and I really want to go in with a good idea of the best plan of attack. So please give me some feedback BP.  Thanks for listening!  If you need more info please comment, I'm sure haven't added every detail.