Off market deal- how can seller lessen tax burden selling to me?

[Jedd Braunwarth]

Alright experts need some advice. I have an off market deal I am buying from a seller, roughly $1.8mm, we had many conversations, toured the property, etc. The owner is wanting to fully retire and move out of state and as of Tuesday we left our last meeting with both of us agreeing we could make this happen. He called me yesterday as he unfortunately did not talk numbers with his CPA and was surprised by how much he will pay in taxes on the sale to me. Outside of offering more money to purchase is there anything I can present to him that would help him cash out and go into retirement? I mentioned seller finance deal and he is considering but can I sweeten it somehow with a certain structure? Is the Delaware Statutory Trust an option if he wants to reinvest somewhere else and just not have the headaches of managing? 

[Steve Vaughan]

Quote from @Jedd Braunwarth:

I have an off market deal I am buying from a seller, roughly $1.8mm. Owner wanting to fully retire and move out of state He called me yesterday and was surprised how much he will pay in taxes. I mentioned seller finance  

I've sold 2 fatties with seller financing, one this year, one last.  Tax mitigation was my primary goal, along with exiting the landording rat race of course. 
I accepted as little down as possible to secure the buyers good faith and pay off any existing loans. 
My profit % on the (smaller) 2020 one is 39%.  So instead of reporting $120k income from the DP, I only have to report installment income of $47k for example.  Much more doable. 
Your seller can't have it both ways - cash out AND tax mitigation. I like less down and a nice annuity but my age in 30 years is probably much lower than your seller's.  

It's tough to take the cash and invest safely at 5% anyway.  I encourage him to be the bank if he wants to exit the rat race vs 1031 exchanging.