Finally found off market duplex! Help me get it!

[Lyle M Smith]

Hi All - hoping I can brain storm with some of you more experienced investors and creative financing connoisseurs.

I found a duplex outside of Philly. Really nice older, retired gentleman. Had a good conversation with him on the phone and learned he is looking to get $239,000 for his duplex. It’s an old house and needs work. I’m going to see it tomorrow so I don’t know rehab costs yet but I’m trying to be prepared to discuss potentially having him finance it for me.

The rental calc tells me I could at least break even while living in one of the units but I’m thinking I could improve the cash flow if I could get him to give me a low interest short loan with a balloon payment. I was thinking I could give him 20k cash and his asking price , which is high. A near by duplex sold for $135,000 and an investor is flipping it for a little under $400k.

My dad and I run an HVAC business and will serve as our own general contractors. I just want to find a way to acquire the property with a lower monthly payment so it can cash flow.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to structure a seller financed deal so that it might be attractive to the seller himself. I would love to hear your input!