Creative strategies with an assumable loan

[Albert A.]

Hello,

There's a SFH in California (Central valley) that's listed for around $365k. It was appraised around there as well. It's been listed for 100+ days. The owner is moving out and is currently in escrow to buy another property and says they need about $160k cash as a downpayment. Apparently if they don't sell their current house now, they won't mind falling out of escrow on the new property. The current owners purchased it a few years ago and still have an open mortgage. This is my first potential good deal that I've found and I would love to have it as my first win.

The unique aspect of this property is the converted garage into 2 bedrooms. The home is a 5 bed and 3 bath with that conversion, and close to the main college campus.

They may be open to me assuming the loan, which may be FHA, and then I can pay for the rest in 'cash'. The FHA loan balance is estimated around 160k and was initially 180k. The rate may be at 4.5% (waiting for confirmation on these).

Apparently the owner has to get at least 150-160k in cash to use as a down payment and won't be able to do any seller financing for that large sum..is there any way I can make this deal work with some other strategy? I can't do 150-160k in cash out of my own pocket and they seemed adamant about receiving that much in cash. The most plausible solution I can think of are the following.

Assuming 360k purchase price:

Assume $160k FHA @ 4.5%

Offer $120k as upfront downpayment - I would find a lender or open a loan with a bank. This would unfortunately mean I'd get high interest rates.

Seller finance remaining 80k @ a low interest rate preferably

Have seller cover closing costs.

Alternatively I would increase the cash offer if I'm going to get a loan either way, and then therefore decrease the seller financed portion.

Is there any other strategy I can utilize?