Seller owes more than accepted offer

[Michael Arreola]

I recently retracted an offer I made on a house due to the seller delaying close for an unreasonable amount of time. His reason was actually legit but I felt I needed to move on to something a little more promising. I wanted to throw this out there and see if any of you have any creative ways to make this deal happen. I will try to make this as short as possible.

The current owner bought the house about five years ago and planed to flip it. Its an old house so it needed a total rehab. He got a lot of the structural work, etc. done and was in the process of having all new plumbing, electrical and HVAC installed when it was broken into and totally stripped of all the copper. Apparently this demotivated him so it sat vacant for the next few years and recently he listed it for $50k. Sold comps support an ARV upwards of $120k but it needs around $40k in repairs to get there (thats with me being the GC). The house is obviously overpriced as it is also in need of foundation work. I offered $30k cash with no contingencies and a one week close- he accepted. The problem is, he still owes around $45k and needed an additional six weeks to gather the extra $15k to bring to the table. This came with no guarantee that we would close within this time period so I countered with $1,250 off the original offer for every week closing is pushed passed the six week close date. They did not like this offer so I backed out.

This was a month ago and the property is still sitting vacant. According to the listing agent the seller still doesn't have the funds to bring to the table. I would really like to have this house as it is in an up and coming neighborhood and has a ton of potential. So, my question is, how could we make this deal work without over paying or waiting an unknown amount of time to close?