I’ve used seller financing as both a buyer and a seller and it can make a lot of sense in certain circumstances (for example I used it as a buyer when I reached the maximum number of conventional loans I could get, and I’ve used it as a seller to both increase my net proceeds (due to collecting interest as “the bank” in addition to the sales proceeds) and to lessen my capital gains tax hit by spreading it out over a few years).

I will have POA and will conduct a 80% cash out refi, which the loan proceeds will then be paid to the seller and the title would then finally be transferred to me. 

STOP blindly regurgitating whatever media you consume.

Quote from @Josh Holley: Long story short - James Wise has an awful reputation here in the Cleveland area, but I have bought properties from him before I proceeded with another.

They keep coming back to me and asking how I would like to proceed.

Essentially, instead of selling a property and paying taxes on the capital gains, you can reinvest the proceeds into a similar property and defer the taxes.

Is it possible to do a 1031 exchange and use the proceeds to buy a house using hard money, then refinance into a long term loan?

I want to do a 1031 exchange with the proceeds into one or more MF properties.

This one was purchased through bank foreclosure proceeding's.

And everyone wants to go to HD and buy Behr paint because consumer reports says it’s the best.