Thank you Brit!

Their AGI is about 58K, which is about 20K below where the tax brackets change and go from 12% to 22% on ordinary income and from 0% to 15% of capital gains.The question; if they take 20K of 'boot' on this deal to take advantage of their low tax bracket, what does that get taxed as, 0% capital gains, or 'recapture' but at their rate of 12% instead of the higher 25% we hear so much about?

I am simply hopeful that we might discuss options.I know this letter is out of the ordinary and might make you uneasy.

I didnt start out to be a real estate investor......just an ordinary guy working  8-5 jobs.

@Brit F.

Also Brit Vitalius is the president of the Southern Maine Landlord Association and does a yearly report on the market in the Greater Portland area (here's the 2017 one).If you are going into the Portland market, be forewarned, it's pretty hot right now.

When you do that, do you claim losses as ordinary business losses?

The seller leases the property to the buyer for a contracted term, like an ordinary rental -- except that the seller also agrees, in return for an upfront fee, to sell the property to the buyer within some specified time in the future, at agreed-upon terms (possibly including price).

If you do this in your name individually not only will it be subject to ordinary income tax but also to self-employment tax.

The idea of seller financing would be the seller avoiding a huge capital gains hit whereby she would only pay ordinary income on the installments since there is no principle involved until I make the balloon payment, or if she decides to sell the note.