The terms are often onerous, and it isn't news there are scams with startup lenders especially seeing how hot the market is across the US, it takes a certain level of sophistication to deal with these types.

(more probably) they are just a bunch of scam artists  

Any realtor would tell you this is probably a scam that they are running with calling it "owner financed" to make it seem like everything is under the table. 

I looked at other threads and it seems mixed to me but some people pointed out that it is a scam.

Borrowing money to buy something known to go down in value 99% of the time is probably one of the larger scams visited upon the American people. 

I feel like he is trying to scam us.

I attended a seminar a couple of weeks ago that turned out to be a scam.  

@Bea Bugan, IMHO, you being asked to pay anything BEFORE closing your deal = SCAM!

For too many years sinkhole claims were a much used and abused scam benefiting homeowners, engineering firms, repair companies, lawyers etc..By some remarkable coincidence, as the cost of coverage became more expensive, benefits became slimmer, and the economy improved, the amount of claims have fallen off dramatically. 

@Alex Hamilton, almost all upfront money requests by lenders are scams.