.- Find out what the seller is looking for outside of price; perhaps there is something you can offer them to sweeten the deal (ie quick close, longer timeline, rent-back, etc)- Ask for any documents and disclosures up front, and after you're in escrow, take your due diligence period seriously and dig into any unknowns- Find a general contractor you trust to walk through the property with you and give you a ballpark estimate, and also see if there's a way to add a separate entrance/lock off and separate laundry (much more attractive for tenants)And most importantly, don't let all of these bullet points overwhelm you — it can be a lot of work, but it can also be very rewarding!

Sometimes they have to loose 2-3-10 before they understand.Maybe you can do some things to sweeten the offer. 

I have a coffee maker / Keurig and provide instant coffee, tea, and different flavored sweeteners that I get from Marshalls or TJ Max. 

So Jimmy then changes his offering and offers his notes, at full face (unpaid balance) AND adds a small amount of cash as a sweetener.  

But a few things we did to sweeten the deal: he answered some basic questions for us at an in person meeting so we sent a giftcard to a great local bbq spot to his office.

Tips to sweeten the deal, to communicate, the strategize?

@Nikki PerryRun from this dealYou are getting 4% interest on your money with all that risk, absolutley not worth it.Also you are correct they are overpaying to sweeten the pot as they cannot get conventional bank financing - so they probably have some issues in the pastAs a note investor I almost always tell seller NOT to seller finance.

And SF and MF returns right at this moment are a little (or a lot) compressed  But stay the course and let the deferred tax be the deal sweetener.. 

Offer 265k...then you can go up to to 280k to sweeten the pot for the bank if need be. 

That’ll leave the seller with 123k and us 27k at closing for our downpayment and to sweeten the deal we waive inspections because I’m a licensed home inspector and check the key things before we do an offer. obviously don’t tell the bank what you’re doing because they don’t need to know more than the assigned sales price and sellers assist.