So you need to establish if the seller has sufficient equity or cash to pay it as its his debt not yours.second off you would simply raise the price to cover the lien.. are you looking at a 203k loan ?

I want to sell my commercial rental property in West Los Angeles that has a lot of equity and payoff the mortgages for a number of rental houses that have little equity.  

I am interested in selling my commercial property with equity and payoff the mortgages of several single family rentals with little equity.  

The property was purchased in 04 before the crash and has become a liability, mostly my doing for not being well versed in money management and cashing out equity on the home. 

It was a C-class property and had lots of deferred maintenance, but over time these got worked out and it was just sold as a B-class with more than 200% appreciation.We bought well and required a positive cash flow on day-1 (ie the break even point was 70% occupancy). 

My last position made it nearly impossible to manage 4 doors.

These lists, if you're interested in trying them, are:- 75-100% equity with owners over 50 years old- tax delinquent- code violation...particularly overgrown or junky, multiple/long standing issues (this is a time/energy intensive list for me, hopefully your city's site is more user friendly)- recent arrests (sent out Wednesday, believe it or not I've already gotten a call back)Good luck!

I was going to look at the renovations not as an expense, but as value creation, as future equity that I could tap into.

I admire your determination to get the situation on the right path to make it a positive experience and to expand into other real estate investing.  

I am not a big fan of that program as you are limited to what you can do to the house by the equity spread from purchase, rehab and refi.