From the sound of your description the vendor owns the property free and clear and would take anything from an all cash offer to a small down payment/hold paper sale to a lease option deal.
If you are investing for retirement 25 years from now your needs are quite different from someone who quit his job to do RE deals and needs cash by next Tuesday LOL.
How much cash do they need? Do you have that much? Can you get it? What do you want to do? What are you trying to accomplish?
How much is the place worth? What do they need? Is there anything owing? Does it need work? What sort of property is it? Suitable for renting, resale, what?
I sell home security systems as my day job while I start my real estate business on the side. As I was calling to do some telemarketing I found an older lady that mentioned that she would be leaving for a nursing home and that she thought the service would not be needed. I took that lead and made an effort to find out that she left the decision of whether or no the house would be sold would be left up to her oldest son. She knew that I had an intrest in the home and gave me her sons name and telephone number. When I got to speak to him I asked him what he thought about letting me sublet the house. He agreed and I was excited but he added one last thing. He mentioned that since his mother was going into a nursing home that he needed some of the money from the house to go for a deposit in order for his mother to live comfortably in the home. After talking to him I wondered would lease option be the right option. What are some of the other methods I can use?
HOLD ON! You may want to read my previous post to a similar question. The owner and her son may not know all the details concerning what will happen when she goes into the nursing home. Nursing homes don’t just look for a compfy deposit, they’ll want the entire FVM of the house!
The only thing that will prevent the house from becoming an issue when she signs up for nursing home care is if she’s independently wealthy and can be a “self-pay” resident of the nursing home until she moves on to God’s house.