Looking for EXTRA CREATIVE ideas on a seller financing deal

[Laura Lenington]

Hello.  I am working with a seller who has said they are willing to seller finance my partners and I on an 8 unit deal in the Saint Louis area.  We have come to terms on purchase price, interest rate, loan term, etc.; however, the down payment we want to make is lower than what the seller is looking for.  He wants something more in order to feel like we have more to lose if we do not perform - he is looking to reduce his perceived risk. 

He is willing to get creative with other forms of collateral.  He is open to us collateralizing our other properties or our personal residences, but we are not willing to do that because we want to keep our other assets as liquid as possible AND we feel like we can walk away from this deal and go find others that don't have those requirements.  That being said, we would still like to buy this deal. 

MY QUESTION IS:  What are some of the creative ways you've seen buyers show good faith/put skin in the game/help the seller reduce risk?  We are offering to link our payments to our credit scores and we are also offering to pre-sign a deed in lieu to be held by a 3rd party in the case of us defaulting.  I've also offered to send him monthly performance reports for the property so that he can see that we are managing effectively.  Also, just FYI that the down payment we are offering is 3.75% of the purchase price and we are already maxed out on where we are willing to be on the purchase price and interest rate.  

THANK YOU!  -Laura from St. Louis