In discussions with a business where the owner is 80 and owns the building/real estate. Estimated value of the property is $5M to $6M. He appears to have plenty of money and doesn't necessarily need the cash but doesn't want to be a landlord for 20 years. He is well aware of his mortality.

Question 1: Has anyone done a deal where the seller financed the building/real estate in a separate transaction?

Question 2: The estate tax exemption is changing in###-###-#### reverting from $12M per individual/$24M per couple to $6.8M per individual / $13.6M per couple. With this in mind, is there any estate tax advantage with financing the property sale? Could the loan be put in a separate entity (LLC/Trust) and passed on to heirs? And then, is the loan considered an estate asset that is taxed at the full value of the loan? Or is it taxed at all?

Thinking through ideas for doing a deal that are win-win for seller/buyer in this scenario. I'm sure competent CPA's / tax attorneys will know the details but I'm trying to gauge if these are possible strategies right now.