Do you generally get better rates than banks? Any pitfalls? Bad exp?

Looking at a duplex for 500k and they are offering it

bought a single fam house from my dad on seller fi, 0% apr, only had to pay off about $9,500

IME sellers typically give better rates, maybe 1-1.5pts below the norm

best advice i can give is to treat it like any other purchase as far as inspections & due diligence goes. if they dont bring up a balloon payment, dont bring it up yourself. somewhat common for sellers to give 5-10yrs and on the 10th require a balloon to pay them off fully.

but if theyre content w/making this a 15-20-30yr mortgage, dont utter a peep about it.

edit: o yeah and make sure your payments are actually going to pay off the mortgage. have heard of cases where there was a land contract, contract for deed etc & the seller never paid chit off just pocketed the mortgage.