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Answers (13)

- Taria Lewis, "Taria And Earl Team"
- Contributions:135
In real estate, everything is negotiable. Where closing cost is concerned, that is a negotible factor as well. Many first time buyers are a little strapped for money and often need the assistance. Furthermore, times are a little tight for a lot of people.
You should prep you seller to expect to see this in offers they may receive.
You should prep you seller to expect to see this in offers they may receive.

- Georgina OBryan, "GOBryan1"
- Contributions:483
In this market, where supply is high and demand is low, it's typical for Sellers to help in the contribution of the Buyer's closing costs. Everything is basically negotiable and it depends on how anxious you are to sell.

- Brian Teach, "Brian Teach"
- Contributions:96
The beauty of real estate is that EVERYTHING is negotiable. What I am seeing in the Central Florida market is typically a request of 3% contribution to buyers closing costs/prepaid's. All the best,
Brian Teach
Brian Teach

- Jeff Reupert, "jeffreupert"
- Contributions:199
Every buyer is different, but the majority of "first-time" buyers I work with in the downtown Orlando area rely on seller's providing a credit at closing - typically 3%.
I always tell my sellers, if "x" is your bottom line and buyer is offering you "x" minus 3% for a closing cost credit, then counter 3% higher so your net is the same.
Best of luck
Jeff Reupert
I always tell my sellers, if "x" is your bottom line and buyer is offering you "x" minus 3% for a closing cost credit, then counter 3% higher so your net is the same.
Best of luck
Jeff Reupert

- Mark LeMenager
- Contributions:1716
Clearly whenever you buy or sell a home, the closing costs are always a major item of negotiation. Today we have buyer's market, which means the buyer has a lot more leverage in the dealings. Assuming this is a normal sale (not bank owned or a short sale), then any educated buyer is going to ask for some of the closing costs to be covered. How much, if any, you agree to will depend on how good a negotiator your realtor is.
Good Luck,
Mark LeMenager
BuyInCentralFlorida

- nealadler
- Contributions:199
It depends. If you have a good qualified buyer it may make sense to assist the buyer with closing costs. On the other hand if you are in receipt of multiple offers and it's a seller's market some buyers do not request closing costs. Each situation is different.

- Renee Sabath, "Renee Sabath"
- Contributions:337
As much as everything is negotiable and I am still seeing buyers able to get closing costs it is true that when there are multiple offers on a property the 'best and highest' will win. Right now in Las Vegas there is rapidly shrinking inventory. There are hardly any bank owned homes available and what is for sale already will have multiple offers on it within a few days of being on the market as long as it is priced well. The homes being offered by actuall sellers who are not in distress are few and far between or way over priced so no closing costs will be paid on those sales and I am seeing many buyers paying on top of appraised value just to get in these pristine homes. The rest, what I believe to be the majority of available listings, are short sales. As a listing agent for short sales, to protect my seller from a transaction that won't close, we accept offers of buyers asking up to 3% closing costs because that is that max of what most banks will pay on a short sale. We also only accept offers where the buyer will commit to closing the deal even if the bank will not pay the closing costs. About half the time the bank will pay or sometimes they will pay 2%. I have 100% success rate closing short sales during the past 18 months, knock on wood. What this means is that the buyers who really cannot pay their own costs would not be in a deal with us. The seller has often one shot at doing a short sale so we don't want to spend 30-120 days just to find out the deal will fall apart. For my buyers I tell them if they absolutely need the closing costs to only go for bank owned or to save up money so that they can afford to pay. That way if we can get them paid, great, but if not they will still be in a house while the market is so low. I know your market in Florida may be very different than the market here in Las Vegas but we have gone from 29,000 homes on the market 2 years ago to only 12,000 homes on the market now. We have a record amount of buyers closing on homes every month and a majority of them are paying cash from my own personal experience so that is some pretty stiff competition. A cash buyer not only can often close in a week but will usually ask for very little closing costs (maybe $500-$1000) if any at all. Hope this helps!

- Broker Dave, "Broker Dave"
- Contributions:95
Knest,
It's not only the norm in a buyers market to get closing cost for the seller from 3.5% to 6% (you ask for 6% but banks will trim to 3.5 to 4.5%).
Just completed a deal where we got the buyer 4.5%, a new AC at 4675.00 and the pool pump replaced at 675.00; all this and a sale price 18,000 under appraised value and the buyer received a 20% buyers rebate.
It's not only the norm in a buyers market to get closing cost for the seller from 3.5% to 6% (you ask for 6% but banks will trim to 3.5 to 4.5%).
Just completed a deal where we got the buyer 4.5%, a new AC at 4675.00 and the pool pump replaced at 675.00; all this and a sale price 18,000 under appraised value and the buyer received a 20% buyers rebate.

- Marlene Berrier, "marlenesellshomes"
- Contributions:23
The beauty of real estate is that the everything is negotiable all way down to the cute little statue in the yard! So, yes buyers do ask for closing costs and typically it is 3-6% of the purchase price. Hope this helps!

- Mark Bjorkman, "Luxor Dreams"
- Contributions:49
People with FHA loans will often ask for up to 6% of their closing costs. Like Brady says, there is no norm right now. A lot of times instead of asking to drop the price further, they'll ask for a percentage towards closing costs. So you just have to look at if your willing to lose that amount from the purchase price.

- nealadler
- Contributions:199
It all depends. When I was working with first time homebuyers in the mid 90's to early 2000 I would typically ask for and get 3% CC for the buyers. In a seller's market with multiple offers that may not always be possible.

- Brady Pevehouse, "BPevehouse"
- Contributions:195
Please keep in mind that this is still negotiable, and the property appraisal is often a big part of every transaction. By this I mean that sometimes an appraisal may limit what a seller can contribute due to lack of equity in homes.
In a short sale transaction, some lenders are reducing closing cost to only 1%.
In short my opinion, there is no norm in the market right now. over the past few months the number of cash buyers have increased dramatically, and cash buyers do not need assistance with closing cost.
Sure makes you wonder how so many buyers are getting the First Time Buyer Credit (up to $8,000), often a heck of a deal on the property they are buying as well as getting a closing cost contribution?
The idea of "it is a great time to buy" is debatable by all sides, but no one can dispute that buyers are often getting good deals!
In a short sale transaction, some lenders are reducing closing cost to only 1%.
In short my opinion, there is no norm in the market right now. over the past few months the number of cash buyers have increased dramatically, and cash buyers do not need assistance with closing cost.
Sure makes you wonder how so many buyers are getting the First Time Buyer Credit (up to $8,000), often a heck of a deal on the property they are buying as well as getting a closing cost contribution?
The idea of "it is a great time to buy" is debatable by all sides, but no one can dispute that buyers are often getting good deals!

- Jeff Star, "ShortsaleAgentofAZ"
- Contributions:967
It is pretty normal for a seller to contribute up to 3% of the purchase price toward the buyers closing costs. The buyer still has to come up with their own down payment.




At this time as a seller is it the norm for buyers to get a % of closing costs?
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