First conventional sale. Buyer requesting seller credit for closing costs.

[Jorge Leon]

Hi all. My sister is looking to put in an offer on a property in Chicago, first time homebuyer, cosigning with my mother, they have a pre approval letter. I am a new agent and this is my first conventional sale/transaction. Buyer is willing to pay asking price but was wondering if seller could pay for some of the closings costs. What is the norm for buyer to request? The reason I am asking this on BP and not my sponsoring broker is because he is unreachable a few days. I wanted to get a head start. What, if any, is the average credit requested by the buyer? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Kenny Smith]

@jorge leon

You could also ask your sister's lender or the title company, ballpark, how much closing would be on that property.  This will give you the amount to ask for in concessions.  Or, if you want to do that yourself, typically they are around 1-1.5% of the purchase price.  I am here in CO though, so not sure how that differs in IL.

Lastly, in our contract to buy and sell real estate here in CO, there is an option in the contract of who pays what with regards to closing costs.  The buyer or seller, or a combination of both.  You could always check those boxes that the seller pays ALL closing costs and you should be good to go.  But again, this would come in the form of a concession, so as others attested to, just need to make sure you aren't going over the allowable amount dependent on how much down payment she is doing.

Hope this helps.  Best of luck!

PS, don't take this the wrong way, but as a new agent, you should be working for a brokerage that has mentors or accessibility to a managing broker when you need them.  I've been in your shoes before, and that is not good to have to wait a couple of days to hear back from your broker.  You're going to have a million questions in the beginning, and that will make things even harder when you can't get access to the people that should be helping you.  I work for eXp Realty, and their mentorship program and accessibility to managing brokers is AWESOME.  It has helped me tremendously.  

Shoot me a DM if you're looking to learn more about eXp.  Can't say enough good things about their system and support.