Can Donor send gift for Down Payment at Closing table ?

[Hao Dinh]

Hello BP!!!

I have a buyers that run into a little problem with down payment . I just found out they will get a big portion of down payment as a gift from their relative ( 50k). I have a few questions i hope you guys can help me out here.

1.How do their relative gift the money to the buyer? ( Do they just go to the bank and fill out some gift letter ? ) 

2.How long is it going to take until buyers can use the money ? ( Does bank need donor's bank statements to verify ?)

3.I heard there is another way for donor to wire the gift at closing ? ( in case we need to close within a month or less ) 

For all the questions, Anything i need to know about IRS and gift ? I also heard donor have to pay for gift tax if more than 15k a year ? Correct me if im wrong. 

Thank you guys :)