{"id":301,"date":"2006-09-08T06:47:31","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T13:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=301"},"modified":"2006-09-08T06:47:33","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T13:47:33","slug":"who-pays-when-seller-pays-closing-costs-the-buyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/301\/who-pays-when-seller-pays-closing-costs-the-buyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Who pays when “seller pays closing costs”? The buyer . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic<\/i><\/a> (permanent link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Who pays when “seller pays closing costs”? The buyer…<\/b><\/p>\n

Not all of the phone calls I get in response to these columns are from angry Realtors.<\/p>\n

I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Even so, a brief telephone call is not the always the best way for a person to wrap his or her mind around a new idea.<\/p>\n

As an example, I had a very nice call in response to the article I wrote arguing that the buyer pays for everything in a real estate transaction. The caller was a very sweet man, but he insisted I must be wrong, because the seller of his home had paid his closing costs.<\/p>\n

I explained to him that I write deals that way all the time, that I prefer to do things that way no matter what the buyer’s financial circumstances, because, for now at least, retaining your own cash is usually more profitable than the interest-cost of the additional borrowed funds.<\/p>\n

But – emphasize that “but” – it doesn’t matter. You’re paying your own closing costs either way. If you pay them in cash, you can watch the money come out of your checking account. If “the seller pays the closing costs,” all you’re doing is exchanging one price discount for another. Your money stays in your checking account because you are paying more for the home and financing the closing costs.<\/p>\n

“But, but, but,” the caller sputtered.<\/p>\n

“I know,” I continued. “This is hard. If the seller hadn’t paid your closing costs, would the purchase price have been the same?”<\/p>\n

“Heck, no!”<\/p>\n

“So you took a three percent discount in closing costs instead of shaving three percent off the price?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“That sounds about right.”<\/p>\n

“So you borrowed three percent more from your lender than you would have done if you had paid the closing costs out of pocket.”<\/p>\n

Silence – the threshold of rhetorical surrender.<\/p>\n

“So who paid the closing costs?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“When you put it that way…”<\/p>\n

“Who paid for everything?”<\/p>\n

“I’ll be danged if you haven’t got me convinced.”<\/p>\n

If only my Realtor and broker callers were Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link): Who pays when “seller pays closing costs”? The buyer… Not all of the phone calls I get in response to these columns are from angry Realtors. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Even so, a brief telephone call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/116\/who-pays-whom-for-real-estate-follow-the-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":0},"title":"Who pays whom for real estate? Follow the money . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The second in my series of articles devised to tick off real estate brokers appeared in the Arizona Republic today. (Here is a more permanent link to a longer version of the article.) Torquing the brokers is not really my intent, just a secondary consequence. Next week we get to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1283\/who-pays-the-buyers-agent-once-weve-divorced-the-commissions-we-can-stop-worrying-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":1},"title":"Who pays the buyer’s agent? Once we’ve divorced the commissions, we can stop worrying about it","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Joke Number one: Q: If you came upon the Buddha in the guise of a hot dog vendor, what should you say? A: Make me one with everything. Joke number two: Q: Top Drawer Listing Agent, why do you charge a 7% commission to list a home for sale? A:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/120\/the-seller-paid-my-closing-costs-with-my-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":2},"title":"“The seller paid my closing costs — with my money!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Not all of the calls I get in response to my Republic columns are irksome. I like the calls I get from real people, rather than Realtors or brokers. Very few of them are viable, in-the-market, potential clients, but that's not why I write the column. On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/311\/fanmail-or-fanning-the-flames-mail-so-maybe-you-should-just-sit-back-and-keep-your-mouth-shut\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":3},"title":"Fanmail — or fanning the flames mail: “So maybe you should just sit back and keep your mouth shut . . . “","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an email I got regarding this week's Arizona Republic column, detailing how the buyer actually pays the \"seller paid closing costs\":Hello Greg, I was incensed at your first article about the buyer paying for everything but I didn't feel the need to waste my time writing to you. However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2198,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2198\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-were-just-sitting-here-at-the-closing-table-watching-the-money-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":4},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: We’re just sitting here at the closing table, watching the money flow","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part III: The who-pays-whom of real estate is not as simple as you might have thought... All right, let's go buy a house. I want to talk about the flow of money in a real estate transaction, and there is no better way of understanding that flow than wading right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/485\/repeat-after-me-mr-realtor-what-do-you-charge\/","url_meta":{"origin":301,"position":5},"title":"Repeat after me: Mr. Realtor, what do you charge?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my real estate column from today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). Today should be a fun day. My editor told me that, in respose to last week's column, a Realtor called him, threatening to turn me in to the Arizona Department of Real Estate. I can't imagine what the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}