Well little lady, I’m not a realty agent but I am an appraiser and I can tell you that such a kickback is something that must be disclosed in an appraisal as financial assistance; and yes, it would affect the cash equivalency of your sale price as well as the amount that most lenders would finance. You’re buying a (let’s say) $600k property, but you’re only paying $595,000 after the cash back. In the vast scheme of things it’s not a large amount of money, but it would affect your loan if you’re maxed out on your financing.
I only have 20 years of experience at this and I’ve only NEVER seen such a kickback that didn’t involve keeping the mortgage lender out of the loop – which omission is mortgage fraud and is a felony – so if you find my observations insulting, well, I already apologized in advance for that, didn’t I?
Besides, I already suggested you could negotiate a lower commission up front or wait for the prices to drop, so it’s not like I didn’t offer a constructive suggestion as an alternative. BTW, those alternatives would both have the same effect (if your goal is to save money) without creating a tax headache for your agent or a financing problem with your loan. But the way I read it, you specifically asked about how to get cash back rather than how to save the money, so that’s why I responded in the manner I did.
