Ask for seller to pay closing costs?

[Heather Schmidtknecht]

I am ready to make an offer on a house being listed for $129,500. I am looking at two different options to structure my offer (see below)... Is there a tax (or other) advantage to either offer?

Option A:

Offer $125,000 and ask seller to pay closing costs estimated at $3,500.

Option B:

Offer $121,500 and pay my own closing costs estimated at $3,500.

[Russell Brazil]

I always prefer to pay more and wrap some closing costs into it.