I'm looking at some houses that are priced a bit lower than the minimum price they would need to be to get a loan (like $5k under) so one thought I had was whether it's possible to pay above asking and get money back from the seller at closing? I'm not trying to do anything illegal or unethical so I'm just asking if this is something that is normally done? Thanks for any info.

There are ways of doing this.  Hire yourself, actually some company you own, to do a service for you that must be covered in the closing costs. Make sure you present an invoice on that company's paperwork at closing.  I always hired my Architectural Firm to do some type of design based service, like redesign of a kitchen, or an addition, etc...

Hi @James Elden ! This is absolutely an option, it's called a seller credit or seller concessions. For example, if a seller is asking $100k for a home, you could offer $105k with a $5k credit back at closing and this would be an "equivalent" offer to the asking price. Your lender will have limits to the dollar amount that can be credited back at closing, so be sure you run it past them. Best of luck!