Looking to see if someone can better explain this for me, say a home purchase price is 150k and 30k is needed for down payment, relative seller agrees to a gift of equity of 30k, so the lender approves the buyer for 180k.  I'm having a hard time figuring this out, would the loan be for 150k with 120k owed?

Start with an appraisal.  The difference between the appraisal and the purchase price is the "down payment" equity credit.

Yeah I understand that, say the home appraises* for 180k

Is this in favor of the bank?  It's looking like it.  It seems as if they want to pull your equity, put it as dp and lock in a loan larger then it will technically sell for.  Am I right??

Because I think doing a gift of equity through the lender there is no cash going into your pocket.  The gift of equity rolls right into the loan

Huh? If the house appraises for $180k, and your family is willing to sell it to you for $150k, then your "down payment" would be $30k. If your wanting an 80%LTV loan, to avoid PMI, then the down payment on $180k would be $36k, so you'd need to put down an extra $6k. If you don't mind paying PMI, you don't need to put down anything more, if you qualify for the loan. To be clear, the bank will Not lend you more than the actual purchase price ($150k).

I'm saying the structure of the loan as for repayment

In my above example, if you put no more money down, you'd have a loan for $150k, 30 years, 4%, whatever. If you wanted to avoid PMI, and put down an extra $6k, then you loan would be for $144k.... Not sure what your question is regarding "structure".

Loan structure as in all the figures.  Home cost 150, appraises for 180, you pull equity.  Does the house lose its equity now?  What I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around. 

There's no "pulling equity" here.  You paid, and borrowed, and owe, $150k.  It's worth $180k. So......you have $30k in equity.

Because the $$ went right back into the home?

Just a thought:  Most lenders will require your down payment to be "seasoned" and not gifted from a seller, relative, or friend.  There are a lot of different lenders doing different things but a fannie mae loan will require this.  They are trying to avoid exactly what you are doing.  

I was able to close in this fashion with Wells Fargo.  Not sure why I had such a problem understanding this process but I'm all up to speed now and everything went smooth.

@Sean Gallagher I know this is an old post, but I was wondering if you might be willing to share what you learned from this process. We are in a nearly identical situation my lender and accountant have both agreed this is a complicated one. I want to be sure we will fully understand all of the implications of this deal before we accept the terms. Feel free to message me.

@Jamie Brayton  the equity will be down payment for your new home. Purchase price- equity= loan amount.