Benefit of being a cash buyer?

NervyBuyer

RelievedSheff said:

Quite frankly if I am selling a property I don't care if the buyer is a cash buyer or needs a mortgage. 

I care about getting the best price available for the property. How the buyer funds that is completely up to them.

As a seller I care(d) about completing the sale, and in the current climate with the risk of mortgages being withdrawn I would view a (genuine) cash buyer as a more attractive option than one with the uncertainty of a mortgage.

NervyBuyer

Thanks for your comments. I have the cash in easy access savings accounts from a house sale last year. I guess it's just not that important, provable, or even a guarantee of actually paying by cash, so not really an advantage other than makes it easier for me.

DullGreyGuy

RelievedSheff said:

Quite frankly if I am selling a property I don't care if the buyer is a cash buyer or needs a mortgage. 

I care about getting the best price available for the property. How the buyer funds that is completely up to them.

Thankfully you have therefore never been under any time pressure to move/complete a purchase then. 

When selling my mothers house she got two close bids, the highest was from someone who was dependent on selling their current property which had no offers on it and had been on the market for 18 months. The other bid was for £5k less and a chain free cash buyer.

MeteredOut

I think its important to state that you're a cash buyer and are not part of a chain. You could be a cash buyer but still want to sell an existing property first, to remove the need to pay the additional stamp duty up front.

The seller will want to balance the price they can get against the speed you can move at. Having both the cash and not needing to sell puts you up the list. But, if the seller is not in a rush (eg, they've still to find their next property) then I doubt it gives you much of a bump against someone who is in a chain but bids a few £k more.

So, as is often the case, the answer is "it depends"...

littleteapot

I thought it was bad practice to make an offer on a property if you had not yet accepted an offer on your own (with a complete chain behind if applicable)? Certainly as a seller I wouldn't accept an offer from someone who hasn't got a completed chain behind them, or if not in a chain (arguably better) some proof of their ability to fund the purchase e.g. a DIP for a mortgaged FTB, or proof of funds for a 'cash buyer'

We spent a lot of time web-surfing for houses, but didn't even arrange viewings on the properties on our shortlist until we had accepted an offer on ours and the EA had verified the chain. I didn't think it was worth wasting our time or any seller's time doing anything until then.

As it happened our chain broke very early on. Our vendor has agreed to wait a while to see if we can get back to a proceedable position but I wouldn't expect them to wait forever for us.

Even though we don't need a large mortgage to move up, I still got a DIP in case an agent or vendor asked for evidence that we could fund the purchase. I appreciate DIP's don't guarantee that one will get a mortgage offer for the amount requested but it does at least show that one is reasonably likely to be able to fund the purchase.