Lost out on dream house to cash offer

[Anonymous]

Why are cash offers so attractive? Is it really that hard to get financing for most people?

[Anonymous]

If i was a seller i don't see much advantage of cash offer.

I'm just guessing here, but a cash offer might mean that the selling price does not have to be lower or equal to the appraised value of the house. In fact an appraisal is not needed if it is all cash. Our neighbor sold his house, but the appraisal came in under the selling price and the financing would not allow that. The buyers could not get their loan unless the selling price was at appraisal value or lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are cash offers so attractive? Is it really that hard to get financing for most people?

Pretty much everyone should be making an "all-cash" offer (i.e., no financial contingency) unless they have serious concerns about their ability to get financing (i.e., they're exhausting all their savings and need a crazy mortgage, they have poor credit, etc.). Then just go out and get a mortgage before closing. Sellers seem to love this "all-cash" nonsense, so just play along if your finances are in good shape.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry OP, I know exactly what you mean. We lost out to many offers and I took each one so hard because I had envisioned in such detail what it would look like for us to live in each of those homes. I couldn’t believe those visions wouldn’t come true. I realized a pattern— I’d be so, so sad for exactly 2 weeks and then it would just lighten suddenly after. Once I realized this, it got easier and I just gave in to those 2 weeks, knowing that it was a physiological reaction of some sort.

Our realtor kept telling us that it would all work out for the best and we wouldn’t regret losing out on those houses in the long term. I was so annoyed at the time by this advice, but I truly am so much happier with what we ended up with.

[Anonymous]

It’s the contingencies. People take a lower offer if it seems stronger. We took a slightly lower cash offer but the higher offer didn’t have an appraisal contingency but had an inspection contingency. We felt like that was there to protect them if the financing didn’t work out. So we took the lower cash offer. It was about the one that seemed most likely to close smoothly.

[Anonymous]

Probably a Chinese investor. Taking over our country in a way 1950s Americans wouldn’t have imagined.