Are first-time buyers with a mortgage considered cash buyers?

[KitTea3]

I apologise in advance as I feel I do know the amswer to this question but need some confirmation 🤦🏻‍♀️

My partner and I are in the process of looking to buy a house. We have a decent deposit but will still need to have mortgage, we are first t time buyers, no chain

Can someone just clarify for me this does not mean we are "cash buyers" (or whatever the phrase is that I've somehow now forgotten) .

To me a cash buyer is somehow who doesn't NOT require a mortgage? I think my bf has been confused with no chain and cash buyers 🤦🏻‍♀️😫sorry for the stupid question 😫

Cash buyers have immediately available liquid funds and no barriers to making the purchase on the day they choose to. A mortgage does take time and admin to make it happen - as FTBs you are still attractive buyers, you have no chain and your deposit is presumably available in full in cash (for some mid-chain buyers their "deposit" is a theoretical amount of equity tied up in the place they are selling). But arranging the mortgage still has its pitfalls - you might make an offer of £350k and a cash buyer offers £340k, but your mortgage lender valuation comes back saying the value is only £325k and the lender refuses to approve the loan but a cash buyer could choose to go ahead anyway.

I would say no chain / chain free is more appealing than first time buyers. IME 'First time buyers' (FTB) can be more tricky to sell too - more questions, slower to make decisions, more picky, more arrogant in the process (being given outdated advice from relatives etc who haven't bought in a long time etc).
we sold one house which was a prime FTB property. We did an open house and got 8 offers that day. 7 offeees full price and told us how much they loved the house and desperately wanted it. One FTB couple were really critical during the viewing but still put in a (crazy low) offer and tried to emphasise they were FTB. We went back to everyone to ask for best offers and 4 went over the asking price. FTB couple then went to full asking price and still emphasised their FTB status. we ended up choosing our preferred buyers. (Young local couple, passionate about the house, offered without hesitation, paid over the asking price, even though they had a house they weren't intending to sell. We felt they were least likely to mess us around in the process)
You really need to read up well on current market, both nationally and in the area you are buying. In many places it is currently harder to sell and prices have dropped. Buyers might be more open to offers - especially if you emphasise you are chain free (less risk of things falling through).
however if you say you are in an area where things are moving fast - especially if you are seeking the more desirable houses on the market, then you might need to change your tactics / strategy - if you are consistently missing out on houses, do you need to offer more quickly or do you maybe need to put in higher starting offers. All the properties I have bought successfully I have offered immediately after our first viewing. You can still revisit again once the offer is in if you want to check it out further. Get notifications for when houses are added to the market. Call the relevant local estate agents and ask them to add you to their lists of people to proactively call before properties go online. Emphasise you are serious buyers, ready to move quickly. Our open day viewing mentioned above was set up before the property even went online.
I also think FTB properties are also the most hotly pursued / sought after. Young people and couples are always keen to get their own place but some people settle in that first place they buy and extend or never move up to more expensive / larger properties so the market and competition for larger, more expensive houses is much slower. As FTB you may also be in competition with landlords seeking to add to their properties (with cash available) or (maybe less likely currently) second home purchasers who again have more money easily available.
Talk in more depth to your sister, it sounds like she might have a good idea about how to approach things in the position and area you are in.

Bless you OP! Other people have already answered. Cash buyer just means you have the full cash. You may need a property to sell to liquidise that cash but as long as you dont need a mortgage, you're a cash buyer, even if in a chain

Some sellers don't want first time buyers. Not understanding how mortgages work and over estimating how much money they can borrow aren't unusual. Then there's the survey when first time buyers freak out and try and get money knocked off for very minor things. So sellers can view first time buyers as flakey and more likely to be a massive pain in the arse. With political instability ATM, fluctuations in interest rates make this more likely too. These are major differences to cash buyers.

Mortgage lenders also won't touch some types of flats and houses. Flats are difficult to get mortgages for post Grenfell. Buildings with an unusual structure and buildings in an extreme state of disrepair are not possible to mortgage normally.

As FTB what I would suggest is making sure before viewing properties that you have already spoken to a mortgage broker and got an agreement in principle which is a soft credit search and affordability check that you can then show to the vendors/estate agents to prove that you are in a position to proceed. Also stress to the vendors that as FTB you can fir in with their plans so if they are after a quick completion as they have found a property to buy you can fit in with this but if they are still looking for an onward purchase you are happy to wait if they accept your offer.

As a first time buyer estate agents will love you. Cash buyers are the clear favourites for speed and lack of mortgage surveys, (rare) first time buyers afterwards, people in a chain at the bottom. When I was a first time buyer, I wish someone had told me that. You have a lot more power than you might realise.

If you're a first time buyer and you've got a formal offer of a mortgage then, other than possible problems with surveys and retentions by the lender you're effectively a cash buyer.

The advantage you have is no lower chain.

My daughter and her husband got in an absolute pickle moving up the ladder from their first time purchase due to being messed around by buyers. In the end her Father in Law and I loaned then enough to bridge.

Well if the sellers are looking for a cash buyer, then it’s clearly a problem with getting a mortgage.

When someone has enough cash to buy outright, they don’t need to buy a house that can’t get a mortgage!

Or worked hard and paid off a mortgage so they own outright. Lol.

No, but they are the bottom of the chain, so not dependent on their buyer to proceed, which is a good thing.

Have you got your mortgage offer, or 'mortgage in principle' OP?