Changing from cash buyer to mortgage buyer

[ITriedAnother]

I'm a house buying novice and frankly finding it confusing and stressful so bear with me - this is long!

There are very few houses in our price range in the area we want to buy. We finally had an offer (£15k above asking price, and a cash purchase) accepted a month ago on a house that requires a lot of cosmetic improvements. There was a lot of demand and it went to best and final. We had a full survey done and £20k of repairs have been flagged (in addition to the cosmetic requirements), £15k of which would need to be done before we move in. We dont have an additional £15k so would need to mortgage the property to get the cash. However we cant get a mortgage until six months after purchasing due to money laundering rules.

We spoke to the estate agent to see if they had any issues with us changing from cash buyers to getting a mortgage. The house is in probate and we know we can get a mortgage quicker than probate is done. We said we'd be happy to stick to the original agreed price (I.e. we take on the £15-20k costs). However the estate agent said it would be better if we reduced our offer by £15k and remained cash buyers. The EA also said that as we were moving the goal posts the seller will probably decide to go with one of the other people who made an offer instead.

I'm really confused. Why, in this situation, is a cash buyer better? So much so that the seller (according to the EA) would rather consider a reduced cash offer than a higher mortgage offer? The survey didnt flag any major issues.

Just to add further confusion - I've met the seller. Without going into too much detail I would be really surprised if he cares whether an offer is cash or mortgage. If that is the case, why would the EA care?

What should we do?

Thank you x

I have had this before and it’s a real pain!
Best thing to do is get a short term loan to cover the repairs then re-finance after the 6 months is up.
Some people think a cash sale will go really quickly but it’s the solicitors that always hold the sale up not the mortgage company in my experience.
The only positive for the seller is that there is no survey from the bank but your full survey is presumably independent and trumps that anyway.

This might be coming from the estate agent rather than the buyer. If you don't have any other option and you have sellers contact details you could speak to them directly about it. Estate agents can often tell you a load of rubbish ime. There is a risk though that your offer was accepted because you are cash buyers and the seller may decide to take another offer if you decide to mortgage. I agree with previous poster though that's it's rarely the mortgage that holds things up, it's solicitors and people in the chain.