[teddyFBI]

Alright, well no reason I can't lay all my cards on the table here with specifics about the place I'm considering, which might elicit some more informed replies.

- It's a very large 1BD co-op in Manhattan (sure i'd rather have a condo, but NYC is 85% co-ops). GREAT space, although I'd prob want to put in 25K worth of work to really make it "mine". It would be my primary residence.

- Was on the market at 700K for a few months and got very little interest. Seller dropped asking price to 600K, and has had some interest, but seller hasn't accepted anything yet (even though the seller's broker conceded that seller was "motivated.") I know for a fact that seller has had offers (20% down / 80% mortgage) in the 550K - 565K range, but has not accepted any of them.

I'm wondering just how much of a discount might be reasonable to expect given that I'm in a position to offer all-cash. I am aware, by the way, that the seller essentially gets the entire purchase price on the day of the closing anyway **EDIT: as I see Zee also pointed out while I was typing up this reply** (e.g. it doesn't matter whether it's 100% all-cash from the buyer, or 80% financed, because the mortgaging bank will pay that entire 80% to the seller on the day of the closing). But as Soss said, the main advantages to an all-cash offer are:
i) it's a more streamlined closing process,
ii) seller doesn't have to worry about financing-approval (although to be honest, I don't really see what's so great about this, b/c seller requires that prospective buyers be pre-approved for a mortgage anyway),
iii) in my case (b/c it's a co-op), I'm told that co-op boards are far more likely to approve an all-cash buyer because there's no concern that the buyer could default on the mortgage, and then there'd be a lien on the property...this may not seem like that big a deal, but I'm told that it's not at all uncommon in Manhattan for a sale to be essentially completed on paper, only to have a picky co-op board reject the applicant...so I've been told not to discount the fact that my all-cash offer would give the seller more peace of mind that I'll be approved by the co-op board.

OK, that's all the info I have to give.

EDIT: Thanks, Zee, for the reply. All the points you make are ones that I've also thought about, re: all-cash really not being as huge an incentive as I initially thought it might be; sure it's a great "tie-breaker" if two offers are otherwise equivalent, but that's why I made this post >> to inquire whether it was just a good "tie-breaker", or whether I might reasonably expect to be able to get away with a lower offer.