The seller doesn't care about how much you put down. Cash offers will beat a comparable offer with a mortgage contingency. At the margin, sellers may compare eq

The seller doesn't care about how much you put down. Cash offers will beat a comparable offer with a mortgage contingency. At the margin, sellers may compare equivelent offers based on how likely they think the mortgage is to be approved; but most buyers are pre-approved regardless of down payment or mortgage type, so this wouldn't be that significant of a factor. The bigger factor sellers look at is how much money you offer them. At 20% on a conventional, you may be able to get your lender to wave the appraisal requirement, which would be a help if you try offering much over the list price (unless you also have the cash to make up the difference, which if you need the 3% down payment, you probably dont).