[Goronmon]

Yeah, if you want to use cash, you basically have to be able to just pay for the house in it's entirety. With downpayments, the underwriters really want to make sure you didn't just take out a loan somewhere to finance that downpayment. Showing up with cash in that instance is basically indicating you don't want them to know where you got the money, which isn't going to fly when a person's job is based around playing it safe.

[creepydata]

Even so, most businesses aren't going to want to handle a suitcase full of $200,000+ in cash, unless they are a bank. My lawyer handled all the cash (cashier's check) in my house buying transaction. My lawyer doesn't own an armoured car and doesn't have the ability to handle all that cash.