[karpierz]

> You can go through mortgage underwriting first and commit to pay the gap between appraised value and deal value, and can make a no-contingency offer with minimum risk.

Of course, but unless the amount you commit to bridge is unbounded, you're still contingent in appraisal price. And if you did commit to that, you're just making a cash offer with extra steps.

Deposits in my experience are token (around 2%). And usually sellers will verify that you have the cash on hand for no-contingency offers, since 2% is not worth waiting and then redoing the house selling process.