I recently paid cash for a house in Florida in a ‘hot’ sellers market. The house passed the NY Times rent vs buy test, met the 1% rental rule, will let me maintain my target minimum savings rate, has a layout conducive to renting out a room if needed, and is in a great walkable location.
Paying cash was the only reason I got the house for under market value (10% off an already competitive list price) because I could close fast (2.5 weeks, instead of 1.5 months+ for mortgage) which was attractive to the seller and paid no closing costs. In my area of Florida a lot of mortgages fall through and cash is a sure thing.
Vanguard charged no wire transfer fees to send the money to the settlement escrow account, which was great.
I could have done a purchase money mortgage/cash out refinance immediately after closing to get the benefits of fast cash purchase and long-term investment gains, but ended up doing a private family loan, which meant I didn’t have to liquidate 1/4 of my Vanguard account (or pay for appraisal/closing costs or new title insurance policy).
It sounds like you know the area well, but consider checking city-data.com for the registered sex offenders map and crime.
Highly recommend doing all your inspections (home/termite, survey, septic if applicable) and due diligence for property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. I cringed paying for each inspection (totaled $975 for home/termite, insurance 4-point, septic, and survey), but ended up with a credit of over $6k due to the unexpected surprises. You can also ask for a home warranty especially if it’s an older house. If you’re not getting a mortgage you won’t need a formal termite report and some inspectors will just do the termite inspection with the normal home inspection.
Good luck!