To feel so annoyed with repeated buyers pulling out!

[TherapyFrog]

We've had 5 offers now where buyers have pulled out.

All for different reasons: 2 who couldn't get the money in the end, 1 who found a different property, 1 who had lied about their finances and 1 who ended up splitting up.

It's so frustrating as every time we find a house we like the buyers pull out!

I know it is what it is, but what is with the flaky sellers we are attracting !

What is your agent's vetting process? Are they checking that buyers are proceedable before letting them view?

this is on your agent

Estate agents are supposed to do due diligence on any buyer who has an offer accepted. That should ensure that buyers are proceedable and have the funds to complete the purchase.

I’m not sure what goes on though. We sold our house STC in May, to buyers we were told were exchanging and completing within two weeks and going to stay with family. Twelve weeks later, we discovered they hadn’t sold at all, there was a problem with an extension they’d built and they couldn’t get a mortgage to cover their shortfall either. I would have thought that all this should have been apparent early on, but the EA seemed surprised. I’d have thought that part of their job.

I definitely think there are flaky buyers. One buyer apparently woke up one morning and cried because she didn’t want to sell her house.

Presumably the people who own the houses you found, liked and had to give up on feel the same about you. From their perspective you are the flaky buyer who didn't have a firm sale before upending their sale process.

It's a flawed process and the only real option is to be a pain in the arse with your estate agent and insist on a clear outline of exactly what due diligence they've done on your buyer before accepting the offer.

Yeah estate agents normally ask for proof of funds before allowing viewing or offers depending.

id consider switching agent to a more thorough group.

@InfoSecInTheCity No the people we've considered buying from haven't even got that far with us ...what I meant is that every time we've had an offer, we've booked in to view houses that I love the look of, and then literally the day or so before viewing them our buyer pulls out! So no one has been affected past our point if that makes sense other than cancelling a viewing.

thanks everyone, it's so bloody annoying. EAs say that they are all 'viable' but then when it comes to proof of funds or moving to the next step it all falls through. We're getting so frustrated and disheartened.

Ahhhhh I didn't know that, ours seem to only want that after the offers!

why are you waiting for offers to book in viewings?

Yes viewing.
View loads.
We had a short list of 6.
As soon as we sstc we were straight in other an offer on our choice ....and we got it.

you didn’t need to wait until SSTC to put an offer in

1st - offered but theirs wasn't even on the market. When I sold they were disappointed I'd not waited for them.
2nd - accepted offer, pulled out four hours later due to a tree.
3rd - offer accepted, pulled out as we weren't two months on yet but weren't ready to exchange and complete that day.
4th - offer accepted - absolute superstars. Waiting three months longer than they wanted as I had to pull out of my purchase due to my vendors being sneaky liars.

Never moving again unless my dc need me to.

@DandySnail @TammyJones I guess were wanting to wait to view because we don't want to be putting offers in whilst we're in a 'weak' position with no buyers.

Thanks @2025willbemytime I'm really hoping we will get a decent and viable buyer soon. It's an awful process

Get a new estate agent! Yours sound terrible!
and agree with pp you can absolutely put an offer in without having sstc

and yet you were ok accepting such offers?

Instruct your agent that no viewings without proof of funds in future.
They should be doing this anyway

I'm in Ireland but I have found this varies between agents. When we were viewing houses some agents were very strict about wanting to see mortgage approval/proof of funds before viewing but others wouldn't even ask any questions.

It sounds like you've been very unlucky, what a nightmare for you. I went through the selling to buy process last year so I know how stressful it is getting everything to fall into place.

You do really though, in England anyway. Yes, you can view and yes, you could offer, but it won't be accepted until you are in a position to proceed. Agents and buyers won't take you seriously unless you are in a position to proceed.

not the OP nor her agent it would seem

Well, tbf @DandySnail we had hoped that people were generally making offers knowing they were in a financial position to be able to prove funds. Seems that some people just make offers for the banter of it !

Say you only want offers from people with a mortgage in principle

that was an optimistic “hope”

your agent needs to vet

You can’t really offer until you’re Sstc (uk) but you do need to Check out potential houses , so when you do , you can start the process.

I told my agent to only let people view who were for sale or under offer. He let someone view who wasn't up for sale and still wasn't four weeks later. I was not impressed. They weren't happy when I sold to someone else. Apparently disappointed, yet seemed to think I'd wait indefinitely for them.