Our buyer pulled out

[Binks28]

We accepted an offer on our house five weeks ago .The buyers are cash buyers and are going in to a rental while we find somewhere .The buyers told us to take our time .Five weeks later we had shortlisted three houses for second viewings and the buyers were ok with this .Two days later they pulled out and said if our position changes let them know .Less then a week later we decide to buy a new build but need confirmation the buyers would still proceed .They came back and said they would think about it .We waited to hear back but they went radio silent . Our house is worth 500,000but we accepted 470,000 as they were cash buyers .I just don’t understand why they didn’t just e-mail the estate agent saying they are no longer interested.They have taken us out of may/June window and now it’s going to take longer to sell .We turned down 485,000 from a buyer as they were in a chain and now they have found another house .

They're cash buyers. They have a lot of pulling power which you needed to harness more quickly. Its harsh but its how the English system works. I don't agree with it but until you have exchanged there is absolutely no certainty. It's OK to be disappointed but don't be surprised!

They’ve probably realised that the rental market is the Wild West and/or don’t want to be locked into an 12 month tenancy and have changed their mind about being happy to wait for you.

Always be very wary of anyone who says they are going to rent, buyer or seller. It sounds like they are being flexible but the reality is, and always has been, is that short term rent is almost impossible to find and doesn't make financial sense. They odlften say this to make it sound they are in a strong position.

It's also amazing how many cash buyers decide that they want a mortgage after all.

If they had just emailed the estate agent to say they no longer want to buy our property that would be fine .I find it so rude just to go radio silent .

‘Cash buyers’ is just a term people make up, and when a mortgage is secured, we’re all ‘cash buyers’ anyway. It carries no legal weight. Estate agents don’t check ‘cash buyer’ status either. They were messing you about but at least the transactions/legal proceedings didn’t go further, putting your deposit at risk. I’d like England to follow the Scottish example, where once an offer is made and accepted, it’s all legally binding.

@Binks28 It makes me want there to be a law where if after a buyer has had their offer accepted then (bar surveys/withheld info etc), and they later pull out they should have to pay some sort of financial recompense to the seller for losing a window of time and loss of possible other offers!

Years ago when we bought our current house, our offer was accepted over the higher offer of a cash buyer because the estate agents knew we were committed.

The house was being sold off by a company; previous occupant had been elderly and mortgaged it to the company and then later passed away.

The cash buyer had been messing the estate agent around so much that they preferred our mortgage offer simply as someone with a mortgage is more likely to be committed.

I appreciate it’s a less usual situation but I’d never understood from that perspective before.

We were 'Cash Buyer's' when we last moved, broken down, that means that we didn't need a mortgage to buy, however, we did need to sell, to release the capital in our old house in order to purchase. So being a 'Cash Buyer' in this instance, was good, in as much as it took away the possibility of being turned down for a mortgage, BUT someone who literally has cash in the bank, is a far better 'Cash Buyer'. It sounds like your 'Cash Buyers' also had a house to sell, if they were going to move into rented OP, so maybe things didn't go according to plan. However, if this was the case, your estate agent should have checked out that they had a complete chain, and been following up regularly, so to me there's something odd about this, OR they've found another place that is empty, and can be moved into quickly, once their sale has gone through, whereas you still haven't settled on anything. It's annoying, but sadly a fact of life when it comes to buying and selling property in England.

Our buyers sold their house and then became cash buyers .They told us they would be going into rented accommodation end of June .We will be cash buyers once we sell,We told them we would be getting a chain free property only .The estate agency said they were a sure bet as they already had buyers moving in.I thought it was going to be a stress free move and couldn’t believe my luck as no chain .I now realise a chain means more likely to go through .I feel so stupid for being so naive .

When they says they’d ’think about it’ that meant no. After 24 hours I’d have moved on.

I would never take that to be a 'cash buyer'. 'cash buyer' means, to my understanding, that you have the money available to buy and there won't be a chain.

I suspect that in the last five weeks they have been looking at other places and found something which they maybe don't like quite as much but which would be much less brain damage.

You have now said you are going into a new build which are notoriously unreliable in terms of delivery times, so they are trying to decide if they like it more enough to put up with the associated uncertainty.

If I had any other options, I wouldn't be.

I sold my house to a cash buyer. They were fine with waiting for me. But I bought a new build off plan. Thought I would rent. Couldn’t find anything in my budget to rent for only 6 months. Chain nearly collapsed and buyers pulled out. Thankfully a friend let me lodge with them. Buyers came back on board.

The buyer said his wife was away and they would discuss it over the weekend as they need time to think about it and that they would let us know Monday .Once Monday passed it was clear they were not going to buy our property.The new build was completed so we could of been moving in quicker then a chain .I did not put the deposit down as I was waiting for confirmation from the buyers .

The key thing about cash buyers as opposed to mortgage buyers is not the cash but the fact that cash buyers are not dependent in any way on a bank’s valuer.

Currently many properties are being marked down by valuers and the amount the buyer can borrow is therefore reduced. So they come back to the seller and ask to reduce their offer.

You don’t have the risk of that with true cash buyers. Agents always prefer them as a result. Sellers would be wise to give a lower offer from a cash buyer some extra thought.