Buyers pulled out days before exchange

[sellotape12]

I can't think. What would you do if you were us?

I have the contract for a sale in our hands, but we've just found out our buyer has got the wobble about Brexit and wants to pull out!

We have another place we're trying to buy on, and obviously can't do without the sale.

I'm really, really, really, angry. There are countless reports from professionals and city analysts alike saying that the Brexit situation at the moment is just an imaginary threat to the housing market. Okay, it might affect prime property space in the fanciest bits of London, but I don't feel our buyer has given any proper reason. We are in an area that always seems to go up in price.

I haven't yet told the agent of the place we're buying onwards.

Do we just try and find a new FTB? Try and get a meeting with the buyer and persuade them? Or just take he whole thing off the market and start the process again next year.

Thank you for the replies. Feeling a bit more level headed today.

^as an aside, I want to point out that we are lucky enough to be in an area of London that goes up in price almost all the time. It's getting a host of desirable new amenities, so becoming even more gentrified in an area where rents are stupidly high should mean house prices are reasonably protected. I'd understand fully if the buyer was planning to sell in 12 months, but they had said they wanted to keep it 5 years. Also the Brexit threat I said is 'imaginary' is because at the moment it has not caused house prices to "crash" - such was the buyer's words. The country is still scarred after a wicked recession. Nobody will let house prices tumble to crash levels again. Uncertainty breeds uncertainty, and as the first reply I said, we need a healthy housing market to keep the economy moving.
Tbh i don't really want to get into the final macroeconomics of awful, tragic Brexit when nobody really knows what's going to happen!^

You're right. I need to forget the buyer. I've spoken extensively with the EA and other local EAs. Turns out our buyer was angling for £60K off the price so will tell him to go jump.

The consensus from all around us is we might need to accept 1% or 2% lower than we originally sold for.

Feeling more rational today so will get the damn flat back on the market tomorrow. Thank you for the positive responses from those who said that they manage to get it sold again within a week!
Cue lots more extreme tidying, cleaning and flower purchasing...

Oops my italics didn't work lol

People are changing spending plans all over the place due to Brexit uncertainty. In the last week I've come across buying a cheaper car than initially planned, not continuing to house hunt and not buying a new kitchen. People don't feel as secure in jobs as pre-referendum.

You're naive if you think a housing market downturn happens over night. In NI it took 5 years for the market to bottom out. We thought we'd be ok because we'd be there for at least five years but our house halved in value, no one was interested in making that not happen, but then we're not London therefore not important

And btw a healthy housing market is one where first time buyers can afford to enter the market.

I do have sympathy because this is a stressful time, but you have a bit of a warped view of this, no doubt due to stress.

Yes he rang up and told the EA he was dead.

We were selling a thatched cottage in the cotswolds. The buyer were a couple who when I showed them round originally she was writhing up and down the walls, sniffing and loudly inhaling whilst her dh I caught site goose stepping up and down the back garden. They seemed to like the place and put in an offer and everything was going ahead but then they pulled out because they didn't think it was haunted enough.

I did, during the viewings have one lot of FTBs who offered £25000 for everything they viewed. As they had it in their heads that anyone selling was going bankrupt and would be grateful for their offer.

The house I am in I was trying to sell a few years ago. One viewer had spent hours before viewing getting plans from the council and waving them with glee in my face pointing out that part of my front garden was going to be taken because they were widening the road and he was going to put in an offer of at least £200000 under the asking price as he had to take onto account the road was going to eat into his garden. I had to point out the shaded area on the plan he was pointing to was actually the electric gas and telephone lines that ran under everyone's front garden and there was no plans to widen the single track road.
I couldn't believe that he would go to such lengths. No wonder he had never bought anything

We were in the same position, although not due to Brexit but due to the fact our buyers were cunts.

They pulled out on the Friday, we went back on the market on the Saturday, accepted a full asking price offer (same as previous buyers had offered) on the Monday. Now completed and moved.

Sometimes people like this actually do you a favour in the long term.

Hope things work out for you, OP.

Also the Brexit threat I said is 'imaginary' is because at the moment it has not caused house prices to "crash" - such was the buyer's words

Well there is evidence of prices softening already and people are scared. Chains that were already complete seem to have mainly completed since everyone was so invested in the purchase - but on RM for my chosen area there are an awful lot of 'reduced' properties for a magnitude of 650 down to 590, 585 down to 535 etc.

Hope you find another buyer quickly - get your agent on the case ASAP.

Brexit is nothing more than an excuse, a load of bollocks! We put our house up for sale and accepted an offer a week later, but the weeks dragged on, and on, and on, and I got an uneasy feeling that this fella wasn't going to Exchange and didn't really want it, because I was on the phone everyday trying to push it, anyway, week before completion he pulls out, family issues apparently. We were gutted because we'd had an offer accepted on a house we really wanted, but good enough they decided to wait for us because they knew they had a guaranteed sale. The day after he pulled out we got an other offer and we accepted so hopefully we should be exchanging tomorrow. Spoke to the Estate Agent yesterday and she told me the man who pulled out of our sale is actually buying another house, and when asked why he pulled out he just said "I just didn't want it" so how nasty is that, the lovely woman Estate Agent who dealt with me said she won't entertain him, but what a bastard eh, he'd actually pulled out cos he'd seen something else, now I'm on pins over this Exchange. That little bastard done us a favour though, we got more money, so let's hope that little weasel gets his, what goes around comes around. Good luck to you.