WWYD - close to giving up

[Usuallytootiredbuthappyanyway]

Just looking for a bit of advice really. I have been having a complete nightmare selling my flat. I have no problem finding interested buyers but twice now the sale has fallen through at the point of exchange so 10 months down the line I am back on the market. A couple made an offer around 5 weeks ago, they have been to my agent's mortgage adviser to apply but we are now 4 weeks down the line and still waiting for some paperwork from the husband's employer. It is ringing alarm bells because surely it would only take that long if there is a problem! I don't know what to do. I'm tempted to pull out of this sale and change agents but would I be cutting my nose off to spite my face? How much longer can I give it though?

You can refuse to even accept an offer from anyone who hasn’t already got a mortgage offer. Otherwise you could be wasting your time when you could be showing your flat to more solid buyers. Given the past history I’d insist on this. Also, when I threatened to change agents once we suddenly got loads of viewings.

Out of interest, why did the other two buyers pull out?

thanks for the quick response :) I haven't taken my flat off the market and have said that I won't until their mortgage is confirmed. The first person got cold feet about the length of my lease after 4 months even though she'd known it from the start. The second person didn't pull out, his mortgage was refused so he decided to make a cash purchase and it was refused after a lengthy delay by the housing association (I'm in a shared ownership property).
I think I need to explore the changing agents option. I had resisted it because I knew I'd save some time if the new buyers used the same solicitors as the last one and they are linked to my agent but as this point it doesn't look like that saving in time is worth it!

It depends on the mortgage lender how long things will take. Our first lender took nearly 4 weeks to tell us they could only lend us £10k less than what was on the AIP. We then had to go back to the drawing board and start again - our second application went in 2 weeks ago, we're expecting our offer within a week now. In total it will have taken us about 8 weeks to get a mortgage offer. Both times we've had to go back and forth with needing additional paperwork, including things from our accountants.

Yes, I agree about how long it takes to process but I know that they have been waiting over three weeks now simply for one of his employees to send confirmation of his working hours, that has got to be a warning sign

Have you asked them why it is taking so long, and if they are anticipating a problem?