Chain collapsed day before exchange

[afrikat]

So so upset today. We accepted asking price offer 3 months ago. Quickly found a wonderful house we fell in love with (we had been looking on and off for years, this house was so unique) and ended up in a 4 house chain. All going well, supposed to be exchanging today and completing Friday. Yesterday our buyers pulled out. Zero warning, an issue with funds apparently. We are £1000s down in surveys and fees and I can't stop crying. I know it's 'only a house' but this move meant so much to us and after refusing to get too invested in case it all fell apart, I had finally let myself believe it would actually happen. Let myself imagine living there, having the lovely big garden, the fab kitchen, the open plan living.

Instead, we are back on the market, back to square one.

Please can I get some good stories of this happening and it all working out??

Also, how shit is our fucking system???

No helpful advice OP, but just buckets of sympathy. What a shit situation to be in

It is a dreadful system and I do not understand why it has not been updated. I am in NZ and house sales go through very quickly.

I will say when we sold in the UK our chain fell over. We sold again the same day and it all just went through smoothly and there were 6 properties in the chain.

I hope you sell quickly and all goes smoothly - it is so stressful.

We were in the same situation just the other way around, the people we were buying from pulled out and our house had a buyer. We luckily very quickly found another house to buy and it was much much better, bigger better potential and much bigger garden. We lost survey money etc and it was incredibly stressful, we had to put stuff in storage and live at a friends house with our 14 months old DS for a months. But we have been here for over 11 years and it was the best outcome in the end. Hope it goes well for you too!

Don't give up. Just get on with selling again. I know so many people who had this happen and it worked out.

There was a post just yesterday about a buyer wanting to pull out the day before completion. Could that be yours?

the system is shit.
I would only consider buying chain free. the more parties the more chance of things going wrong,
consider going into rented to shorten the chain.

No helpful advice sorry

Fingers crossed for you. You never know there may be a buyer ready and waiting. I know I just missed out on a couple of houses and kept a close eye just in case they fell through.

I've always said that I'd sell and move into renting before buying to try and avoid being in a chain. But I'm curious about how the process works in other countries, when purchases are dependent on the sale of one property in order to buy another?

Thanks all. The house we were buying is back on the market so it's a race now to see who can get an offer first. We are going on with multiple agents in the hope that helps. Even willing to take a hit on the asking price if we get a chain free offer. Oh god the faff of getting the house viewing ready again 😡😡😡

But I'm curious about how the process works in other countries

bridging loans in some countries.
which are (usually) very short term as the buying process is quicker as everything (surveys, mortgage, searches) are done before the offer is accepted.

A bridging loan seems even less attractive than a chain

A bridging loan seems even less attractive than a chain

not if the buying/selling process is 4 weeks or less.

We're trying to buy at the moment, it's a nightmare.

People won't even consider an offer unless you're well progressed down a chain.

It's a crap system.

Oh really sorry to hear that! Hopefully you'll sell again soon.

I've had 2 buyers drop out already, one because of a chain collapse although wasn't as far through. It's really shitty and stressful at the best of times.

Lots of sympathy. We had 2 lots of buyers pull out. Took 6 months, but it all worked out in the end with our 3rd lot of buyers (who were cash and no chain) and we managed to keep hold of the house we were buying. Keep the faith (although it's bloody hard and there were a lot of tears and sleepless nights for us).