Quick sale needed - buyer pulled out

[stayflufft]

Just looking for some advice/tips/success stories/general positivity.

Elderly parents accepted an offer on their property from cash buyer. They also had an offer accepted on a property local to me which was being sold after the owner passed away.

All was going well. Cash buyer travelled hundreds of miles to view property and was very keen. They have now pulled out of following survey. They had issues with bricks missing from fire wall between properties (parents live in a semi-detached property), the kerb being higher than standard height(!) and an inefficient boiler. I am quite honestly flabbergasted and very upset for my parents. I feel these issues are pretty much par for the course with buying a characterful property. Parents house is a pretty, rural cottage. They have had a lot of interest but no one was in a position to make an offer.

Has anyone had any experience of companies who buy quickly? I’m thinking we buy any house style companies. I am desperately trying to help my parents. They are heartbroken and were so looking forward to being round there corner from me and my DC.

Help!

To me they sound like they didn't want the property - maybe they were looking at several and went for another alternative.

I am no expert on firewalls, but the brick replacement and boiler replacement I would have thought would be a relatively small sum in total, so if they really wanted it why not just factor that into the price by making a lower offer ?

I don't hear good things about online house buying companies. So relisting with a lower price to generate interest I suspect would be a better option if you have the time. Also maybe getting the repairs done so they don't flag next time.

If you had lots of interest - why not put it back on?

Thankyou for your reply. I thought the exact same - as did my parents, who offered to sell the property to the buyer for less to cover the cost of repairs/adjustments - but alas, they still pulled out.

It isn’t my property - it’s my parents.

They will put it back on but the issue is they are worried about losing the property they offered on, which is local to me. They have asked for a grace period of 2-5 weeks to find another buyer and are waiting to hear back from the agent. They’re considering a buy it now property agent but as I don’t have any experience with such companies I’ve come on here to ask for advice.

Their buyer got cold feet or got scared by their finances. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.

I have read a few horror stories on MN of late about homebuying companies. Offering 85% then getting to the week or day before exchange and lowering it to 70%.

I think your folks are better to go back to the agent and ask them what price they need to lower it to in order to get as many offers as possible. Not just a token 5k drop to test the market, be very specific. ‘What price do we need to drop it to to get it sold within two weeks?’

And they need to put ‘re-listing due to chain collapse’ in the update, so people don’t think there’s something wrong with it (those things the buyer listed are tiny on the list of things that could be wrong with a character property).

Thankyou very much for your reply - that’s very helpful. I also think the buyer got cold feet for other reasons - I bought my property with similar issues.

You’re welcome. Let your parents know it’s not just them. 25% of agreed sales fell through last week. It’s absolutely rife. It’s really important the EA gets the right price point for re-listing for them to hold on to their onwards purchase.

Fyi, if I am ever unsure about a company, I look them up and read their one star reviews on Trustpilot. Idk about homebuying companies but it’s been enough to put me off modern method of auction for life.

I agree the buyers got cold feet so were looking for an excuse, that happens all the time unfortunately.

I wouldn't use one of those buy your house companies, they will offer rock bottom prices. I would do as @KievLoverTwo suggests - put it back on the market with the same agent but with a decent reduction to generate some new interest quickly. Good Luck to your parents, it's an upsetting thing to happen.

Use PropertyLog to see what other sellers are doing with prices on similar property (if there are similar houses to compare) and try to undercut them slightly on price.

It's a real pain and sorry it's happened to your parents @stayflufft.

My experience isn't recent but when we were selling our almost completely renovated rural house in 2014 we needed to achieve a quick sale as we'd already found a very unique house we were very keen to buy.

The four EA valuations we obtained came in at £400k, £450k, £450k and £500k, but we knew that despite being large (2500 sq ft), the fact it was on a busy rural A road would potentially hold it back. In fact one EA who specialises in nice rural properties refused to even do a valuation due to its location!

So initially we went on the market at £425k. We had two viewings - both of which commented it was too dark. FFS it was a bloody cottage!

As we were in danger of losing our onward purchase and could still afford to buy without a mortgage (we were already mortgage-free), after five weeks and only a couple more viewings, we took the rather drastic step of dropping to £385k and secured three asking price offers within days. With the benefit of hindsight I think we dropped too much, but at least we kept our onward purchase.

Good luck and whatever your parents do, don't let them go with a 'we buy any house' company - they'll be totally stitched up!

I really, really appreciate all of your replies. I’m going to put all of your advice into an email and contact my parents tonight. I’m hopeful they’ll be able to hang on to their onward purchase. Fingers crossed!

There are some horror stories about those homebuying companies. warning on quick cash for houses

You made the right move, price is the best lever to get a sale and allow you to move on with your life.

If it was my parents - not a chance would I be suggesting a buy it now agent. Not a chance. Unless they’re happy to accept a minimum of 15% below the lowest EA valuation possible

It’s ok - I was feeling pretty desperate earlier. We’ve had a conversation this afternoon and they won’t be suing a buy it now company after the advice given on here and elsewhere.

Maybe try the council. They often buy houses round here and offer a good price based on survey results

Ok. This may or may not help. The 6 essential steps if you must sell.

Is step 1 - Drop the Price? Really not keen on this guy, I feel he is just parroting stuff that has been said before and it is too late for people with big mortgages now, and those without mortgages in most cases will be getting offered much smaller mortgages than they would have a couple of years ago so are protected even if they don`t have the economic sense to protect themselves.

Yes Crashy we agree!

I would get the work done straight away ,
but honestly I wouldn’t drop the price. Hopefully the owners of the house they are buying will be able to accommodate a longer time scale. It saves them having to find another buyer:

Ring around all estate agents saying do they have anyone on their books that would be waiting for a similar house to your parents, quick sale needed off market. Estate agent still gets fee but has to do very very minimal work. The estate agents that was first used should be first port of call and then expand to others if needed( just check that current agents doesn’t have a clause in saying if you sell privately in a certain timeframe then you’d be liable for their fees too)
we did this tactic and how sold in a few days, no marketing etc meant realistically that we accepted less than what we would have on open market BUT was quick and we were then able to buy the house we wanted which to us was worth any potential small shortfall.good luck!