Our sellers are pulling out.. 2nd time.

[starymoon]

Selling our house, there are 5 of us in the chain.
Friday our buyers came to view for a fourth time. Following their viewing they have stated they want a £10,000 reduction or they are pulling out, reason being there's a crack in the kitchen LVT and it will be costly to them to replace the full floor. The crack has been there on all their previous viewings.

It's an excuse, I feel like they've done purely to find fault, I knew they'd do this. We've already had a sale fall through due to buyers being unable to get a mortgage. I didn't want to accept this offer, they made an offer £25k below asking, then £15k then 10k all of which we refused, they finally offered full asking price. We had another asking price offer on the table but estate agent advised us on these ones as they had a £200k deposit and so mortgage issues were unlikely, the others only had 20% deposit. They stated it was the safest option. I just knew they'd do this though.

We're separating and currently both living here and I'm so devastated that we've got so close and it's all fallen apart again.

My issue is, I'm so stubborn that there's no way I want to consider negotiating the price at this stage as I don't want to give in to their dirty tactics! Im going to call tomorrow and say fine, we'll go back on the market and pray they change their mind.

Surly there must be a better way for the housing market to work to stop this kind of thing? Is there anything I can do to protect us from this is we go back on the market?

They gave a lot away when they viewed, they love the house, no others like it, been looking for months and nothing else ticked all their boxes.

We all say things like this when we're viewing. We want the seller to like us so that they'll accept our offer rather than anyone else's. I don't think you can read anything particular into it.

You said in your OP that this was your buyers' fourth viewing and to me that's a big red flag. People come back for more and ever more viewings when they're uncomfortable with their decision and looking for a reason to drop out. If you offer to fix the floor, they will not unreasonably ask for a further viewing to confirm it's been done. In your shoes I would want to avoid this at almost all costs.

Is the conveyancing done? Is everyone ready to exchange apart from this? If so, I really urge you to take the hit because I think it's clear this isn't really about the floor.

Why didn’t you fix this floor before you put on the market? Not fixing things that obviously need fixing is a no go in today’s buyers market! It’s really annoying as a buyer when things are not repaired. I get that you are busy but that really is not an excuse. It’s not a seller’s market anymore.

It was priced to sell. Presumably with the knowledge that cosmetic work would have to be done.

In a fast moving market you might have to re-price, the only price that really counts is the final sold price ? I think as someone said, more and more last minute viewings just flag someone uncomfortable with a decision in a fast changing market.

We resolved our issues and they agreed to proceed at the offered price however 30 minutes after telling me we're good to go the estate agent phoned, the first buyer in the chain has pulled out and therefore the next in chain has also pulled out and decided they aren't moving:
So our buyers are no longer able to proceed, unless they make a cash offer in which I guess now does give them the power to reduce their offer on ours so we're in limbo and no idea what's next.
This is so stressful. I've been so lucky with house buying previously, we've bought 3 times and I didn't appreciate how easy those purchases were!

They want your house and are trying to beat you down. The closer it gets to completion, the more desperate they think you'll be.
Say no, that is ridiculous.

Also, £10k for a crack in LVT? They're off their heads

That's awful and so stressful for you. I hope a new, better buyer comes along to take their place quickly.