What point did your sale fall through?

[Abbafabs]

Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering at what stage of the process a sale is most likely to fall through? Currently selling for the first time, buying a house it took ages to find, and in a chain of 4. I'm bricking it!

If your sale fell through, at what point was it, and what happened?

Ours fell through recently, about a month after accepting the offer. It’s our first time selling too so learning as we go. Draft contract were sent, searches started, enquiries raised. We found an onward about 3 weeks later and immediately submitted our mortgage application and was given a mortgage valuation appointment for a few days later. This is when it dawned on us that we hadn’t been asked about one for our home yet, so asked the EA to chase them, as they’d been sending updates about getting quotes for a survey. EA tried calling them and their broker, no answer. We then get a call the next morning that the buyer is thinking of pulling out and an email from our solicitor later that day saying they had and not given a reason and are now dodging the EA’s calls. So to sum ours fell apart 1 month in as I believe our buyer couldn’t get finance and neglected to tell us until we asked. We ended up losing our onward and I’m pretty pissed/deflated from it. Not really sure how it slipped the EA’s notice. So lesson learned on our end

Ah that's rubbish sorry @Rodeonumber12. Selling and buying at the same time is so unbelievably stressful isn't it? Hope things work out for you soon

We had ours fall through twice, first was 8 weeks in when we chose to relist as our prospective buyers still hadn't managed to sell their house despite assuring our estate agent that they had 4 offers in and were going to a closing date when we accepted their offer and we had pressure put on us by the ones we were meant to be buying from that they were going to relist if we couldn't sign missives. We then secured another buyer within a week who on the day that the missives were meant to be signed, decided they preferred another house to ours.

That really stung as meant we then lost out on our onward move. We then relisted with another estate agency, sold within 3 weeks and we moved within 6 weeks. Currently in rented whilst we decide which location is best for us, but in some respects, it falling through twice was the best thing that happened as has allowed us to explore being closer to family and pursue different career opportunities. The market has also taken a dive since we sold, so we stand to make a better investment when we buy.

8-9 months in

it was awful.
we waited and were so patient.

it can fall through at any point really, if any one in the chain is unable to sort funds (unless rest of chain is willing to wait for new buyer) or find something else.. or change their mind about selling

its so stressful - but having a good agent and solicitors that MOVE FAST helps. The latter is a rarity lol

The day before exchange - buyer suddenly changed their mind. Gaaahhh!

The day of 'exchange'! The rest of the chain wasn't actually ready. They were blagging for months about renovations being completed/ready. They had to fess up when they weren't ready to exchange

6 months in, the ftb buying from us decided the chain was taking too long, so pulled out.

It can happen anytime upto exchange, once we have exchanged I always feel a sense of relief, however once we had exchanged and the buyer wanted to pull out until they were informed how much it would cost them to do so, we did complete in the end. On our last move, we were a chain of four, it looked dicey right upto exchange, but thankfully it go through. No plans to move again! Good luck OP, it’s a really stressful time, but so worth it in the end.

Our sale fell through maybe 6 weeks in after survey and the people wouldn't give us any reason why. They were FTB and we concluded they just got overexcited and offered more than they were really comfortable with.

Ours fell through early on, because the seller of the property we wanted to buy couldn't find a property they liked. The estate agent assured us they'd be willing to rent if necessary, but that wasn't true! Once the chain was set up it all proceeded fine. Good luck OP!

Thanks for a your responses! It's interesting, seems like the issue is with the people in the chain changing their minds or messing around rather than there being any issues with the properties or mortgages? But then maybe prospective buyers never really share their true reasons for dropping out.

My favourite house fell through about a month or so. I don't think the seller had the money to start with.

It's so nerve wracking and apparently a third fall through. I think the key is a really aggressive solicitor and estate agent to push things through. Although with my last house the buyers solicitor was an online one and not invested.

Yep this can be the case, we decided we wouldn’t move if we couldn’t find the right new home, we did consider renting to, too chain break, but the thought and the cost of moving twice and the lack of availability in rentals put us off. Luckily for us, everything worked out fine. And it was the best move we have ever made, so happy were we are now. Good luck.

Our cash buyer pulled out a month after us accepting their offer, no explanation and we found out through our solicitor! He'd heard from the buyer's solicitor that it wasn't going ahead anymore but the buyer didn't tell us or the EA... He did however then come back a few days later to say he'd found a 2 bed house with garden priced better than our 1 bed flat with garden in the same area, and asked if we were willing to drop the price. We said no and good luck to him with this (non-existent) house. He didn't reply after that, but lo and behold he came crawling back for another viewing a few months later! We said no thanks you cheeky bugger and sold to an FTB instead.

A seller will always say it's fallen through due to a personality failing in the buyer rather than genuine problems! Realistically the point at which a buyer pulls out will be when they find something out about the house, or their own finances, that wasn't apparent at the time they offered. There are certain times, such as survey and mortgage application, where that is particularly likely, but really any part of the process can throw up a problem. But it could be stuff in the searches, or even property information form that gets someone worried. And of course where there's a chain, it might not even be your direct sale process that causes the problem - it could be further down the line.

For me recently it all kicked off when I couldn't get access to the property for the survey - which wound up bringing other issues to light about things the sellers had been less than honest about.

I sold a flat years ago in London where the first buyer dropped out because they didn't like a clause in the lease. When I got a second offer I spent the entire time terrified the same would happen again, desperate to know if the buyer had read the lease yet. Every day I didn't get an enquiry about the lease, I was convinced it was only because the buyer hadn't received it yet. But in the end it all went through and what bothered one buyer enough to pull out, didn't bother another enough to even mention it.

For my sale which fell through on day of exchange it literally was the buyers themselves. They had no survey and their mortgage was all approved. They called the estate agent to say they were pulling out as 'they weren't feeling it anymore' which i assume is young FTB speak for we've changed our mind.

They viewed 5 times each around an hour long so were clearly keen at one point. I assume they found somewhere 'better' but didn't want to actually say that though.

I had two fall through a fair way in. Not just before exchange thankfully but it had been months. Took a full year to sell in the end despite lots of interest

Ours just fell through this week on the day of exchange - buyer “changed his mind”. Ten weeks wasted - now relisted and unpicking arrangements for our move.

Day of exchange, meant to complete the following day as well.

16:30 the day before exchange. Seller got cold feet basically. Not sure if she’s holding out for a higher offer, but it still hasn’t sold six months later. I don’t think she actually wants to sell tbh.

For me recently it all kicked off when I couldn't get access to the property for the survey - which wound up bringing other issues to light about things the sellers had been less than honest about

Yep our seller sent our surveyor packing twice before she finally granted access - we should have run for the hills then, but instead we hung on until she pulled out herself three months later.

About 10 days before agreed completion date. We'd struggled to get a mortgage on the property itself that had made us a bit nervous, but were proceeding. About three days before exchange our solicitor was provided with some information we weren't comfortable with. We discussed over the weekend and decided to pull out - our solicitor said she totally understood, that they'd be other properties and as she knew us she knew we could be ready within a month of finding somewhere else if other side wanted and were organised.

We told seller ourselves why we were backing out, but proceeded with our sales (we owned a flat each) 10 days later. Very lucky my buyer said we could stay there a few days after completion, as we had to then tie a rental in.

Welcome to the club. It's gutting isn't it. Even the estate agent was we have no words. 90% of my house has been in boxes for the last two weeks whilst we are trying to get sold again.

I think is a super narcissistic thing to do. They used no sale no fee solicitors so are only down searches whereas we are down at least £2k and if we lose the onward purchase £6k in searches and solicitors fees and will the have to stump up even more for a new property.

That’s awful, I really don’t think people realise how their actions have knock on effects. I hope your seller waits for you and all goes well. Our seller risked losing their onward if they weren’t progress-able so had to switch to another bidder. I hadn’t realised how many people wait until exchange to pull out. I’m now terrified of finding another buyer and having to start the whole process again

@Rodeonumber12 as luck would have it we had a phone-call from our estate agent this morning and have a new buyer. It's only 1k less than the last buyers so its all systems go.

I have never called an estate agent so quickly to let our onward purchase know we have an FTB so are back in the game.