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?

Stress levels at max here as we are actually emigrating so if we don’t get a quick sale now we will be selling from another country 🤪

First property nine years ago now but sale fell through after seven months. We were FTB and the people we were buying from wanted an extra 25k from us as that's how much the property had increased in value in the months they were dicking about looking for another property. We refused and pulled out. They ended up getting 40k more than we'd originally agreed but it wasn't until 15 months after we had initially had an offer accepted.

Property we are in now as a start to finish six week process but we were FTB going into no onward chain.

Currently buying and selling this time and last year we were in a chain of five and were buying the end of chain, empty rental property. Fell through after five months. Owners provided no explanation at all. We were very far along in the process.

Hoping to exchange and complete in the next three weeks this time. Again chain of five, we are number two in the chain. Only one outstanding enquiry left so hoping that things will go smoothly.

As PPs have said, it can all fall apart at any time before exchange.

Last year our buyer pulled out after 8-9 weeks because our cash buyer changed their mind ... we couldn't understand as they'd viewed the house 3 times (for over an hour at a time), sat outside in the garden for over an hour, and came to measure up with their son. Then all went quiet for 11 days before we got a one line email from her solicitor saying they had withdrawn their offer.
Very harsh.
We lost money on the survey and searches we'd carried out on our onward purchase.
It also wasted the peak selling time as by then it was summer holiday season and no one was viewing. Frustrating.

The next time it was the vendors who pulled out after 6-7 weeks. They accepted our offer, and again we paid for surveys, searches etc. then I think they panicked about moving (they were elderly people) and they withdrew the house from sale.
Heartbreaking as that was the house we really wanted.

Finally, we accepted a (lower) offer from another cash buyer and we found an empty property. 2-property chain, no mortgages, and it still took around 4 months to complete.

I once pulled out as buyers were chiseling price down the whole process and about to exchange, offered 40k less...told them to f...off..!!

Ours recently fell through after 3 months