Buyers pulled out just before exchange and completion.

[Jazzicatz]

Hello, we have been going through the process of selling our house and buying across the other side of the country. We found a buyer 11 weeks ago and we found a place about 7 weeks ago. Since then the surveys and searches have been done, theirs have gone through and ours are just happening now. Up to this point we have spent at least £2k on the survey and searches. Then this morning the estate agent calls up and says our buyers are pulling out, they think it’s all taking too long and have put an offer in elsewhere - which makes no sense. What, if anything can we do? We need to move for work, we have found a lovely house and I am just devastated that we are back to square one.

All you can do is put your house back on the market, I suspect. What dicks, though! And completely stupid, if that’s really their reason.

Happened twice to us after spending over 2k each time on surveys and searches. But with us it was the sellers of the houses we were buying who pulled out. One couple allegedly changed their mind a few days before exchange and we discovered the couple who owned the second house hadn't even instructed a solicitor after 5 months so obviously had no intention of selling.

Sorry you are in this awful situation ☹️

Were there any other offers, get the estate agent to get it back on the market tomorrow and approach any other interested parties. You may get back under offer v quickly.

Sorry meant to add just get it straight back on the market tomorrow and hassle your agents to follow up any possible interest. It's all you can do but so stressful. Best of luck

I wouldn't believe their story, they've probably found a house they prefer. In today's market, it's so slow that people are having to settle for houses and perhaps one has come up that suits them better.

It absolutely sucks. I would take a few days to digest and then get back on the market. Hopefully your seller will wait for you.

It sounds a cheap excuse to say it's all taking too long as things were progressing normally and now they are back to square 1 with a different property. The real reason is obviously that they found a house they prefer.

All you can do is immediately put your own house back on the market and hope to sell quickly. Did the house attract a lot of interest last time it was on the market? The answer will determine whether you need to consider dropping the asking price for a quick sale or not.

Similar happened to us, we went back on the market last weekend and we have had 2 offers so don't loose faith, luckily the house we want to buy are giving us a few weeks to get a buyer, so it should all work out. Fingers crossed 🤞

We had the same happen, with excuse of.. mobile mast was within 100m of the house. We are in south-east and they are everywhere. It's not like they use mobile phone 🙄.
It's extremely annoying when it happens? Are they FTB?

Sounds like a made up excuse to me given the timescales you state. They probably found somewhere that was cheaper/better in their opinion.

Just got to re market.

Yes, I think you are right. We have put it straight back on so hopefully we can get a sale.

No, they were not FTB so should know better.

Thank you and sorry to hear that you went through this, it’s horrible.

If everything is ready their end could you offer to complete and move into an air b & b or something for a few weeks and put your stuff in store - calling their bluff really . At this time of the year you could even go into a caravan for a few weeks .

Sadly they won’t engage at all. We just have to put it behind us and try and find another buyer.

Sorry this has happened to you. It's an awful situation. Only advice is I would just double check with your solicitor and the estate agent whether there was anything that came up that might have given them cold feet. Possibly survey or searches? Not that it will help with this sale, but if there's anything that you might be able to fix ahead of the next buyer, it could protect you from it happening again.

May be an excuse, some people are just wildly unrealistic about the timescales nowadays.

We had an offer on a flat a few years ago. FTB. They pulled out after a week because expected it to be instantaneous - wanted us to move out within 4 weeks so they didn't have to pay rent any more AND they wanted to reduce the price because they were paying rent. I was like, erm, the problem is this is my home AND if I move out I have to pay rent which will be like 10x my monthly mortgage payment so why on earth would I do that, and especially why on earth would I do that AND accept a price drop you complete weirdos.

I fired the estate agents, as clearly they were completely incapable of properly assessing prospective FTB purchasers or managing their expectations or talking them through the process in any way, shape or form...

Then that just proves it’s nothing about the timing , gits .

Yes that’s what we think. It’s just so demoralising but hopefully we can find another buyer.