Looking for positive stories where buyer had pulled out please

[rootsandwings89]

Just that - we are in the middle of a chain of 4 and we’re hoping to be talking dates soon. We are finally upsizing into our dream house and got the call yesterday evening from EA saying our buyer has pulled out :( absolutely gutted and terrified if we can’t sell quickly or we get another chain collapse it means we will loose our new home.

Sorry to hear that. Did you have many other viewings and offers originally? Years ago I had a buyer pull out when we were pretty far through, but the estate agent rang up someone else who had previously made an offer and she was still free to go ahead.

Same as above for me, although my buyer pulled out as they lost their buyer. But I did have three offers when I sold mine, so offer number two stepped up and bought the house.

Thanks I’m glad it worked for you! We are thinking of calling a new EA today who has sold both our neighbours houses to see how quickly they can get us on the market - unfortunately we don’t feel the EA we used was very pro-active, he hasn’t said there was any other interest he could call.

@rootsandwings89With Rightmove the buyers will have noticed your house and agents only really organise viewings. It’s surprising the agent has not phoned others who viewed. When DMs sale fell through, they did exactly this. One person was now in a position to proceed, with cash, and offered more than the previous buyer! But - a sought after bungalow.

So you might need a relaunch and new photos. Think about an enticing price if you are not a hugely desirable property. We have friends who had to go back on the market and have increased the price! It’s not sold. Cannot understand this strategy. So be pragmatic and make it as attractive as possible.

We had a first time buyer who offered £10k over asking price after he and another FTB did final, highest offers. Pulled out about 3 weeks later due to relationship breakdown. EA went back to the other buyer on same day. He'd already offered on another property (sorry, whoever you are) - but did a 2nd viewing next day and offered again but 6k less than his original offer. We accepted as still a couple of grand over asking price and things are progressing well.

In a situation like this, you really need a proactive EA. But ultimately, your property has to generate interest, your EA can only do so much. Ours is a good condition sub £300k 3 bed, so i guess it's attractive to FTBs and they had a list of potential buyers booked in for viewings before it even went live.

End of the day, you only need 1 buyer, they'll be out there somewhere but may take a little while to find them. Only you can say whether your house is attractive and priced right but if you need a quick sale to protect the chain, you may need to adjust the basics - give you EA a metaphorical kick, look again at advert, and think about bottom line on price.

We are going with a different EA, bit nervous about having to lower price to be competitive but our main hope is that we don’t lose the house we want

Our buyer dropped out in October and we put straight back on the market. I then put a link to the advert in all the local FB pages and we got our buyer from there (only 1 viewer who offered the same day). We moved in March :) I would say try to generate your own interest :)

You probably will know this, but worth a mention, you could end up paying two estate agents if a buyer that was already “introduced” by your current EA resurfaces and buys your property.

I hope you get a buyer quickly OP, moving is so stressful.

My buyer pulled out last August as he couldn't resolve the DOV around capping ground rent on his flat. This is six months in. I got the house back on the market and re-sold again in Mid September. The house was realistically priced as quite a large family house. Getting the house back on the market for early September was key as my target buyer was a young family looking to upsize and they don't tend to be looking at houses in the school holidays.

We lost our buyers buyer once. We pulled out the first one ourselves as the buyer wasn’t in the position he said he was in. We sold a third time and went through. Luckily our onward was happy to wait through all this. We moved nearly a year to the date we first put it on the market. Our agents were great at only directing those who were ready to go once we had our onward secured. And we were lucky to sell again so quickly. Have faith. Our second was at point of just before exchange.

Thanks for sharing, that must have been really stressful. I’ve read so many stories where buyers pull out right before exchange.

I’m also a bit worried that we are putting our house back on the market in the middle of summer holidays!

We’ve looked on RM to see how we compare to other houses for sale with our house type/price range and we look pretty good to what else is currently on.

I guess I’m just really worried the next 2-3 months are going to be very stressful and we’ll be on edge all the time.

Why did they actually pull out though? I’m mid-sale at the moment and am worried my buyer will pull out because of structural issues. In my case I would probably fix the issue and try again next year, as I haven’t made an onward offer yet. If there wasn’t an actual issue with the house I’d stick it straight back on, whether it’s summer holidays or not. There isn’t much decent stock coming on the market so there will be buyers.

I don’t think summer holidays matters to lots of people. If they are seriously house hunting, they will be aware of your house and it’s bad luck if possible vendors are on a family holiday. However there are other buyers and they won’t be on holiday.

Well she said it was because she was nervous about the mention of mild-moderate risk of flooding in the searches, but she had those back 5 weeks ago and said everything was fine. So I wander if she found something else just changed her mind and using that as an excuse.

If it is the genuine reason there isn’t much we can do, we’ve never had flooding etc. and it hasn’t affected insurance.

Why did the buyer wait 5wks? Unless there was another reason, personal perhaps?

i agree it’s good to be realistic about the housing market in the summer hols, we put ours on in 2021, mid August, once the schools went back we had more serious viewings, we secured a committed buyer in v early October, it was quite an expensive house though, we were downsizing, all went through fairly smoothly, we moved in the new year.

Wishing you all the very best OP.

I’ll tell my story but it might not make you feel any better.

Chain of 5, I was link 3. FTB at the bottom pulled out so both me and link 4 relisted. I ended up reselling first (to a new FTB) so I dropped my original buyer. It might sound immoral but it was the only way not to lose my onward purchase. The new offer was actually £15k less, but I really wanted the house we were buying so was willing to take the hit to make sure it got across the line.

I wish you luck with finding a new buyer.

My buyer pulled out on the Friday. We were due to move on the Tuesday. They were pains in the arse all the way through - should have known!

back to the market, offer of £15k more. All went smoothly and the other buyer decided 3 weeks later they’d made a mistake and I got to tell them (probably more politely because it went via the solicitor) to shove their offer up the arse!

Our chain collapsed in October 2024 after the buyers for our old home pulled out so close to exchange. We put it back on the market that same day and it sold again within 24 hours. and as a result we still managed to buy the house we made an offer on!! Helped that there was a lot of demand for the area!

having a new estate agent could delay the process and minimise your chances of securing the house you’ve gone for - all depends on the vendor and their position.

Have you had any previous offers that you could re-consider? Could be worth taking a slightly lower offer just to get it sold?

Thank you! This is the kind of thing I was hoping to hear - ours goes back on the market Wednesday with a new EA and new photos.

The previous EA had no previous interest to contact, in hindsight we don’t feel he really tried very hard so are going with a new agent.

Oh me! I sold my most favourite house and had things lined up then my buyer pulled out. I cried in the car. Within 2 weeks I'd sold again because I said I wanted it aggressively marketed and it was a good price for the area.

Get it back up and go for it. I know how devastating it can be but you are not alone even if it feels like it. Even before the economy being wobbly a third of houses in a chain collapsed. You will get another buyer!