What To Do If Your House Buyers Keep Pulling Out

Nothing is more frustrating when you have agreed on a sale on your property to have it fall through. Unless you sell your house to a first-time buyer or a property investor, there will always be a risk of your sale falling through when you becom ...

Nothing is more frustrating when you have agreed on a sale on your property to have it fall through. Unless you sell your house to a first-time buyer or a property investor, there will always be a risk of your sale falling through when you become a part of a property chain.

A successful property chain depends on the buyer of your house being able to sell their own property to complete the sale on yours. A property chain can consist of many chain links where several different property buyers depend on each other's successful sales.

If any of the links in the property chain breaks when a buyer cannot complete a purchase, the whole process breaks down, and your buyer pulls out of the sale.

Can a buyer pull out of a property sale?

Your house buyer can pull out of the sale at the last minute, leaving you perplexed and frustrated. While it feels awful to be let down by your buyer, it is perfectly legal for them to pull out of buying your property at any time up until the exchange of contracts.

Before the exchange of contracts, a property purchase is not legally binding for either of you, but once your buyer has completed it, the sale will be subject to the terms of the contract.

Accepting a buyer's offer on your property doesn't mean everything is agreed upon and the sale will happen. In a typical property sale, there are a few weeks or months between the first offer being made and accepted on your property to the completion of the sale. During this time, there are many reasons why a prospective buyer might pull out.

In many cases, a buyer will pull out of the sale following the RICs survey. This is a very in-depth property survey done on your property by a third party. Should the survey reveal any hidden issues or potential problems with the property, it may scare the buyer enough to make them withdraw their offer or try to renegotiate a lower offer to compensate for the costs of fixing these issues.

How Can I Prevent Buyers from Pulling Out?

There may be times when you can prevent the buyer from pulling out of the sale, but you have to ask yourself if it is the right thing to do. In most cases, a buyer drops out of the sale because they want to renegotiate for a lower price on your property.

Establishing good communications with your buyer is essential if you want to be quickly alerted to any concerns they have with the house sale. For example, if the RICs survey uncovered a problem that needs fixing, you can talk with your seller about ways to remedy this without them pulling out of the sale.

It can pay to hear the buyer out about any concerns they have and negotiate a slight drop in the property's sale price if you can afford to. However, if you feel that the buyer is taking advantage, it may not be worth trying to prevent them from dropping out.

What can I do if the buyer drops out?

If your buyer does walk away, it is worth talking to the owners of your onward purchase. They may be able to wait long enough to allow you to get your sale back on track so that you can keep your next dream home.

You can then put your property back on the open market by asking your estate agent to list it for sale again. If you want to sell quickly, you should look at selling at a reasonable price by looking at comparable properties and slightly undercut their selling price.

It is also possible to approach previously interested buyers to see if they are still seeking a property. Your estate agent can go back to them to notify them that the property they narrowly missed out on is now back on the market.

Are you struggling with your current house sale? Why not contact our expert team for an informal chat?

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