Stressed. Buyer pulled out. Please can I have some advice?

ebee1

Good morning... Please be nice to me this morning, I'm pretty stressed out.

Our house 'sold' within about 1 1/2 months of being on the market, all well and good and we accepted an offer that we wanted.

We were sending paperwork back and forth etc to our conveyancer/their solicitor whilst in the meantime looking for a property to move into.

Wind on about 2/3 weeks. We had an offer accepted on a lovely house [seller moving to new build] after some negotiations and informed our buyers [all done through our estate agent]. Our buyers said that they would start arranging everything their end as they were just waiting on a complete chain; even though I said to them that unless we find a property that is chain free we will move back to our parents so it doesn't matter - this set my alarm bells ringing as no survey yet. We then put all of the necessary wheels in motion and had our survey done on the house we were buying within 3 days.

I began querying what was going on with our buyers, as we felt that our purchase was going quicker than our sale. No avail - buyers not informative to anyone.

Turns out my estate agent hasn't had any luck with them, he rang them yesterday and the guy keeps putting the phone down on him when he says who he is, the girlfriend apparently 'wasn't sure' what was going on, and the solicitor they were using hasn't been paid any money or given any ID. To say the least everyone involved is livid with their completely childish way of dealing with things.

Our house is now back on the market, I have dropped it to 2k more than what we NEED to get for it, and have put PRICED FOR QUICK SALE to try and entice people who are as impatient in the buying process as I am.

Just to make it clear, I have been very informative and prompt with anything that I have done in this whole process, and my estate agent has done everything that I have asked, along with our conveyancer.

This is sheerly the buyers fault in every way possible, they basically waited for us to find another home, and then pulled out, however the advice I need is:

How do I let our seller know what is going on, and is there anything I can say/offer to keep the property of our dreams? The seller is a lady who has lived in the house since the 60s and I'm hoping that she isn't in a hurry - but I don't know what terms of her new build property reservation are. I am fully aware that I don't want to mess anyone around, but we need more time to sell ours again.

There are currently enquiries outstanding on our purchase, shall I wait until we have heard back about them before I mention that our buyers have pulled out? The reason I ask this is because one of them is to check if there was planning permission for the roof [they only supplied building regs]. I was thinking, if it turns out that they don't have planning permission and need it, it may buy us more time to sell ours whilst permission is being applied for?

Also, please can someone share any previous experiences that they have had in a situation like this? It would be great to know I'm not alone right now in feeling so stressed out at the whole thing! I had my reservations [born a cynic] which means this situation has just raised my blood pressure, not my emotions.

Thanks a lot in advance guys, and have a nice morning, I'm questioning a vino?!?! Actually no, definitely too early!!!

DVardysShadow

ebee1 wrote: »

• How do I let our seller know what is going on, and is there anything I can say/offer to keep the property of our dreams?
• There are currently enquiries outstanding on our purchase, shall I wait until we have heard back about them before I mention that our buyers have pulled out?
• Also, please can someone share any previous experiences that they have had in a situation like this?

Let the seller know through her agent. In the short term, keeping quiet might appear better if you can pull off a sale - but if it reaches the stage that the vendor or agent get a bad vibe - or the agent just checks your property on rightmove, it quickly begins to look bad. OK, you can keep the place off rightmove, but that will impede the sale. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive ....

I would not hold back for return of enquiries as a milestone for letting the vendor know. If she has any sense, she will continue putting paperwork in place - unless she makes her mind up not to go with you.

Our nearest experience was a buyer who could not get a mortgage, but we planned to go rented anyway, and just took our decision to go back on the market and to go with that buyer if she got her act together.

essexgirl1976

ebee1 wrote: »

Good morning... Please be nice to me this morning, I'm pretty stressed out.

Our house 'sold' within about 1 1/2 months of being on the market, all well and good and we accepted an offer that we wanted.

We were sending paperwork back and forth etc to our conveyancer/their solicitor whilst in the meantime looking for a property to move into.

Wind on about 2/3 weeks. We had an offer accepted on a lovely house [seller moving to new build] after some negotiations and informed our buyers [all done through our estate agent]. Our buyers said that they would start arranging everything their end as they were just waiting on a complete chain; even though I said to them that unless we find a property that is chain free we will move back to our parents so it doesn't matter - this set my alarm bells ringing as no survey yet. We then put all of the necessary wheels in motion and had our survey done on the house we were buying within 3 days.

I began querying what was going on with our buyers, as we felt that our purchase was going quicker than our sale. No avail - buyers not informative to anyone.

Turns out my estate agent hasn't had any luck with them, he rang them yesterday and the guy keeps putting the phone down on him when he says who he is, the girlfriend apparently 'wasn't sure' what was going on, and the solicitor they were using hasn't been paid any money or given any ID. To say the least everyone involved is livid with their completely childish way of dealing with things.

Our house is now back on the market, I have dropped it to 2k more than what we NEED to get for it, and have put PRICED FOR QUICK SALE to try and entice people who are as impatient in the buying process as I am.

Just to make it clear, I have been very informative and prompt with anything that I have done in this whole process, and my estate agent has done everything that I have asked, along with our conveyancer.

This is sheerly the buyers fault in every way possible, they basically waited for us to find another home, and then pulled out, however the advice I need is:

How do I let our seller know what is going on, and is there anything I can say/offer to keep the property of our dreams? The seller is a lady who has lived in the house since the 60s and I'm hoping that she isn't in a hurry - but I don't know what terms of her new build property reservation are. I am fully aware that I don't want to mess anyone around, but we need more time to sell ours again.

There are currently enquiries outstanding on our purchase, shall I wait until we have heard back about them before I mention that our buyers have pulled out? The reason I ask this is because one of them is to check if there was planning permission for the roof [they only supplied building regs]. I was thinking, if it turns out that they don't have planning permission and need it, it may buy us more time to sell ours whilst permission is being applied for?

Also, please can someone share any previous experiences that they have had in a situation like this? It would be great to know I'm not alone right now in feeling so stressed out at the whole thing! I had my reservations [born a cynic] which means this situation has just raised my blood pressure, not my emotions.

Thanks a lot in advance guys, and have a nice morning, I'm questioning a vino?!?! Actually no, definitely too early!!!

I too am in the same position. My buyers have had to pull out as they have lost their investment buyer. We agreed to break the chain as the investment buyer wanted a quick sale and had received the contracts to sign on the day that we were told. We had found the house of our dreams but the owners now will not accept an offer as we have not sold. So frustrating as my husband is working 200 miles away where we were moving to, i am surrounded by boxes as they wanted completion by the end of May and I am also 23 weeks pregnant! I can feel your stress

Kaeuqs

How much have you reduced the price of your house? If it's significant (%) and you received offers after 6 weeks, then fingers crossed, you should get offers again.

Wait a week before communicating with the lady you are buying from. It will give you time to judge the interest in your house at the new price - before potentially scaring the owner of your perfect property.

Get your Estate Agent to contact, by phone, all people who have shown an interest in your property, properties in your area, people with that budget. Get them to confirm who they have rung, what the responses were........this is when an Estate Agent should earn their money.

When people come to view, I'd be open and honest with them about the lack of scope to negotiate on price and importantly why. Without the reason, you may come across as an unreasonable vendor. Certainly mention that you had an offer of £x more, which fell through.

Finally, you're not alone, we're all stressed with house-buying.

giddypenguin

This is the horrible thing about house buying/selling - you are totally dependant on other people. Our house was on the market for 18 months in total - and in that time we 'sold' around 5 times. We were in a bit of a different situation as our house had a few problems and really needed a cash buyer and ideally a developer. Any hoo, after 2 surveys on a house we will never own (after our 3rd buyer pulled out they took their house off the market), we finally got one - even better than the first.
It took a VERY proactive estate agent to come in, he phoned everyone who had ever shown interest, and sold at a low price, but then got the developers of our new house to bring their price down - but it was very stressfull. The only advice I can really say is try not to get emotionally attached to the house - but that's impossible as buying a house is very emotional! Not helpful, sorry!

ebee1

Thanks so much for the advice guys, I think I will give it a week and see how it goes.

The house only went back up online at midnight tonight and I already have another viewing request. I'm praying to God that someone will make an offer soon! AAARGH x

ebee1

Kaeuqs, it was orignally up for 250k, then I dropped it to 244 and accepted an offer of 237k, it's now up for 239k and I'm just going to lay my cards on the table to anyone that views it. x

RoaringTwenties

I have been in a similar situation previously - a few years ago we receivedan offer after a single viewing that came in at a tiny percentage under theasking price (think it worked out at a third of 1% below and wasn’t a roundnumber). I was suspicious as it seemed such a bizarre offer, and indeed thechap did pull out (he was a v inexperienced FTB) but by that time I'd foundsomewhere I really wanted to buy.

The agent did do his job and really put hisback into getting other people round, immediately contacting anyone who hadshown a vague interest, and me and OH decided we wouldn’t tell our seller for aweek/10 days or so and see if anything else turned up. We did receive anotheroffer within the week, we had to take another £3k off the lowest price wereally wanted but reckoned it was worth it. Our seller never knew there’d beena change of chain I don’t think!

This was in the boom years but it was forvarious reasons quite a difficult property to sell. I’d definitely say thatthis is the time to get your agent to work for their money. Best of luck ebee1

inmypocketnottheirs

Any possibility of the developers taking your property in px?

Horace

I feel your pain.

I am in a similar position with a house that my parents are trying to buy - we saw the house on the market in December and I went and viewed it, then I told my parents and I viewed it again before they viewed it twice before putting in an offer. Our solicitor has been on the case since March because we have been waiting for papers from the vendor. When we have spoken to the agent, the agent has claimed that they can never get hold of one of the vendors so we suggested that they contacted the other vendor (it is a probate sale) and low and behold after a further offer was made for the carpets they were suddenly contactable. This has dragged on for months at great cost to us - all the time we have been waiting for the vendors who don't seem that bothered. We do know that no-one else ever viewed the house other than us.

We cannot exchange contracts until all queries have been answered - the vendors seem to be deliberately slow and if they don't understand something they don't ask and just put down they don't understand and never ask either our solicitor or their own:mad:

I can honestly say I will never be involved in selling a house again because this experience has put me off for life.

I hope that you manage to sell your house and get the house of your dreams.

Itismehonest

It's an absolute pain, OP.

We have always gone into rented accommodation between a sale & buying somewhere new because it breaks the chain in the sale & also gives more clout as a buyer.
I know this isn't possible for everyone but, if it is, it does help lessen the anxiety involved.

However, the higher up the chain you get the less it helps as it's everyone under you that falls apart
It seems to be even more of a problem lately than it has traditionally been.