what to do when buyer pulls out!

midge61

Hi all
I am in a very distressed state at the moment. we put our house on market in mid April and accepted an offer from 1st time buyer six days later.
His solicitor has been a real pain in the !!!! but had long chat with buyer on Friday and all seemed good and he was ready to sign contracts.
we have a property with no onward chain that we are buying and all going well nearly ready to sign.
I got a call today to say buyers solicitor has said buyer has pulled out and found another property!
What is the best way forward for us now? We don't want to loose the one we buying and don't know what to do.
Estate agents say they can start contacting prospective buyers immediately but no guarantee.
Just really upset and at a loss right now.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

phill99

You need to lick your wounds and get it back on the market as soon as possible. What else do you think you can do?

LisaW123

Sorry to hear about your situation. Buying and selling your home can be very stressful. I am sorry to have to say this but there is nothing you can do. If contracts haven't been exchanged, your buyer is under no obligation to proceed with the purchase of your house. I would make sure your agent is pro-active in trying to find another buyer. I don't see what else you can do.

Thrugelmir

midge61 wrote: »

His solicitor has been a real pain in the !!!! but had long chat with buyer on Friday and all seemed good and he was ready to sign contracts

Seems as if the buyer was the one duping you.......

Solicitiors act on clients instructions or lack of as the case may be.

GrumpyOldMan_2

Hi Midge61

Really sorry to hear your news. We had a similar situation several years back when we were moving. As has already been stated, there is not much you can do from a legal perspective. However, stay positive and talk to the people you are buying the house from and just reassure them how committed you are to the purchase. It may also be worth a call to your buyer who pulled out just to see if there is any chance they would reconsider? Other than that, as others have said you will need to remarket your own property.

Good luck

reset1

Hopefully you find another buyer soon and the the person you are buying from is willing to wait a bit, hopefully you have told them what happen.

Ivana_Tinkle

Try to stay positive - it only took 6 days to find a buyer last time, so your property is obviously desirable and reasonably priced. Your agent needs to get on the phone now to get as many people as they can through the door on Saturday. Meanwhile, you get the house and garden spotless!

Unless there's any particular reason to speak to your vendor before then I'd keep quiet in the hope that you can tell them early next week that the sale has fallen through but you've already accepted another offer and things are progressing.

hazyjo

Seeing as you're over 2 months down the line, and any new buyer is likely to take at least that time to buy your house again, I think you should keep the vendors informed straight away. Been in this situation too so know how awful it feels.

I think you have to give them the choice unfortunately. I don't think you can just say 'we have a new buyer' (if you get one in the next week or two) and expect them to be happy with that. I'd tell them now and ask if they're prepared to give you two weeks' grace (or longer) to find another buyer and continue with your purchase of their house (say which you're still entirely committed to). Remind/inform them it took you less than a week to find a buyer previously...

Fingers crossed for you.

Jx

harrup

Tell the EA you double their fees or pay a £ xxx premium/bonus if they can procur a willing and proceedable buyer within a week. That ought to get them calling any PPO on their list ASAP and focus their new advertising .

Long shot, I know........

Seriously, though, other than informing your vendor and reassuring them of your continued strong commitment not sure what else you can do.

Keep your tail feathers up!

Ivana_Tinkle

I don't disagree with Hazyjo, and I'm not advocating stringing your vendor along for more than the weekend, but I just think that the difference between telling your vendor on a Thursday eve/Friday morning and telling them on a Monday afternoon, by which time you might have a new buyer, is pretty minimal.

We 'fessed up to our vendor straight away when it happened to us, so she put her house back on the market, only to take it off again three days later when our house was under offer again. Like you, we'd found a buyer quickly the first time and knew we were likely to do the same again, so it would have made more sense to keep quiet for a couple of days. (Plus, when we rang on the Monday to tell her we had another buyer she said she'd been crying all weekend - so we were scrupulously honest and still ended up feeling guilty!)

fimonkey

harrup wrote: »

Tell the EA you double their fees or pay a £ xxx premium/bonus if they can procur a willing and proceedable buyer within a week. That ought to get them calling any PPO on their list ASAP and focus their new advertising .

Long shot, I know........

That will make the agent bring around pretty much everyone on their books - but not the ones who will be interested in your property unfortunately. I've been one of those buyers - the agent tells you anything to get you through the door and immediately you can see the property does not match what you asked for - and the vendors can see this too. Just irritates everyone all round really as it wastes everyones time.