Accepted an offer and buyer has gone quiet

Den1970

I accepted an offer on my property 10 days ago and since making the offer the person is not replying to any of the estate agents calls. I have shown my commitment to the sale by taking the property off the market and refusing any further viewings but the fact no contact has been made is triggering alarm bells for me. It's been a long time since I sold a house but I would have thought if the buyer was serious they would have replied before now. Is it too soon to assume they are no longer interested or am I being a bit impatient? 
Many thanks for taking the time to read.

pinkshoes

10 days and no reply is odd. Have they died??

I'd ask the EA to contact them again and if they don't reply in 48 hours then put the house back on the market. 

m0bov

I'd be having it back on the market after a week, let alone 2 weeks!

youth_leader

My vendor didn't have a solicitor lined up when I offered and I waited over two weeks for the MOS.  Your buyer might be in the same situation? Alternatively they might be waiting for a mortgage offer?  I hope you hear soon.  

propertyhunter

youth_leader said:

My vendor didn't have a solicitor lined up when I offered and I waited over two weeks for the MOS.  Your buyer might be in the same situation? Alternatively they might be waiting for a mortgage offer?  I hope you hear soon.  

They should pick up the phone though regardless of not having a solicitor or mortgage offer if that was the case. Perhaps they have a second house they have offered on and are waiting to make a decision. 

Spiderroo

Has your buyer even acknowledged that their offer was accepted? 

We only had our offer accepted because a cash buyer who beat us at best and final disappeared. EA tried calling & emailing for a week then moved onto us, the second choice. Our seller wants a quick sale so the lack of communications was a huge red flag. 

Get your estate agent to relist if you have no other offers. If they aren’t eager to buy they’ll probably be a pain for the whole process. 

RS2OOO

One of our buyers went AWOL after we accepted their offer. 2 weeks of calls, emails and texts not returned, so we re-marketed. Never heard from them again.

Another couple went totally quiet about 6 weeks after offer acceptance, still hadn't sent off for searches etc and kept cancelling their mortgage application appointments with the EA. EA was absolutely convinced they were serious buyers, whereas we had serious doubts. Eventually after numerous excuses they claimed to have split and had to pull out (but continued to post happy photos of themselves together on social media!).

Rightly or wrongly as its only based on my experience, I suspect society has changed in recent years and this sort of thing is much more common. I think you have to face facts that if a buyer, particularly if they're an FTB without anything to sell, is not responding to calls and emails regarding the biggest purchase they've ever made, then the writing is on the wall.

eidand

put it back on the market asap. they clearly don't care and changed their mind

Thrugelmir

Perhaps they are busily organising their mortgage offer. Nothing much is going to happen from your perspective initially. 

eidand

Thrugelmir said:

Perhaps they are busily organising their mortgage offer. Nothing much is going to happen from your perspective initially. 

they can still send an update saying that. not replying at all when they should be most excited is definitely a bad sign.

eddddy

I'm surprised that your estate agent isn't giving you advice on this.

The EA should have assessed the buyer's 'proceedability' including a financial evaluation (mortgage AIP, deposit). What was their impression of the buyer - serious or flakey?

When my EA couldn't get a response from somebody who'd offered, they were very quick to suggest putting the property back on the market. I think they had doubts about the seriousness of the buyer from the outset. And they were keen to find a genuinely serious buyer quickly, so that they could get their commission.