sale fell through

seekingpeace

Hi,

We have been on the market a year with two estate agents and many price reductions but only in the last week of our contract did we finally get a (cash) buyer who didn't want a survey doing as our house is a new build and he wanted to let it out. We proceeded to find somewhere to move to, would have been in a chain of 3 people only as our vendors had found a vacant possession property to go to and then, our buyer, having had the draft contract 12 days just leaves a message with the estate agent to say he doesn't want to buy our house any more. No reasons given, no courtesy extended - didn't even tell our solicitor till the following day (and even then, just after 5pm). The only thing we can think of is a restrictive car parking covenant (each plot has 2 spaces, one of which is a visitors space), but in practice, everyone just uses the spot in front of their own houses and this seems like a weak reason for a landlord.  

We are starting to feel like we will never sell; we have re-listed but this is getting really hard to deal with. Please can someone help, we have new photos, a new agent and another price drop, I don't know what else we can do and we need to move. Please can someone help or advise

cymruchris

It's one of the risks in the property market over the last year or so. Mine fell through twice before selling on the third go. It will depend on the location/property type/demand - but the market should be a little more stable at the moment with mortgage rates having dropped marginally and prices showing a general trend of increasing. It is the quieter time of year for sales, but not impossible to find a buyer if priced right. Just sit tight and see what the new listing brings. As long as you have a good advert, decent photos, and an attractive price for the area, you should get a bit of luck hopefully. 

Flugelhorn

perhaps the buyer was just haven't second thoughts about being a landlord or increasing their portfolio. It is just a business to transaction to them - so none of the emotional stuff that goes into buying and selling a home

seekingpeace

cymruchris said:

It's one of the risks in the property market over the last year or so. Mine fell through twice before selling on the third go. It will depend on the location/property type/demand - but the market should be a little more stable at the moment with mortgage rates having dropped marginally and prices showing a general trend of increasing. It is the quieter time of year for sales, but not impossible to find a buyer if priced right. Just sit tight and see what the new listing brings. As long as you have a good advert, decent photos, and an attractive price for the area, you should get a bit of luck hopefully. 

Thank you and I'm sorry that you had to agree three sales before getting to completion and I hope you're ok. The house is on for less than we accepted from this landlord and also apparently 11% cheaper than the average for the area (according to the GetAgent website). We need to move for family and health reasons and this is getting unbearable.  I'll try and sit tight till the end of the week and see if anyone's booked a viewing at that point. Thank you though.

cymruchris

It worked out ok for me - the third sale was for £5k more than  the 2nd agreed price - and the onward purchase was £15k cheaper than the one I lost on the 2nd sale fall-through. So overall I'm in a better position.

What did your new agent say in terms of pricing?

You are with a proper agent - not the likes of purplebricks?

seekingpeace

Flugelhorn said:

perhaps the buyer was just haven't second thoughts about being a landlord or increasing their portfolio. It is just a business to transaction to them - so none of the emotional stuff that goes into buying and selling a home

I appreciate that, however, I think the world would be a better place if they stopped to think about the impact of their actions on other people. Whenever I've viewed a property; I've always been mindful  that I'm looking at someone's home and when it hasn't been the right one for us, I've said why and given at least 2 positive points about their property. As a result of this guy's actions, I and the onwards people are thousands of pounds in the hole for legal fees and survey fees and I had to make the call to the onwards estate agents to pass the pain on. I don't think it should be too much to ask for a reason, the guy didn't even say that he'd changed his mind, just said he isn't proceeding and stopped answering calls from the estate agents....

youth_leader

So very sorry, all the best with your new marketing. 

I had two buyers pull out, six months apart, both 'cash' (they weren't). The second offer buyer sent me  lots of late night texts, one night  I was already in bed at 11.30 pm and felt I 'had' to answer his questions there and then, ridiculous.  The EA said he wanted to move fast so I sold my huge Tetrad for peanuts .... and three weeks later he withdrew by email at 7 pm one night.  His ex wife had the cash in Sweden, he wasn't getting any of it.
  

chanz4

cash btl can actually be the worst for wasting time

seekingpeace

cymruchris said:

It worked out ok for me - the third sale was for £5k more than  the 2nd agreed price - and the onward purchase was £15k cheaper than the one I lost on the 2nd sale fall-through. So overall I'm in a better position.

What did your new agent say in terms of pricing?

You are with a proper agent - not the likes of purplebricks?

That's great news that it worked out better for you in the end 

Initially we went with a local agent that massively over-priced it (we now realise) from September last year to February this year, had 2 price reductions with them. From February this year till last week we were with a different agent who priced lower again, we had a further 4 price reductions before this sale that happened in our last week of their contract.

We are now with a national one that doesn't have a local office here as we think we must have exhausted the local market. They have priced it to sell (hopefully quicker) so that we can hopefully sell soon. To give an idea of how over-priced the first agent was, we are now on at 72% of our original asking price (and it's a 3 bed semi). A house round the corner from ours sold last with an asking price of £80k more than ours is on for.

seekingpeace

chanz4 said:

cash btl can actually be the worst for wasting time

thanks, I'm beginning to think that it's better to find a buyer with a mortgage because they're more committed then. Our house is a 3 bed semi, nothing grand (guess that's why this landlord could just buy it with the cash he had in the bank)

MysteryMe

Nothing to add OP other than say I'm sorry you had to go through that and I hope you find another buyer soon.