What To Do If Buyers Keep Pulling Out

What to do if your buyers keep pulling out of a property purchase? It’s so frustrating when you’re all set to go – you have your buyers lined up, your have found your new home, the chain looks secure. Until your buyers pull out and cause all kinds of stress – from having to put your home on the market again, to potentially losing out on your new dream home because the sellers want to move quickly. Ugh – it’s our worst nightmare. But is there anything you can do to prevent it from happening, especially if it’s not the first time? We explore this topic in our property blog post.

Is there an issue with the house?

First of all – try and identify any issues which may be cause buyers to pull out. Most issues are discovered when the survey is done – damp, mould and other issues which are discovered can be a deal breaker. If this is the case don’t try and hide it – instead spend the money you need to fix it so you don’t have to deal with the problem in the future. Or be upfront about this but make sure the price of the house considers the amount it will take to resolve the issue.

Sometimes of course there is nothing wrong with the house and a buyer can pull out due to a change of heart or circumstance – annoying, these are the times you simply cannot do anything about it.

Choose a good estate agent

It’s important to work with an agent who is local, knowledgeable and experienced – this way they can react appropriately to any situations, and talk through issues which may arise.

Working together as a team with your estate agent will hugely help with successfully selling your home – your agent should be proactive and quick to react to any questions. Having a slow agent, or an agent who doesn’t know anything about the area or the homes in the area, will only frustrate potential buyers – and you.

A good estate agent will also ensure buyers are actually qualified to buy and have the relevant documentation ready to go – avoiding any issues arising after the offer has been accepted.

Get your documents together

Have you got your gas safety and electrical safety report ready to go? Lack of documentation can be a problem and could detail the sale. Things like planning permission, title plans, and building control need to be resolved and ready to present to potential buyers – it may take some time and a little bit of money but it’s good to be ahead of the game before putting your home on the market knowing everything is ready to go.

Spruce up your home

You would be surprised what a lick of paint can do to convince a potential buyer it’s the home for them! On a small budget you can freshen up your home and make it attractive to buyers – choose neutral colours, go over doors, swap the light switches. Small details will make the home feel like it’s immediately ready to move into so buyers have less worries to think about.

Don’t drop the price… immediately

As disheartening as it can be, don’t jump straight to dropping the price of your property. You have found a buyer at that price before and you will do it again!

List your home again and gauge the interest. The only time you could consider dropping the price is if there is an issue identified with the house and it will take £££ to fix – in this case you should consider how this will impact the new sellers and reflect the cost in the total price.

We know how disheartening it is having buyers pull out and then needing to list your home again. This is why we love Houso off-market feature where you can list your home only to upgraded users who have access to secret homes – whether you’re ready to move now or just want to scope the interest for your home. List off-market and start having conversations with potential buyers – and get your own home lined up!

Try it today – download our FREE Houso App today to sell your home: for Android or Apple devices.