How rare is it for a seller to pull out of the contract when finance date is breached

[jerrybee]

EDIT: to clarify the title, I don't mean breached, I mean when the buyer asks for an extension before the deadline and the seller refuses and pulls out.


I've had to ask for extensions on so many contracts due to delays in getting finance, and every time I freak out thinking the seller is going to cancel the contract and sell to someone else, but every time they agree and it's been OK. My broker said in his 14 years he's only ever seen it happen once, and even then it was a very exceptional case.

Is it really this rare? It seems to me this should be a more common thing.

But...I guess the owner wouldn't want to wait another 3-6 weeks for a new buyer's finance to come through (even then there's no guarantee that they will be able to get finance either), and cash buyers would ask for significant discounts. And I suppose the agent doesn't have any incentive to encourage the owner to cancel and take a higher counter offer because their commission on say another 20k is minuscule anyway. Does this sound about right?

 

[Shahin_Afarin]

It depends - in a rising market there is a greater chance that the seller will pull out and sell to someone else particularly if the agent has other buyers lined up.

 

[jerrybee]

It depends - in a rising market there is a greater chance that the seller will pull out and sell to someone else particularly if the agent has other buyers lined up.

Greater chance sure but how often does this really happen? My broker said once in 14 years - I'd be interested to see how often the rest of you guys encounter this.

 

[Shahin_Afarin]

It doesn't happen that often because most buyers these days need and have their $%#@ together.

Can't really go off historical info because the current market is very different to the market over the past 5-6 years.

 

[westminster]

I had one seller try to do this. Finance extension was declined when we asked for it 2 days before finance due as it looked like we'd need more time.

They tried to terminate the contract at the same time we notified that finance was unconditional. Ended up in quite a bun fight but in our favour.

They had a touch of buyers remorse at the price they had accepted at.