Selling your home is a long and often complicated process. After the initial excitement of putting the property on the market, seeing that 'For Sale' board go up and your first viewing, you are on tenterhooks, waiting for an offer. You might have a lengthy negotiation, back and forth with offers and suggestions to make the deal work for you both. But after the excitement of agreeing the sale, and you will likely have gone and made an offer on your new home too, a legal process must be worked through to actually sell the properties linked together in the chain.

And it is here that the stresses can start. The legal process is long and sometimes can feel painfully slow, particularly when you are trying to make plans to move to a new home. Pressure can mount as everyone in the chain begins to lose patience, as the solicitors (who, let's be honest, are often quite antiquated in their practices) dictate another letter to be sent in the post rather than simply picking up the phone.

With these stresses and frustrations, your move could be at risk. Cracks begin to form, and deals can fall apart. It is estimated that roughly a third of property deals won't make it to completion. This comes at a huge expense to both buyers and sellers, who will have associated costs with these transactions and will have to go back to square one to find another buyer after the devastating news that the sale is off.

So, what can you do if your buyer decides to pull the plug?

Is the sale 100% dead in the water?: You need to know where things stand now after this upheaval. Is there any chance of resurrecting the deal? Are the buyers generally still interested in the property but frustrated about the process? Has something come up in the survey that you could look into further, or perhaps there is an issue with finances that could be overcome? Like a dog with a bone, you must try everything possible to keep your original deal together. This is not always possible, and sometimes you do have to admit defeat, so…

You have a decision to make: The first thing you must decide is if you still want to move. If the process of trying to sell the house has been too much for you and the reasons that you wanted to move in the first place don't feel that big anymore, you might just want to throw the towel in and stay where you are. Chalk this attempt at moving up to a bad experience and take the property off the market. But, if you are still keen to move …

Put together a plan of action: Speak to your agent and get a plan in place to relaunch the property to the market. Go back to any potential buyers who were interested before you took the property off the market and see if they would like to view it again. Re-jig the marketing materials, maybe add some new images, rework the description, and then launch back to the market. It might be necessary at this point to consider the pricing strategy, too. The market may have changed since you marked your property as sold. If you agreed a sale at a lower figure, it makes sense to reduce the marketing price now as you have evidence to suggest the correct value.

Yes, it can feel as if you are starting all over again but try not to be disheartened. You have tested the market with your pricing, you know exactly where you should be in terms of figures, your solicitors have likely already got all of your questionnaires and paperwork on file now, and you might even know how your property stacks up on a survey. With all of this information in your hands, you are able to find another buyer in a much stronger position than you were before. This knowledge and experience should give you a sense of confidence and security. You might not have moved yet, but you have knowledge, and that can bring peace of mind. Also, now that you have worked through a sale falling through and nothing too catastrophic has happened, you can relax a little.

Relaunching your property to the market after losing a buyer can be a great time to consider switching agents, offering a fresh approach and a new database of potential buyers. This change can bring a renewed sense of hope and optimism. If you would like to discuss how our agency sells homes, please do get in touch.