How often do buyers back out at closing?

In our experience, about 1 in 20 sales will fall through for such reasons. Once contracts are signed, buyers very rarely back out.

With Casey Kennedy Estate Agents, we get a very strong commitment before accepting an offer. Where this has not been obtained, buyers sometimes change their minds at the point where contracts are ready for signing. 

The other time prospective buyers tend to back out if they are uncertain is when their offer is accepted and a booking deposit is required. Thus properties should not be considered sale agreed until the deposit has been paid.

In the time between when the deposit is paid and contracts are signed, we find buyers only back out for a reason, such as excessive delays, issues with title, boundary issues or survey findings. 

We make a commitment to do everything in our control to ensure such issues do not arise. Thus we have one of the best completion ratios in Ireland. 

Unfortunately life events out of the blue such as illness, death, unexpected pregnancies, redundancy etc… do inevitably undermine some sales. That is life, and nobody has the ability to prevent these type of events from happening.

IPAV which is the Insitute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers of which we are a member has been lobbying for The Legal Sellers Page to be put into legislation which would mitigate a lot of the transactions falling through.