The greatest heartache for most home movers is always 'the chain' and its instability. Chains, as experienced movers know, can be only a few properties long or can stretch across the country including dozens, and occasionally hundreds, of properties.
They normally start with a first-time buyer and then move along a string of existing home owners looking to sell up and get a new place, finally ending with an owner wanting to dispose of a property but not wanting to buy. These last people are often selling the home of a deceased relative, moving abroad, or retiring to an existing holiday home.
The greatest problem with chains is that they are just a line of promises - the sincerest of couples who make an offer will pull out at the last moment before exchange of contracts - leaving you high and dry and often collapsing the chain.
Reasons given vary from the obviously made-up to inexplicable and swift changes of mind. In reality, people almost always pull out because they have found somewhere similar but cheaper or just nicer - and legally there isn't a thing you can do about it.
But ask any estate agent why chains fall apart and the most frequent answer is 'lack of preparation'. Chains often fall apart purely because several of the people in it (usually including the first-time buyer) have simply not done their paperwork and are not ready to move. Others in the chain find it hard to adjust to allow for the extra time needed and so, again, the chain collapses.
It's simply no good making an offer on a property if you don't have a mortgage offer on the table from a bank or building society. You cannot rush mortgage lenders, and even with the best will in the world, the whole mortgage application process can take anything up to six weeks to complete.
In the worst-case scenario, everyone above you is ready to go but everyone below you seems to be delaying or simply pulling out. One of the few solutions available to the vendor is to run a much-reviled contract race. This means you accept two or more offers from different people and then inform them that the first to exchange contracts has the home: that way you have multiple runners all desperate to win the property. To do this, it helps if you have a desirable home.
The other thing you can do is to only accept offers from potential purchasers who can prove they are as ready as they can be to move. So that means a mortgage offer letter from their lender indicating a maximum borrowing limit. That way, you know they aren't just time wasters.