Keep Your Home Sale From Falling Apart Before Closing

By Rachel Mooney

Rachel has built a reputation for making the complex process of buying and selling homes not only enjoyable but also financially rewarding. Her deep understanding of the local market, combined with her genuine passion for helping families transition through different stages of life, has allowed her to serve hundreds of clients with exceptional care and professionalism.

Why are buyers walking away from deals at the very last minute? If you’re thinking about selling or buying a home in North Metro Atlanta right now, it’s an unsettling, but understandable, question.

I’ve sold real estate full time in North Metro Atlanta since 1999, and I’ve seen markets like this one before, four of them, to be exact. Cancellations aren’t happening everywhere, but our MLS shows an uptick, with a striking share of homes going under contract only to return to the market.

That can sound alarming at first. What’s reassuring is that much of it is predictable, and once you understand why buyers walk away, you can take real steps to keep it from happening to your sale.

1. It’s the monthly payment, not the house. More often than not, a cancellation has less to do with your home than with its monthly payment. Consider the buyer’s mindset. The excitement of buying a home, like buying anything new, can push people straight to a signed contract.

Then they dig into the numbers and realize this wonderful house will cost far more each month than they anticipated. Rates have shifted quickly: many buyers were preapproved when rates sat in the sixes, and today they’re hovering just under 7.5%. That difference can reshape a monthly payment considerably, and depending on the purchase price, the buyer’s rate, and whether they locked it in, the real number can become frightening.

2. The inspection becomes the exit strategy. Georgia contracts include a due diligence period that typically runs 7 to 14 days in today’s market, depending on the offer the seller accepts. During that window, buyers can order as many inspections as they like, research the property, and decide whether to move forward.

Increasingly, they’re treating it as an exit strategy. A buyer can spot cosmetic issues with the naked eye, the walls that need paint or a few cracks here and there, but the full picture emerges only once professionals walk the property and report what it truly needs.

We’re seeing many homes that require far more attention than their sellers realize. For a buyer already anxious about rates and payments, learning that a house needs hundreds of thousands of dollars of work is often reason enough to walk away.

3. Look beyond the sales price. You can prevent much of this by examining an offer in greater detail before you accept it. Most sellers fixate on price, whether the buyer offers the asking price or something close to what they believe their home is worth.

The more important questions are how solid the buyer is, how strong their financing is, and how much cash they bring to the table. Not every figure is available to us, but a call to the lender can often confirm whether a buyer is on firm footing.

4. Prepare your home for the inspection. There’s also a great deal a seller can do so a buyer doesn’t feel overwhelmed during the inspection process. I’ve talked often about pre-home inspections and the items worth addressing before you list. To be candid, if you want top dollar in this market, your home has to be in top-dollar condition. It needs to be the best-looking house available at the most competitive price to attract an offer.

5. Target the buyer who’s ready to close. Contingent offers, which depend on the buyer selling another home first, have become common in a market like this, and we’ll continue to see them. The strategy I mean is different. It centers on buyers with no home to sell and funds ready to go, because that’s the buyer worth capturing in today’s market.

Preparing for the year ahead. As we move toward the end of 2026 and into 2027, I don’t expect this market to change anytime soon. Your home should be in tip-top shape, and you should have an action plan to get it under contract and keep it solid through closing. A terminated contract can cost everyone involved thousands of dollars.

My team and I have worked full-time in this industry since 1999, and I’m here to guide and counsel you through your next move. Call or text me at 678-804-4733, email me at rachel@rachelmooney.com, or visit blog.rachelmooney.com. I look forward to hearing from you.