If they haven't signed paperwork, I don't count them as buyers.

I want Buyers to have some skin in the game. It sounds like you're selling a fixer upper, possibly to investors? Get some earnest money with a limited due diligence inspection clause in the contract. Investors should be smart enough to do a basic walk-thru inspection before making an offer. Once they sign a contract with limited due diligence, the only way they get to back out and get their money back is if they provide you a copy of the inspection report by a licensed professional inspector or tradesman that discloses a defect that was NOT readily observable from the initial inspection AND they give you the chance to fix it and you refuse to fix it. This protects them from hidden defects but also protects you from flakes who back out because the light switch is cracked.

If they're owner occupants, then simply let the know the house is selling "as is" and you aren't doing any repairs. Include that in the contract. Then they can inspect all they want, but only for the purposes of getting bids to repair the issues.

A person who agrees to either one of those scenarios is a serious buyer! Anyone else is just a looky-loo/tire kicker.

With 5 failed attempts, your house is already marked and is harder to sell.

Tell your "buyers" to get pre-qualified first.

Next tell them to bring something to the table. The less they bring, the easier for them to flake.

You need a deposit you can claim later as liquidated damage when they change their minds and wasted your time.

It sounds like you're selling a distressed property to an owner-occupant. What I usually run into is that they have enough money to buy the property, but not enough to buy it and fix it both. If the price is already super-low, it may be too low to get a traditional mortgage on... they'll need to qualify for a loan instead. And loaning criteria may be very different from mortgage criteria, depending.

So there's probably a lot of variables at stake-- someone with limited resources is second-guessing their ability to live in the middle of a renovation, or even afford the renovation in the first place. Or perhaps it's on the bank side of things. Or whatever.

Yep, buyers watch to much HGTV and in my market are to used to renting so they struggle with basic ownership things.

Last spring our 4 plex fell out of escrow THREE times! We seized one party's ernest money. I will never deal with a 1031 exchange again. Dude tied us up 60 days then flaked.

Another I gave a 30 day due dilligence because of home inspection scheduling. THEY flaked. Had loan issues and missed the deadlines. The other backed out in the due diligence period.

Finally closed after about 6 mo on market. And this was a "good" property. Should have sold in a week!

Maybe you should consider fixing the issues and raising the price. A home with no issues is easier to get a loan for.