Yep! £240K take it or leave it (one of my mum's favourite sayings!!!) £10K more at a push, but that'll be a lot of pushing. Originally, I was gonna start at £230, so maybe I should still do that!

Can't wait to view it tomorrow now, I doubt I'll sleep tonight! I can see meself now, sitting on the balcony out the front, overlooking the trees and the woodland in the distance which Dave said it overlooks, sipping me morning coffee with Zena, no passers by for her to bark at! I always felt so sorry for my poor doglets, coz where we are now, we're on a corner, so they have people going past the fencelines both front, side and back, it's so unfair, but the back garden there, with the 10ft fence at the back and sides coz of the slope, Dave said you could leave her out there and forget her with the door open from the conservatory, she'd have nobody to bark at, it's just perfick!

Oh gawd, you know what's gonna happen next don'tcha They'll accept our offer, and then the people who are buying here might change their minds when they see it for the 2nd time on Wednesday coz it's not quite so good in the winter without all the leaves on the trees, bit drab

I shall be on me knees tonight by the side of my bed with my hands clasped praying that we'll be in this new house by April at the latest! They do say, if you wish hard enough

I'll be wishing the same for you H - I'm comming over in April would love to be your first visitor

Well, now that I've seen it.......I want it even more!!! BUT, we have a budget to stick to, coz we cannot magic a few grand more out of a hat, and the way she was talking, although the Italians are now out of the race coz the son was thinking more along the lines of the rest of the family, i.e. it only has 2 bedrooms there is another couple in the running who want a 2nd viewing this week.

Soooo, I will be ringing the agents tomorrow, putting my case across that I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they have lowered that "guide price" because it means absolutely diddly squat, it WAS that dangling carrot I spoke about, to gain more interest, and I know she wants what she wants for it, and it might be higher than we can afford.

We shall play the inevitable cat and mouse game putting in our lowest offer first, she'll laugh at it, the agent will ring us back, and so it will go on, until we reach our highest price! Maybe it will be ours, maybe not, but they're certainly not going to make fools out of us to pay higher than we intend, let the other couple do that!

Yes, it's worth every penny of £260/£275K purely because of its location! When you stand out the front there on the balcony, overlooking all that woodland beyond the trees at the front, which you can see because it's now winter, the trees are bare, you would think you are back in Spain when you look at the other Mediterranean themed bungalows along this little slipway. Mrs. Bouquet would feel perfectly at home in this little gaf, just like I did, BUT, we want it for the money we can afford and not a penny more, because in all honestly, we just don't have it! Quite honestly, we both think it's absolutely outrageous that they can use this technique to draw us all in, i.e. that £225K figure, we should be able to have them up for misrepresentation, when we know they won't take a penny less than probably £250K but that's fine if they DO, but I suspect it'll be higher.

It's everything we want and some, it has ticked each one of our boxes, and we will never find this again at this price, so all we can do is hope and pray, that she considers us to be the better option with our own cash sale pending, and if that falls through on Wednesday, then we'll just have to start all over again, I'm not bovvered (well I am, but I won't let it get me down!!!)

Oh this is really stressful ya know, but you can't always have what you want out of life can ya!

Now you know what I'm gonna say here, don't cha?

If it's meant to be, it will happen!!!!

Been there and not only got the teeshirt, but worn it out more than once. It's frustrating, stressful and infuriating at times, but things have a habit of working out for the best

Got everything crossed and then crossed some more that if this is the place for you that you get it (and would it be really nasty to hope that if you don't get it that there's something wrong with it and you're better off without it?)

Hope this week passes quickly for you Helena because it sounds as though it's gonna be a long one until it's all sorted out and you know where you stand.

PS - just to give you a bit of hope, when we sold Dave's dad's house, we took £8,000 less than the highest offer because the lower one was in a position to move more quickly

Good luck H, I hope it works out, it's a buyers market out there.

Good luck everything crossed for you.

Nearly 15 years ago when we moved here this was not the house we wanted or were expecting to buy as it had not come on the market. It was the one a couple of doors away we viewed and it had an offer on it and after seeing it it made it worse because we guessed we couldn't have it as our house had not sold. It was lovely inside 4 bedrooms and all appliances.

A couple of weeks later as we were over this way to view houses the agent rang to say this house had just come on the market so it got tagged on the end of our list it was the area we wanted. We viewed the other houses and decided the one we would make an offer on. Anyway we stopped here and that was it changed our minds fell in love and deal done. This is 3 bedrooms and semi detached unlike the 4 bedroom terrace we fist viewed a couple of doors away. I am glad fate stepped in as the house was a disaster flooding issues with the conservatory and none of the appliances worked.

So all that glitters is not gold. But I am sure this place will be lovely but if you don't get it it might be for a very good reason. Your mum will know and she will help work things out right for you.

I'm sorry it's all so complicated but I admire your attitude not to be pushed into paying more when it's not an option and I really hope you do get it - for the lowest price!

Thanks for the update once again H - but I still say that the market is being flooded with houses of all types and bungalows seem to be particularly plentiful - so although it seems like the 'dream' place, and I admit it looks wonderful, there will be others - you just might have to wait a while before they pop up - for most people that would be a problem but for you if you don't want to buy a new van to go alongside yours you could live in the holiday van - no income stream from it - but you could be there all summer and autumn while you really do a comprehensive search.

Oh heck that sounds all negative and boring I don't want it to sound like that, I'm just saying that you do have a few options that others might not have.

I hope you manage to get this house Helena it sounds ideal.
People like the owners really pee me off hoping for a bidding war, i hope they fall flat on thier face and you get it for a steal.

Would it be legal to stick a board outside saying "I have offered £x for this house, if anyone wants to offer £x + 1 then please do so"