Okay, this is getting annoying
I've been looking for a new house on and off since last March. This is my record so far:
--House on the market for 2 months. The second time I go to look at it someone else arrives to look at it while I'm there and puts in an offer on the spot. This house was totally my dream house, but the people who bought it paid more than I could have reasonably afforded to pay for it.
--House on the market for a month. I go to see it three times (because it's a nice house, but the yard isn't perfect). I put in an offer. The owners refuse to sell it to me. Two months later they sell it for exactly what I offered them (this turned out to actually be good for me because two weeks after I put in that offer John Henry broke his leg and thank god I wasn't trying to move, but still...)
--House on the market for a month. I go to see it twice. Small but very nice, needs a few improvements. Very affordably priced (but not for everyone, for one thing there is no shower anywhere in the house and no way to put one in except to add a whole new bathroom). Yesterday, I put an offer on it. Someone else put an offer on it five hours earlier.
This does not count the houses I looked at but didn't put offers on. Last year the market was fairly hot, but this year it is very slow. There are something like twice as many houses on the market as there usually are this time of year. People need to stop buying my houses.