I hope this helps other people who want to live the dream of buying a family home not have to go through the horrors of what me and my family have just endured.  We entered into a contract with a vendor to purchase his property with the "special condition" that we had to sell our existing property by a set date, or go unconditional, also the property that was being sold could still be advertised as For Sale until such time as either our property sold or a better, or more favourable offer was put to the vendor.  I received a phone call from the selling agent saying "I heard a whisper you have had an offer on your house", I replied yes we have we are thinking about it, the selling agent then said that they were in the process of receiving another offer on the property we wished to purchased.  I informed the selling agent that, don't take the offer we will sell our house as it was an unconditional offer which we received.  I was then informed, not 10 minutes later, that the vendor has accepted the additional offer and we would be informed in writting to either match the additional offer or decline (within 3 buisiness days) and miss out on the property.  I said to the selling agent, we have 3 buisiness days in which to respond, she said yes.  Within 24 hours of us receiving the notice in writting I received another phone call from the selling agent informing me that there had been a third offer which upped the total price from our original offer by 17000 dollars.  I began to smell a rat and sought legal assistance.  There was alot of back and forth letter from both parties solicitors, and a great deal of stress on our part.  We had an unconditional sale on our house and settlement was to be in 30 days, still not receiving any answers from the other parties solicitors and the whole incident being drawn out for nearly 2 weeks, I was close to a breakdown.  I have 3 children which need a home and I had nowhere to live, all because Estate Agent trying to sapp out every cent of commission they could muster from a family.  In the end we had no choice but to back away from the contract, which has left us in the rental market, and we have had to find new homes for our beloved family dogs, as the rental does not allow pets.  We have endured many difficult times in our married life (eg. 10 years of IVF treatment), but I don't think anything compares to the treatment we received from Barry Plant Emerald.  In my opinion we never had any hope of purchasing the property, as I believe the asking price would continue to rise well beyond our budget.