A little Resolve: Time to play the game

You will have noticed that I have talked tough a lot here, and been trampled on anyway.

Every time I have insisted on dropping the price (with reason), the price goes back up again. I have in fact been royally reamed and thoroughly out played!

There are a couple of notable reasons for this:

1. I am playing an ethical game, while the vendor (newly dubbed Shark) has no qualms at playing an entirely unethical game. On numerous occasions they have given me their word, and broken that same word a short time later without apology.
2. I am playing this game for the first time, they however are seasoned pros, they have been selling property professionally for some time. They are clearly anticipating my game and playing accordingly.

So what do I do? Seems to me the obvious thing, is to stop doing two things: playing ethically and playing a predictable game!

The main problem at the moment relates to the vendor slavering over the opportunity presented by another offer that is substantially higher than mine. Of course I know, you know, Shark knows, but my competitor (I dub thee Nemesis) doesn't know, that a structural defect needs to be fixed and there is a problem with planning permission! Thus, obviously Nemesis' offer is higher than mine, as Nemesis is unaware of some significant costs to come should the sale progress, costs which need to be factored into their offer.

So what are my options? Lets see:

1. Drop out and definitely lose costs incurred to date.
2. Let Nemesis waste their cash getting as far as me, and in a month's time, we play this game again once Nemesis' offer is substantially reduced and Shark contacts me again and attempts to play us off against each other. Possibly losing my money.
   
3. Fuck the Shark back! Possibly losing my money, but also possibly gaining a reduced sale price.
   

I see options one & two, as costly, inefficient, and wasteful of my precious time. Can you tell where this is going? Yes, I'm going for option three.

I have instructed my solicitor to contact the Nemesis' estate agency and 'in the interests of saving us both some time, and possibly saving Nemesis some wasted money'*, let them in on the structural problem and the planning permission issue. Also I have asked her to pass on that these problems will cost 'several thousands of pounds' to fix. I have also instructed my solicitor (now Bubbles, since she is so damn happy) to give them documentary evidence if they want it, everything short of my actual offer value and the costs of repertory work.

Obviously, there is a chance that the estate agency in question will, just sit on it and not pass on this information to Nemesis. Sharp practice from an estate agency? Never!

But hopefully they will realise that Shark is wasting their time and Nemesis' time, purely in order to drive my offer back up, and as a result, pass on the information to Nemesis and allow him/her/them to come to an informed conclusion on what to do.

Given the stress that I am under, I think this is a pretty good maneuver. It meets both of my requirements for action. On the one hand it fucks the Shark's game up good and proper (if it works), and on the other hand it is (hopefully) not the next predictable move from an ethical player of the game.

I think that concludes my treatise on Game Theory, is my work life leaking in to my personal life again? :)

* Notably, should the plan work, it serves the purpose of 'fucking the Shark in the gall bladder with a rusty screwdriver' (thanks for the imagery Mr. Ellis), but we won't mention that bit to the Nemesis' estate agent (although I'm sure he would be able to guess that was part of the plan anyway).