The stock market is in a wildly irrational place at this time.

I've been reading a book called Irrational Exuberance by Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller.

It's barely science anyway, since it depends almost completely on the whims, actions and reactions of humans, a species that acts quite irrationally most of the time and cannot be trusted to act irrationally in the same fashion most of the time.

But you are right, it is a 3 party agreement, and the 3rd party is a huge bureaucracy that works at their own pace with sometimes seemingly changing or just irrational rules.

In many areas, realtors can reduce the potential discrimination as well by landlords who are not well versed in the law and may act irrationally. 

Although I believe that reaction is irrational to an extent, it is what I am seeing in the markets I am looking in. 

Good people who check out well initially can go bad and become become irrational when their world collapses, due to job loss, divorce, depression...

All of which the OP has to foot the bill to defend against.Sometimes, as clearly the case is here, you have to do a little rough justice and think outside the box, otherwise you get stuck dancing with an irrational person.Perhaps the OP could offer cash for keys....

So I have been finishing up this excellent book on behavioural economics called 'Predictably Irrational' and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet as I believe it to have excellent application to investors!

I started in my 20's and made some irrational decisions, that had cost me financial and mental heart ache.