People who are selling typically have a timeline and financial situation they're motivated by, with the option you're deliberating on it not only ties them onto the property for a longer period of time but exposes risk to the fact that they've locked up the deal with you - you could have performance issues - and tied with this other seller for a home they want to get rid of. 

I deliberately insisted on the 2 closings happening on the same day because I have a 2-hour drive each way from my home to Salisbury.

I truly believe that if you work hard enough for something it is impossible for you to achieve no results, and I am resolved to spend all my time working for myself rather than some large corporation like JP Morgan or Amazon.

Clearly, each person has their unique circumstances and decisions of this size should be taken in context, with lots of deliberation and discussion (for all i know, I could be eating my words on this topic 12 months from now!).

It's important to know what the process looks like from the lenders' perspective:  "The major lenders say they are not deliberately holding back any foreclosed homes.

It becomes unethical if someone is deliberately giving misleading information, or falsifying documents.

Attention grabbing = more likely to be read IMO.Don't know if you knew of this, or whether it was deliberately or accidentally omitted - but thought I'd make you aware.

(yes I was deliberately shouting that!)

It's usually the smaller/non-nationwide lenders doing this, never the JP Morgans and Bank of Americas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JPMORGAN & CHASE & CO (JPM) http://www.quote.com/us/stocks/financials.action?