HOME HUNTING PART 6: GAZUMPERY

It's a miserable little word isn't it? Gazumped. It's the sound of a small elephant collapsing under its own weight in the corner, flumping and flailing with a tiny whimper onto the carpet, while the posh dinner guests chink their glasses and laugh obliviously in the firelight.

I'm alright about it. The dictionary defines 'gazumping' as 'the act of raising the price of something (especially property) after previously agreeing to a lower one'. In actuality, the owners of the property I made an offer on, had also advertised it with a different estate agency at a higher price, and had kept it open to higher offers, despite having accepted mine. Of course, when a higher offer came in, they greedily snaffled it up.

"It's not really about the numbers," I told the estate agent on the phone, "It's much more about the fact that they've been dishonest; I just can't deal with dishonest people."

So ends that little chapter then. Weirdly, it's actually alright. I even feel a sense of relief about it, which doesn't make any sense - there's nothing else out there that's affordable at the moment and with every day, house prices are climbing out of my reach. I just look at that though, as the conditions required for a miracle - and if I'm going to live anywhere, I'd love living inside a miracle.

"So you're going to carry on selling it then?" I asked the estate agent. The seller has broken their contract by putting the property on the market twice, but somehow, this didn't seem to matter quite as much to the agency as I thought it should. Of course they're going to sell it. For more than its worth? Of course for more than its worth! Virtually every house these days, sells for more than its worth - that's how the system works, how people make money and how economies bubble and spin from boom to recession. Houses are worth literally, whatever someone is willing to pay for them - and at the moment, that's quite a lot. The posh dinner guests are having a whale of a time.

Someone once said that 'peace that passes understanding' is the peace you get when you really shouldn't have peace at all. That's how I feel about all this - really peaceful, as though actually, despite the sly, underhanded, murky world of greedy property barons and their snivelling minions, I can walk right through it, laugh it off and trust that there really is something amazing just around the corner. You might not know or believe in God at all, but I tell you what, this is the best feeling there is, knowing you're in the hand of someone far greater than posh people at a dinner party.