I need to do something before I go insane...lost out on 3 houses and buyers desperate to get in

[Wishfulmakeupping]

Had a buyer for nearly 3 months now they are desperate to buy ours. We had to pull out of the first one we were buying due to issues (survey, road etc ), the second was taken off the market and now a newbuild we were close to securing before the developers whacked an extra 10k on asking prices :(
I'm so stressed we've already widened our search area and added extra to our budget but still nothing coming on the market that's suitable.
I'm seriously thinking of putting letters through doors of suitable houses now- is this only done on location x3 or do people do this in RL?!!

It's worth a try with the leaflets. If you're risking losing your buyer can you not rent for a short time?

Thank you- I'm reluctant to rent as I've got 2 very young children so moving once is a pain but twice sounds like a nightmare :(

I'd negotiate hard with the new-build people: you are in a good position to move, can do so in short timeframe etc. Many developers are pretty unsentimental about their properties and just want to get rid so I'd keep on at them.

Leafleting is not a LLL myth and can work. We were skeptical but desperate enough to try it. We got one response but we're buying their house.

I'd also suggest negotiating very hard indeed with developers (and being willing to walk away). If you look at the sold prices of the houses on the estate you're looking at, you'll see big variations that are mostly down to negotiating skills. For example, I know that, on an estate near here in 2014, a new build advertised at £420k actually went for £370k, but the identical house next door went for £410k. Or another example from 2008, two identical houses. One went for £425k another for £475k. The plots are pretty much the same size and the cheaper one is a bit better (south rather than east facing garden). It's not that one house added £50k of extra stuff either, because the developers in question ask for that separate to the house price and it doesn't have an impact on the land registry data. It must just be a mixture of negotiating skills and being in a better position to negotiate.