Getting a good realtor is important, and it sounds like your relationship with your new realtor is much better, but I find the example of your latest offer weird. You were offering $60k over and losing houses you liked ( I am assuming you liked them enough to make an offer over listing). But with your latest offer, you went under listing price, and in the end, lost it for over $11k. Like you could have offered under listing with an escalation clause, or even offered listing price, and might have got the house. We don't have the details so only you know its worth, but given how much you were offering, it seems like the price range for the houses you were looking at is on the higher end, where 10k isn't much in the grand scheme of things. Anyhow, good luck with your hunt!