My seller is playing games with us

My husband & I are trying to purchase a condo at the NJ seashore. The asking price was $210K. We are using the seller's agent because we happened to find the listing while in their office. She said to offer $195, seller countered with $203K, we thought we had a deal. That was at end of August. We send $1000 check to realtor which was cashed. Seller never signed contracts.

She said there was a family crisis, she had to be in NC. Sent contracts there - still no signature. She is back in NJ now. Said she still wants to sell - raised price to $215K, but said we could have it for $210K, which we agreed to. We signed new set of contracts. Seller said this week that we could close in 2 weeks if we paid $213K - we didn't want to close in 2 weeks because this is a summer rental area & we wouldn't get any income off the condo until May at the earliest. She said she'd sign this week at the $210K.

Still haven't heard a word. My realtor was off on Thursday & Friday, hasn't responded to our voice mail message yet. I've already heard that we have no rights here because she hasn't signed a thing. It seems like she's waiting to see if anyone else will come in with a higher offer, now that it's listed at $215K, & just stringing us along in the meantime. Unfortunately, we're still hoping that we might get the place if no one else makes a higher bid - we'd been told that there were other full price bids when condo was selling for $210K. There's nothing else for sale in this price range in this area - it's very desirable area.

Any advice, any thoughts? We seem pretty naive, but we've bought & sold property before without these kinds of problems. We're just completely mystified at this point as to what we can do to get this deal done.

Thanks for your help.
Janet

[HomeGuru]

Hire another real estate agent to help you put in another offer. But make sure the first one is terminated first.