Congrats, ysette!
When we were in escrow on our short sale home, it took eight long months to close. We outbid 12 other bidders and offered $128k over asking. One Friday, late in the process, the lender demanded an extra 30k more. By Sunday, DH was willing to go for it. I dug in my heels, pointing out that one could buy a really nice, used Lexus for that amount (not that we would, mind you). Monday we unleashed our amazing Broker's fury on them and they backed down. It finally closed about a month later. Of course, the property had appreciated that much have since we had opened escrow, but no way should they have benefitted from dragging their feet.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but interest rates had spiked during this time and no one locks for that long. When it finally came time to close, we decided to just pay cash. Getting a loan was never the issue, but we were done with all the bullshit. Sort of a FU money story, I suppose.
And those cheesy letters, oh yes, they work. Before buying this house, I sold my townhouse. Asking price was $539k. I got two offers for $600k (WTF?) the first week. Since a dear friend lived next door, I knew I'd be in the neighborhood once in a while, so I went with the letter offer, because they were such a cute family. Four years later, it was a great decision. They've been very nice neighbors to my friend. They recently had to replace the fridge and the installer had to pull the upper cabinet to make it fit. DH is in the process of cutting it down for them. When it's done, he'll reinstall it, gratis.