Despite me telling the agent who´s trying to sell my villa that I would call him back after considering the last offer the interested party made, he rang me last night to see if I had reached my decision.

I had as it turns out and the answer was no, unless they could come up with another 5K. Even then it´s Still 5k short of asking price, and asking price was really the very lowest I could go, but I would settle for that if it was offered. The agent is adamant that they just don´t have it, but only time will tell.

I can see he´s as desperate to make this sale happen as I am, but it won´t be him loosing out if it does as he´ll still get his 4% commission. Surprisingly, he did offer to pay the costs of getting my deeds updated and possibly an energy rating certificate, too (I didn´t even know you needed one for a rural property in Spain) But the cost of doing either or both of those things doesn´t add up to 5k, and I need every single penny I can get as the costs of returning to and buying somewhere to live in the UK are so high.

I really, really hope that the interested couple can rake the bottom of the barrel and make this happen. So it´s fingers crossed time once again as I wait anxiously for a good result.

If I wasn´t grey haired already, I would be starting to get them now after all the backwards and forwards we have done over the price.

No wonder selling your home is up there in the top 5 list of things that cause stress. Add to that a country in deep recession and a flooded housing market and you can can double the effect.