Raptorduck,
Regarding the property you were really interested in. Think about submitting a complete back up offer.

The other thing that comes to mind is offering to replace the buyer. If your offer was above theirs maybe they would take the difference and give you the house? Honestly I don’t know how to pull this off. I have heard of it happening before. Getting the buyers name and agents name or the escrow office would be what you need. I am not sure if all this is considered “above board” or not. There must be a proper way to do it.

Finally, regarding all the BS in buying/selling RE in general.Something like normalacy is nice when it happens but is not the rule.I wouldn’t worry about it too much because the way you are going about things you will always get something better than the one you missed. I often employ or suggest this corny sort of mantra/affirmation when property shopping after getting pretty exited about a place….”if not this something better”.