Quoted from fosaisu:It's been a while since I last bought a house, and I'm sure it varies from state to state, but my recollection was that the buyer and seller exchange written, time-limited offers, which become binding once accepted and signed (or e-signed, since everything's electronic these days) by the receiving party. If they're not even at the stage of exchanging written offers and have just verbally been discussing price, there's no "deal" and your friend shouldn't feel the least bit bad about going with another offer. If the first buyer wanted the house, he should have submitted a written offer and got it signed, instead of dicking around for 5 days.
And this illustrates the "gray area" that occupies many pinball deals.
We have no idea what the OP is whining about. His "we had a deal" may be the seller's "Who knows if this guy is going to show up and I have a guy who wants to come today with cash."
It's all so pointless. Just relax people. Deals happen, sometimes they don't, stop wasting keystrokes on it. Nobody cares.