One of the things that came as a surprise to me in all this house buying stuff, was the fact that every 90 days my mortgage application expires.  That means that the $400.00 I paid for the application has to be paid again and again each time my application has to be renewed.  Normally, I guess this wouldn't be a problem if one was buying a house any other way than a "short sale". Regular house sales usually don't take more than 90 days to complete. Since I had put the offer on the house in December, the mortgage application has had to be renewed in March and in June. My real estate agency has kindly picked up the 2nd  application fee, in an endeavor to keep me from exploding into tiny pieces or perhaps to keep me from going postal on all of them.  When the application was due to expire in June, my bank was able to extend it to July 13th.  This was because there had finally been some action made by the seller's bank.  Sometime during the last week of June the sellers bank had performed their own appraisal of the house.  This, I found out later, was to be able to determine what their counter to my offer was going to be.  On July 2nd, they made their counter.  I spoke with my agent who then assured me that they would send in my counter-offer which would be $4,000.00 higher than my original offer.  Because of the July 4th holiday, she said she expected to hear something back within a few days after the holiday.  I reminded her that my mortgage application was due to expire and if we could just get them to sign off on the offer before then, my bank wouldn't require a new application.  Three guesses on whether I've heard anything at all, from anyone at all... and today is July 15th!  So, tomorrow after work, I've got to haul myself and all my current financial records back down to my bank for the umpteenth time to get a new application in.  There is a ten day wait once all the paperwork is done so even if the seller's bank agreed at this point - I'm still going to have to wait.  And, because we are so close to the end of this - either make or break, I'm not sure if my Realtor will pay the $400.00 for this application or not! 
So..... here we are, tick tock tick tock - patience is a virtue, right?  This has been my true test.  To see if I can keep my head from exploding.  Did you say that prayer for me?