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Headline:  Desparate buyer take holds open house hostage

A desparate homebuyer in (fill-in the blank) shocked homeowners, and local officials by taking the new listing hostage when the sales agent stepped outside for a smoke. 

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The unidentified buyer had posted a handwritten note on the door, demanding that a ransom be applied to the purchase price of before he would release the home. 

Instead, he turned himself into the local real estate commission without a fight (or signed agency disclosure form).  "I know it was a foolish thing to do.  I just snapped." 

With falling housing prices, local public health officials had hoped that "post bidding war shock syndrome" was disappearing from the market.  After nearly a decade of being held hostage to in-house bidding wars, last year homebuyers began to fight back by taking new listings hostage.