:::Sigh of Relief::: What a long strange trip it's been.

If you are thinking of going FSBO, make sure you have LOTS of time for the details. And patience for the quirks of buyers and dealing with the bottom feeders.

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/FSBO-Follies/topic=realestate

Outstanding offers that fell through - the couple that wanted to rent for a month or two before closing because they still had a house in Canada. Turned out the house in Canada was not even on the market (something their agent should have clarified before making the offer) and their demands kept escalating on each round, ending up with an offer that was basically an open-ended rental with us taking responsibility for pool maintenance and yardwork with an option to buy some vague time in the future. Nope!

The people whose offer was contingent on us ripping out 2400 square feet of Saltillo-look tile and replacing it with bamboo, for no higher price. I countered with a "I'll supervise it, you pay for it" and they vanished into the woodwork.

The notorious over-bidder who we found out merely got his jollies from tying up houses and then failing to qualify for the mortgages. (Google is your friend, as is access to the courthouse databases and running credit union reports.)

Lots of others with offers and contingencies more complicated than the last nuclear arms treaty ... and unwilling to have a "kickout" clause that let us keep marketing while they cleared up their pending contracts. (multi-sale cascades are hard to pull off)

And the agent who wouldn;'t bring over a potential buyer until we took her as the sales agent for the transaction, letting her

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Final buyers had a very straightforward offer (thank the FSM) ... they just wanted to make sure the pile of flagstone stayed so they could expand the patio without stone matching issues.

All else was just "yes, it's a 35 year old, single-owner house, we're grown up enough to deal with it". They liked the color and the cleanliness and floor plan. They had a FAST loan officer. (offer to closing in under a month!)

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Y'all definitely want to know about pricing ... it was competitive for the area, considering the lack of upgrades. Had we spent $$$K on a new kitchen (cabs granite, appliances, etc) we would have made 80-90% of it back on the sale ... but the money went for a down payment and improvements on the house we bought to retire in, so it's no problem.