My neighbors wanted to sell their house last year, no later than August. They spent most of the spring getting ready—painting the kitchen, cleaning out the cluttered garage, and updating hardware in the bathrooms.

Then they advertised it for sale in May without using a REALTOR®.

I asked the husband why they were selling the house on their own. He talked about the high demand for homes in our neighborhood; many houses were selling for close to asking price as soon as they went on the market. He figured that attracting buyers wouldn’t be difficult, and he wasn’t worried about handling the paperwork—especially if doing it on his own would save a few dollars.

By September, they took it off the market. While there was interest, arranging showings was difficult around the kids’ and parents’ schedules, and one deal fell through because of a missed deadline.

Last week, my neighbors put their house on the market again, hoping to move by August. I noticed a few differences from last year: the asking price is higher, there’s a REALTOR®’s sign in their front yard, and this morning the sign changed from for sale to sale pending.

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