Small Town Transparency

Our house is on the market. Initially because we wanted to purchase a 40-acre ranch for the kids to raise 4H projects on; now just to be flexible in this wretched economy. After a year of listing with an agent - and a year on the market is not unusual here - we decided, with the coming slow season, to just sell ourselves. Now, I've never sold my own home; I really do believe that's what Realtors are for. But a young couple interested in our home couldn't afford it with the Realtor fee. As we were no longer under contract we thought, 'what the heck?'

And here's the thing about doing a For Sale By Owner in a small town. Without a Realtor, you have to exchange all the documents face-to-face. In a city, you'd be able to hire a courier. And it's not that I didn't feel like driving the one-mile distance. It's just that when you have to say no to the offer, it's hard to ring that doorbell and hand that hopeful young couple, pregnant with their first child, the envelope you know will break their hearts. As I drove home, I knew that by the time I opened my front door, they'd know. Heart-wrenching.

In a city you can be so much more anonymous. In a small town, you can't hide as easily. But that can be a real character-builder. Believe me, in the city I would have hired that courier to deliver the bad news. But here in the country, I sucked it up and faced the music. And, though it wasn't easy, I think I grew just a little bit from the experience.