[Villages Kahuna]

In the seven months our house on Chicago's north shore was on the market, we got only 15 "lookers". Without exaggeration, the house was beautiful...on an acre in the woods, new premium kitchen and baths, beautiful patio and gazebo, entirely decorated within the last two years, all the "mechanicals" new within five years, one of the best school district's in the country, and so on.

We thank our lucky stars that it finally sold on the day we left for our new house in TV. I was initially aggravated that I had to discount it in a double-digit percentage from our initial asking price after successfully negotiating up from a ridiculous low-ball initial offer. I'm convinced that if we hadn't sold it last October, we'd still be sitting on it, paying for it, maintaining it, etc. I'm equally certain that it would be worth a whole lot less that what we thought was a low price less than a year ago.