We bought it in 2009 when I was in the Navy. Great location, but the market was crashing when we bought it and three years later, despite some major renovations, it appraised for less than what we paid. So we rented it out (easy to do to military families because of the location) and I acted as my own property manager.

Two years ago I tried to sell it by owner. Almost no hits on the house. Found out that the realtors in the area intentionally will avoid the houses that are FSBO, even if you are willing to pay them 3%, which was part of my ad.

This spring my tenants offered to buy the house. Great deal - they know it well and don’t have to move. Good for me as well. They are young, so they asked a realtor friend for advice. She offered to mediate and do all the paperwork for $5,000. Perfect. That’s the way it should be. I’m happy, they’re happy, and I’m not paying out 6%, which constitutes a significant amount of principal that we’ve worked hard to get back out of the house for very little work from a realtor. $5K seemed reasonable to me.