In the picture to the left, you see a happy couple spreading the news of their successful home sale. What you don't see are the many moments leading up to this sale, when the two of them were yelling at each other and their real estate agent about why the house wasn't selling, or at least not selling for the price they wanted.

Neal Templin writes an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today, chronicling his and his wife's attempts to sell their Dallas home. While Templin actually makes out OK in the end, he does a nice job of detailing the stresses involved, especially when marriage partners don't always see eye-to-eye on what's important, how long to wait for a buyer, where to spend money on fixups, etc. Here's my favorite section of his piece, although I'd recommend reading the whole thing:

It soon became clear that Clarissa and I had different visions for getting the house ready for sale. I simply wanted to paint it and correct obvious defects, such as exterior wood that rotted during heavy rains last year. Clarissa wanted to redo the kitchen, install new fixtures in at least one of the bathrooms and much, much more. I fretted we wouldn't get that money back when we sold.

So we compromised. We spent $2,000 putting granite countertops and a new sink in the kitchen, and we merely painted the bathrooms.

But Clarissa didn't stop there. She paid a carpenter to put inlaid patterns on the wooden mantle. She spent hundreds on plants. She put in new lighting fixtures and new curtains and replaced a tattered awning.

Periodically, I would try to get her to slow down the spending, and she would tell me to buzz off. I was the one forcing the family to move yet again, and this time she was going to do the things to get top dollar for her house so she could afford a decent house in New Jersey.

My wife & I have sold two houses. While neither one sat on the market for a long time, we did have plenty of back and forth about how much money to put into each to make it more attractive to buyers. In both cases, the houses looked better when we sold them than they had ever looked while we lived there. (Which maybe is a lesson in itself - every once in a while, do the projects instead of just talking about them.)

Anyway, give the article a read. If you've ever sold a house, you're likely to see something of your past situation in the story told in the WSJ.