Our first house was a duplex in Shaker Heights, Ohio. It was a formidable mid century brick home in a neighborhood of century homes, but it was ours . . . and National City Bank s.

When the opportunity came to pursue our California dream, we jumped at the chance, which meant going through the arduous process of selling our house.

The easist part was picking our real estate agent. The agent who sold us our house was local, knowledgeable and professional but above all, she was honest.

She came in, assessed the house, and gave us the skinny. It was in good shape, we needed to fix some things, and it should sell. It sold in one month.

During the process, though, we were accepting offers and one potential buyer wanted to come to our house to meet us in person. All four of us sat down at the dining room table and the negotiation began . . . .

You have a really beautiful home, he said.

Then he low-balled us. We stood firm and got our price.

Now we re at that crossroads again. We re interviewing agents (another whole blog) and they all start the same. This is such a beautiful home, such a nice neighborhood, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah, yeah, we know. But for us, it s just one commodity that we d like to exchange for dollars. The more dollars, the better. I don t know why people feel they have to compliment you to get one your good side.

To me, it smacks of disingenuousness. I m sure they say it to everyone. Like Sgt. Friday, I want just the facts.