Not wanting to move very far from our old neighborhood, Walt used his morning walks with our dog, Bow, to scout out possible sites. He identified five candidates (some listed for sale and some not). The first lot we tried to acquire fell by the wayside when we were unable to come to agreement with the owners about the real market value of the property. Being a real estate Broker does not confer any magic upon the process of buying and selling. It still requires a willing buyer and a willing seller. We moved on, looking for a place with good beach access, trees for some privacy and some ocean view. We found such a spot on Treasure Rocks Rd., just one block from our old "digs."

The lot belonged to a great guy named Rich, to whom we had sold that lot a decade earlier. "No way," said Rich upon our initial request. But the seed was planted and Rich started thinking about what he really planned to do with the site. We knew from previous conversations that Rich's wife did not want to build on the Neahkahnie property, "Happy wife, Happy life," says Walt. That did the trick, and two weeks later, Rick called to tell us he was having the lot professionally appraised and that he would do an IRC 1031 exchange with the proceeds. We struck a deal -- willing buyer, willing seller and a meeting of the minds.

Now the reality of selling our home and moving was starting to sink into our consciousness. We didn't know where we would live in between selling and building, nor had we even started to argue about what the new house was going to look like.

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