When Mark and I bought our house, we purchased it off of friends of ours from whom we were renting the place. We already knew we loved the place, we loved the neighborhood, we didn't need to shop around, we knew this was our home. Now, we have friends returning to town, and they are looking for a house to buy. So I went around with said friend to look for houses. Since Mark and I never went through the search process, this was a really fun thing to do. It was neat to look around at the possibilities in our neighborhood, I wish I knew other people looking for an inexpensive house, there are some gorgeous and cute little houses here, lots of hard wood floor brick homes in the area. I was not impressed by the real estate agent though. My friend was in from out of town with an explicit list of needs and expectations for a house. Yet, the agent managed to show houses that did not match these needs, nor did she seem that well informed about the houses she was showing. Plus, what is up with not being able to get into 4 of the houses on the list to show? She did not seem prepared for my friend and certainly didn't make the most efficient or effective use of the time. This agent should have showed her as many or every possible house available in the time she was here! It's not like she can just hop over any time to look at what's out here at a drop of a hat. Anyway, I am very excited about people moving back to town. It is a little silly, yes, that I haven't named names, but it is their news to share and they haven't disclosed this information as public knowledge yet. It's going to be so wonderful to have them back!