Having been told by an agent last Christmas, they could sell for $927,000, the neighbour decided it might be the right time after all. A week after listing, the best price somehow dropped to $821,000, which killed the deal.

Then suddenly by the end of January, a bid of $933,000 surfaced, so the agent was called in again. Unfortunately, the bad news was that the agent didn't think he could do better than $905,000 at that point, so the neighbour once again told the agent to forget it since it had been the price at Christmas that got him so excited.

Lo and behold, right next door " identical property " sold for $1.032,000 in early March, so the agent was called back a second time. And once again the owner was told that the best possible offer (March 9) was just $966,000.

Exasperated by this point the owner failed to list. This goes to show that occasionally the best move is no move at all because by April there was a buyer's stampede. People were knocking at the door, with somebody waving a bank draft for $1,474,000.

That was the final straw. The agent was called in and an offer to sell hastily put together.

But, you know, the strangest thing happened to my neighbour. The next day, there were no more buyers, and someone said that all his property could get in the market was $1,163,000, which was stunning news to my neighbour.

That was a couple weeks ago, around April 20. Since then, another agent came by and said a price of $1,455,000 could be had, tops. But a day later, the neighbour's former agent said the best bid was just $1,348,000.

I'm glad I'm not sitting on that 100,000 ounces -- must drive an owner absolutely mad.