Paid 7,700 to hide a spread my county publishes for free

Duplex, both sides rented, tired but no structural problems. I had it at 129,000 from a landlord who was done. End buyer at 152,000. That 23,000 felt like too much to put in front of anyone, so I went with a double close instead of assigning, mostly on the privacy argument I'd read about a dozen times.

It closed. Five days between the two legs because my buyer's inspector needed a second visit.

The extra cost of taking that road, over what an assignment would have cost me: second set of settlement charges about 2,200, transfer tax a second time about 1,150, funding 2 points on 132,000 plus a 995 doc fee plus five days of interest, roughly 3,900 all in, insurance and prorated utilities for the days I owned it about 480. Call it 7,700 of cost that existed only because I chose two closings.

Then sixteen days after the second closing the seller called me. He'd looked the property up on the county site, seen the 152,000, and wanted to know why I'd told him the market wouldn't support more than 129. I hadn't told him that, but I hadn't corrected him either. His brother owns three houses in the same few blocks and had been the whole reason I was in that neighborhood. That conversation ended and so did the introduction.

So I spent 7,700 hiding a number my own county gives away for nothing. Roughly a dozen states don't publish sale prices at all and I'd absorbed the privacy argument from people writing in those states without ever checking which kind I live in.

What I'd do differently: look up whether my state is a disclosure state before I pay for privacy. And decide the fee conversation with the seller in advance rather than letting silence do it for me.