The reason he is not handling it himself is that he has just bought ANOTHER new house in Pennsylvania. His sister and her husband (the ones i have been talking to) live down here in an RV park during the summer months. They are an older couple and what we call "snowbirds" or "winter Texans". The plan is for the couple to live in the house pretty much all the time, and the brother will come stay there randomly to visit. There is an additional apartment with the house so this was a plus for their situation.

Why is he paying cash? Well the sister doesn't seem to understand that either. He apparently has just above the exact amount he has offered us in his bank account. So if he uses it he will drain the account to nothing. I'm not sure the reasoning here. This was one of the reasons I thought the guy was trying to mess with our minds here. His actions just really didn't make sense. We were clear about the fact that cash would be nice, but was not important to us to make the sale. They could do whichever they wanted.

Yes this is essentially a private sale. We have a realtor that is a close friend of ours. He is doing nothing to try to sell the house, we have done all the advertising and showing. But he has agreed to help us with closing for a small fee much less than commission. Sounded like a good deal to us.... The other party is aware of him and don't have a realtor either.