The Town Crier and the Stone Mason

A property is announced as sold long before it is sold. The board goes up when the offer is signed, the post goes out on social media the same afternoon, and the congratulations start. But the buyer only becomes the owner when transfer is registered at the deeds office, and between those two moments plenty can go wrong. The bond can be declined, or the buyer's own house, which had to sell first, can fail to sell.

Some people in property are very good at the first moment. Their feeds are full of sold boards and smiling handshakes. Others put most of their effort into the long, unphotographed stretch afterwards, chasing the bond and getting the compliance certificates in while the buyer and seller wait for the deeds office.

A town's memory works in an interesting way here. The announcements fade fast, and nobody remembers last month's sold boards. What stays is the ownership that actually registered and the stories about which sales fell apart, and why. That second kind of story travels a long way in a small town, and it tends to mention names.