You are a great photographer, so I'm sure your photos were professional quality.
You are correct about the process being more complicated here. In my area, nobody buys from signs that say 'sale by owner'. I'm not sure why, but the brokers seem to have the market sewed up. Plus, there are so many regulations/laws/taxes that I it takes a very brave, savvy person to attempt a self sale.
Wow! You doubled the value of the apartment...I'm sure you upgraded and earned every penny. We were in the house for 49 years, and in that time the value of the house grew to 20 times what we paid for it. That was greater than the pace of inflation. We could have netted more if we had made more improvements over the years. Still, it was the best investment of our lives (except our kids 😇).
I don't know what the future will hold for my husband and me. We hope this is the last move we ever make, but events (health) may change that. Ideally, I'll leave the house to my kids and they'll decide what to do with it. As I used to say, when the previous generation passed away, you can't control life from the grave :))
I hope you are finding time to rest and that the bureaucratic hurdles to your settlement have disappeared.
Happy Sunday my friend, @mballesteros 🦋