How? Wouldn't the resale/purchase of the home pretty much end any dispute of whose property and the rightful person the money belonged?

The contractors name was Bob Kitts. You can google his sad tale. I think he ended up with $5,000 and triple that in legal fees.
The bills were certified and there are almost always one or two up on ebay. They have a certain cache to them.

They once looked pretty happy posing for photos:

Yesterday I received a call from a person answering one of my WTB comics ads.

The person was selling the following books:

Avengers King-Size #2 (tear at bottom originally repaired with tape, but the seller since removed the tape)
Iron Man #15 (FN/VF)
Secret Wars #8 (VF+)
X-Men #96 (VF+)
X-men #120 (VF+)
Daredevil #181 (VF+)
Fun and Games #1 (?)

I called back and left a message. We managed to connect late in the evening and rather than outright tell him I wasn't interested, I asked him what he was asking for the books.

He responded $500. I immediately declined to even entertain any further discussion and he started going on about how great the books were.

Rather than shutting the door on his logic, I started to take the time to explain why his books weren't worth anywhere near the price he was asking. I also questioned his ability to grade when he had never even heard of any of the Overstreet guides.

Anyhow, I tried to politely direct him towards using a method of pricing that will guarantee a little more success at selling his books (i.e. pick up an Overstreet price/grading guide, and/or do some research on eBay).

He turns around and in a roundabout way calls me a low-baller. He then proceeds to describe how in the past, he's proven low-ballers wrong time after time, and he used the example of how he sold a raw, mid-grade Daredevil 1 for $1K last year. He then described himself as a comic consignor.

It was getting late, I'd had a busy weekend and the conversation was heading towards a direction I wasn't too interested in participating in.

We've probably all had conversations like this at one time or another, and in the end, I've come to the realization that being pegged a low-baller isn't anywhere near as bad as guys like this that cost/harm the hobby by perpetuating this idea that it's perfectly ok to overcharge and overgrade comics as long as some sucker is ready and willing to pay for it.

The problem is... Everyone wants a bargain and everyone wants to make a profit.

On one side you have sellers who believe their pile of drek is worth $500, on the other side you have a buyer who will offer you half of what you want, when you've clearly listed it at 50% of guide/GPA etc.

Its all part and parcel of the game.

Having been watching Pawn Stars recently over here in the UK its interesting to see what an "expert" values an item and to see one of these guys offer half of that.