Selling a Home in Northern VA - any lessons learned, secrets, or referrals?

Sale actually went pretty smooth ("knocking furiously on wood") - scheduled to close a week from Monday. I ended up going with a traditional agent and have been happy with the service. I briefly toyed with using the guy in DC who advertises $500 down and 1% at closing - ultimately didn't want to take the risk as I really wanted out of here. Ended up getting an offer after 9 days on the market - after the standard offer/counter-offer, I accepted at $5K below asking price and promptly sold the buyer all of my "home gear" (mower, shovels, rakes, chain saws, etc) and a good bit of the furniture for almost $10K - so, I'm scoring the whole thing a huge success. Thanks for responding :).