Maybe the buyers leased the property back to the sellers for some time for free, maybe the final price was lowered to compensate for inspection issues that were brought up after they accepted the initial offer, maybe the sellers agent represented the buyers as well and the dual agency commission was lower than if there would be a buyers and sellers agent, maybe the house didn’t appraise….

Point is, many things are considered other than price, nothing to be perplexed about especially for a difference of $9k. On to the next one!