Buying a home is the biggest financial transaction most people will undertake in their lives. It can also be one of the most emotional.

That’s because while buying or selling a home is, at its base level, an exchange of money for a product, it is also an undertaking suffused with hopes and dreams and, at least in the case of the seller, the memories and experiences rooted in that physical space. Yes, it is often a lot of money. But it can be much more than that — whether the transaction is happening for a good reason, or a wrenching one.

“If I’m selling a house that’s owned by a corporation, it’s not stressful, but this has your life wrapped up in it,” said Pat Vredevoogd Combs, a broker in Grand Rapids, Mich., and past president of the National Association of Realtors. “It isn’t just about the money. It’s about the feelings that go with it all.”

While brokers can be dispassionate about the sale of a property, some sellers have been known to sob through their real estate closings, oblivious to how the outsize display of emotion might look to the buyers. To these sellers, a house is not just four walls that provide shelter.