Toyota Repair: Toyota Avalon Oil Pan leak, pan gasket, toyota avalon

Question
Hi Ted and thanks for being available to help broke college students like me! My 1996 toyota avalon XL recent ly started leaking around the oil pan seal area and I decided not to take it in to a mechanic since I'm literally broke and the job will cost me a couple hundred dollars. I was told by a friend who has much more experience with cars than i do that it is not a big job and definitely something i could do. from what i researched, i came to find out that the toyota avalons have a gasket in the oil pan that might crack with time and require replacement. I am assuming that this is the situation in my case. from what i researched I cfound out that I'll have to drain the oil first, unscrew the bolts around the pan and take the pan off gently not to bend or ding it. Then peel off the old gasket and using a blade, gently scrape off the residue left behind. After that it's just a matter of putting on the new gasket and tightning up the bolts to the specific torque requirements. Do you know if an additional "sealant" will have to be applied on the surface of the new gasket? Is it that simple? Am i missing something? Any information will be very much appreciated... Do you recommend I do anyhting differently?
Thanks In advance :-)  

Answer
The hardest part is removing the exhaust pipes from the exhaust manifolds, they have to be removed to get the oil pan off, the oil pan bolts are relatively easy to get to. There is no oil pan gasket at all, the factory uses a sealer, no gasket is required but the correct sealer must be used, I would recommend using the OEM factory sealer available at the toyota dealer parts department, the cost is about $20 per tube,one required, good luck with this.