DESIGNER. ANIMATOR. MAKER.

I Do What I Want, Thor.

A Place to Call Home pt.3


With my new agent leading the way, I found myself with a whole new selection of interesting homes to walk through. He picked 10 or so listings in the area I wanted and we went to check them out. The first day out we came across what could only be described as my dream home. It was an adorable tudor style home with hardwood floors throughout, coved ceilings, and 4 bedrooms (only 1 bath though!). The house was lovely and despite the fact that it was a mere stone's throw from a very busy road, I brought my dad in to see it. My dad agreed that the home was very nice, but he couldn't look past the heavy traffic one house down and ultimately convinced me to see the problem with the location. Although that was the only house I had planned on seeing that day, my agent suggested we go see one that was close by on a much quieter street. 

We pulled up in front of a cute single-level 1940's home with a nice sized porch and lots of trees out front, it wasn't my "dream" but it was cute. We spent the next half hour wandering around the clean and updated interior of the home, although it was decorated poorly...it was the best thing I'd seen so far so I made an offer. We went back and forth with the seller several times before having to walk away, they simply weren't willing to budge on their asking price and I wasn't willing to pay that much. I was bummed out, but I kept looking.

A few weeks later I got a call from my agent, he had spoken with the seller's agent and found out that they hadn't had any more offers on the house and REALLY needed to sell. We approached them with an offer lower than my last and they accepted! Over the next few weeks I signed a mountain of papers to secure my financing and got a home inspection which went very well. A couple of weeks before closing my agent got the feeling that we should request to have a radon test performed. Although it wasn't common for the area, he just had a feeling. My home inspector performed the test and I waited anxiously over the weekend for the results. The following monday I opened my email and was devastated, the home had dangerously high radon levels and the only thing to do was to install a costly mitigation system that would vent the radon, but not get rid of it.

I spent the day talking to different people and doing some research, I wasn't sure what to do when there was so much money on the line. I concluded that the thing to do was to walk away from the sale, it no longer felt right and so many people had told me that they'd do the same in my situation. I felt awful, but I broke the news to my agent and he very kindly said that he would've done the same in my situation.

The next couple of weeks I went to go look at a few more properties, but nothing felt right. The market was slow and the houses in my price range in my desired location were nothing short of uninhabitable. With much thought, I made the decision to stop looking. It had been 6 long months of looking, getting my hopes up, and becoming disappointed. The conclusion I came to was that I didn't HAVE to buy right now, I'm only 25, renting a fantastic place in a location I love, and there's no reason for me to commit to anything I don't love. It was a difficult process, and I spent so much of my time and energy searching, but I feel like I learned a ton and hopefully it will make my next house hunt much easier.
Nikki Hancock