The house hunt

We have been planning to move to Yankton since Amy got a job there, and we were delighted to discover that it would be feasible to buy a house. We began looking at houses in Yankton toward the end of October. We found one that was suitable, and we made an offer on it. It had been on the market for more than a year, so we got a good deal. We knew it needed some major redecorating, but we were willing to do that. We were under the impression that any problems with it were mostly cosmetic, but the inspection revealed a crack around three walls of the basement. The other wall had been reinforced because it had bowed in slightly. We were shocked and concerned; we didn't want to buy a house with structural problems, or worse, try to sell that house when Nate finishes school. We got a concrete expert to look at the basement, and he said all four walls would need to be reinforced with pylasters to keep them from coming in. His estimate was $5,300. We asked the sellers to pay for it, and they declined, so we walked away from the deal and started viewing houses again.

There seemed to be only a few houses that were in our price range, and we saw several houses that we absolutely did not want to buy. However, our realtor was excited about a house that had gone on the market the day before; she said we would be the first to see it. We loved it, and we made an offer on it right away. The sellers accepted, so we are in the process of purchasing the home, with the closing date set for December 21. We had the inspection on November 26, and the things the inspector found were minor. We are really thankful for that!