A Beautiful Lake Home.
Until It Became a Full-Time Job.

A note from Eric

Vickie came to me through a referral, and from the very first conversation it was clear: she had already made her decision. The new build in Valley City was already underway. She’d spent close to a year quietly working up to this moment. 

What made this sale stand out is how much history Vickie was carrying into it. She’d been through a painful real estate experience years before; a deal that fell apart at the closing table under circumstances that, looking back, had warning signs all along. That experience made her more careful this time. She knew what a shaky deal felt like, and when a risky first offer came in on her lake home, she trusted her gut and walked away from it. The right buyer came next.

One more piece of context worth noting: before I became a realtor, I was a licensed home inspector, and Vickie and I actually crossed paths during that chapter. When she was looking to buy a home on Star Lake years ago, I did the inspection on that property for her. That background as a home inspector helps shape how I read a transaction: not just the market, but the deal itself. When something doesn’t look right, I’ve seen enough to know why.

A Year of Knowing

It had been in the back of Vickie’s mind for close to a year. Her property on Round Lake Drive was beautiful, and everyone said so. But beautiful takes work.

The grass, the landscaping, keeping everything looking the way a lake home deserves to look. Vickie confessed that, at some point, she stopped enjoying it the way she used to and just started maintaining it.

“I didn’t have time for my hobbies,” she says. “I was a slave to the house.”

Once she started her new build in Valley City (where her friends and sister-in-law are), the decision started to feel more real. She wasn’t just leaving something behind. She was moving toward something. Two months later, she made the call.

She’d Been Here Before

Before this sale, there was another one.

About six years ago, Vickie was selling a house on Little Cormorant Lake. A buyer came forward claiming they’d pay cash. They went to the title company, papers were signed, but the money never came.

“I kept second-guessing my instincts. I just kept thinking, maybe I’m wrong,” she recalls. “Maybe this is fine.”

There were red flags she only fully recognized in hindsight: no earnest money, no desire for a home inspection, pressure to get out quickly. By the time the deal collapsed, she had completely moved out and had to break back into her own home because they had her keys. The house she’d gone contingent on, a home on Star Lake, had sold to someone else by then.

She eventually sold to a different buyer at full asking price. But the experience stayed with her. Going into this sale, Vickie knew exactly what a shaky deal felt like, and she wasn’t going to ignore the signs again.

Waiting for the Right Buyer

The first offer that came in on the Round Lake Drive property wasn’t the right one. The buyer had a home that had been sitting on the market for 274 days, and they wanted Vickie to accept a lower price and wait on a contingency tied to that stalled sale.

She’d already learned what happens when you tie yourself to the wrong situation. She passed on it.

The right buyers came next: a far better offer, far better terms.

Even with a solid deal in hand, the nerves didn’t disappear entirely. They rarely do for someone who’s been through what Vickie had.

“I was nervous,” she says. “But you assured me all the way through, saying ‘Good idea. This is good. This is okay. We’ll work through that.’”

Steadiness mattered. It always does.

At closing, Vickie signed the papers on a property she’d poured years of herself into, and walked out lighter. Into an HOA in Valley City, closer to her people, and free at last from the full-time work of keeping a lake home running.