BY MARC LALONDE

A Beaconsfield woman is breathing a sigh of relief after she was stuck paying for two homes a few blocks from each other for a couple of months.

The strange saga of Isabela Szereda began last fall, when the single mother of two teenagers began looking for a new home, her kids having outgrown the old one.

She soon found something she liked in the neighbourhood, down the street from her old home, and which allowed her children to maintain a semblance of normalcy in their everyday lives. Something she says she hasn't had since December.

"I don't know why I have to be stuck with all this," Szereda said. "I have to cover all of this," she said.

Szereda and her ReMax Royal Jordan real-estate agent Doreen Husk listed her old home – located on Rosedale Avenue – for $315,000, a not-outlandish asking price that fit in with the market for that part of Beaconsfield. An offer came in from a buyer for $295,000 coupled with a Dec. 15 signing date. The agreement also came with a full mortgage, meaning the buyer wouldn't be putting any cash down.

Szereda asserts she was not told about the full mortgage before she signed the agreement. With an agreement to sell her old home, Szereda began negotiating the purchase of her new home and felt like everything was fine. She signed for purchase of the new home on Dec. 5 and began to plan the move. Then the bombshell dropped.

First, the buyer, who gave realtors the name Hong Fu, postponed the signing date. Then again and again and again, until Szereda was forced to take out a bridge loan from her bank in order to cover the cost of the new home until she could sell her previous one.

Eventually, Szereda and Husk were informed the buyer had fled the country and had no intention of honouring her commitment to purchase the home.

Husk said she was as in the dark as Szereda.

"My heart went out to her," Husk said. "But there wasn't a lot I could do. (Szereda) saw the original promise to purchase. There were conditions attached to the home inspection, and the time delays happen quite often. The buyer left the country. We tried to find (the buyer), but do you know how many 'Hong Fus' live in Beijing?" she said.

January passed with no news, and February had almost slipped away before the old home on Rosedale Ave. finally sold for about $280,000 – less than the original offer and $35,000 below the original asking price, but Szereda was just glad to be able to get on with her life and not be paying for two homes. She's still on the hook for the bridge loan, but at least the worst part of the nightmare has come to a conclusion.

"I'm glad it's over and I will just go on living my life," Szereda said, adding she was "at my wit's end over this."