She dreamed of returning to Philly with her mother. They landed in the perfect home in Brewerytown. | How I Bought This House

The buyers: Dayna Marie Hood, 40, caregiver

The house: A 1,350-square-foot rowhouse with three bedrooms and 1.5 baths built in 1915.

The price: Listed for $379,900; purchased for $375,000.

The agent: Brittany Malseed, Exit Elevate Realty

The ask: From the moment Hood arrived in Philadelphia for work in 2014, she knew it was where she wanted to be.

She would take long walks across the city, daydreaming about one day owning a home here. Sometimes, she’d send videos of homes to her mother, imagining them living there together.

“I was born in California, I grew up in Virginia, but when I came to Philly the first time, I was like, ‘This is home,’” she said.

But in March 2024, when her father unexpectedly passed, everything changed. Her father had been the sole caregiver for her mother, who is paraplegic.

So Hood left her dream job, as a marketing coordinator for DEI at Temple University, moved back to her hometown in Northern Virginia, and became her mother’s full-time caregiver.

But she missed Philadelphia and wondered whether she’d ever manage to get back.

“Every time I heard anything about Philadelphia, I would just get nostalgic,” she said.

Then, last November, Hood asked her mother: What if we moved to Philadelphia together? Her mother loved the idea, and the two set about making it happen.

They wanted a modern, renovated rowhouse. Hood wanted an office, so she could work from home, and a backyard for Sylvie, her chihuahua-dachshund mix.

Above all, though, she wanted a bedroom on the first floor — to make it easier for her mother to get around in her wheelchair.

“I knew it was going to be tough, but I was determined to make it happen.”

The search: Working with a real estate agent, they began looking last November, focusing on Queen Village, Rittenhouse Square, Brewerytown, and Fishtown.

As she’d predicted, the biggest hurdle was finding a home with a bedroom on the first floor. But she remained committed.

“I didn’t want her to be trapped in a basement,” Hood said. “Some of the basements weren’t finished and they didn’t look secure enough or warm enough or welcoming enough. I wanted her to be in a beautiful, well-lit space.”

The appeal: As soon as the agent sent her the listing for a three-bedroom home in Brewerytown, Hood was smitten. Still living in Virginia, and unable to travel because of a recent surgery, she asked the agent for a video tour — and a brutally honest assessment. “She said, ‘I’m not gonna lie, I’m really impressed,’” said Hood.

The home had a modern kitchen and LED lighting, plus fun features like a staircase that lit up as you ascended. There was a small backyard for Sylvie. Best of all, it was wider than a typical rowhouse, which would allow her mother to more easily get around.

The deal: Things came together quickly. The day of the video tour — which was the same day the house went on the market — Hood and her mother put in a cash offer of $370,000. The seller countered with $375,000, and that’s what they ultimately settled on.

An inspection turned up a few issues — the home didn’t have a sump pump and the shower needed to be leak-proofed. But the seller agreed to make the fixes ahead of the sale, which made things easy.

The money: Using money from the sale of their Northern Virginia home, they were able to make a cash offer on the home in Brewerytown, paying $375,000 — about $5,000 less than the listing price.

“We do have taxes, but no mortgage,” Hood said. “When you take the mortgage out of the equation, it’s feasible.”

The move: The lead-up to the move was stressful, and the timing wasn’t ideal — coinciding with the early-February snowstorm that hit the northeast with force. All in all, though, things went smoothly. Because of her mother’s condition, the move required finding accessible transport, and she worked with the movers to assemble her mother’s medical bed.

On the day of the move, after getting her mother to bed — and dealing with a renegade security alarm — she collapsed onto the couch and had her best night’s sleep in a long time.

“I was in heaven,” she said. “I was surrounded by boxes and chaos, but I was in my new home.”

Any reservations? Since moving in last month, her love for her new home has only grown.

She’s close to a Rival Bros Coffee, and is ecstatic to be back in a city with so many food options. She’s also fond of the Brewerytown neighborhood.

“You know when a neighborhood has that feeling like there’s more coming?” she says. “I was like, ‘When I’m a homeowner, I want to be in one of those evolving neighborhoods so that I can see it happen’ — and I think that’s exactly what this is.”

Life after close: It took only two or three days to get unpacked, and since then, Hood has quickly made the place home, adding fresh flowers and plants and relying on TaskRabbit to help put furniture together.

Most important, her mother is loving the space. “She has [these] beautiful glass double-doors and she can look outside, day or night,” Hood said.

Two years after wondering whether she’d ever make it back to Philly, she couldn’t be happier to be here.

“I just feel like the whole thing started off because of something sad … and I just felt so overwhelmed,” she said. “But ultimately, I got exactly what I wanted.”