First-Time Homebuyer

Doctors Mike and Janeen Clark relocated from Texas to Atlanta for their jobs and discovered that being physicians could assist them in their home purchase.

The couple bought a home in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood, using a physicians loan from SunTrust that enabled them to put zero down on the purchase. Mike, 29, and Janeen, 27, chatted about their home in DeKalb County.

Q: How long were you thinking about buying?

Janeen: When we found out we were moving to Atlanta to be residents at Atlanta Medical Center, we wanted to buy a house. We actually flew out to Atlanta and looked around, but we didn’t have a good sense of the area so we didn’t feel comfortable buying. We rented for a year [near the downtown Atlanta hospital]. After a year, we were tired of living in apartments.

Q: What areas did you look in?

Janeen: We lived in Old Fourth Ward. We really liked the surrounding area — Inman Park, Grant Park and Kirkwood. So we were glad that we had all these really cool developing neighborhoods around that had really good restaurants.

Q: What did you like about the house?

Janeen: It technically has five bedrooms, which is insane. A lot of the homes in our price range were two bedrooms. We were hoping for three, and this just worked out. It had all hardwood floors, which we really liked, and it was clean lines and simple.

Mike: Honestly it was the backyard. It has a nice green lawn. Our property extends way further back than our fence, but it’s heavy woods back there. I thought it was really neat. That’s what snagged me.

Q: Had it been updated?

Janeen: They ripped out all the carpets and refurbished all the floors. They had replaced some windows, doors and light fixtures.

Q: What’s one thing the sellers did to make the home appealing?

Janeen: Every time we came in the house, there were fresh flowers everywhere, so that felt really good. I knew that was something that wasn’t going to stay with the house, but it sure did help.

Q: How did the special loan help with the purchase?

Mike: They don’t count your debt against you when it comes to your loan. They required zero percent down. I don’t think many medical school graduates know about it. Just talking to a lot of our fellow residents … they were amazed about not having to have a down payment.