First-Time Homebuyer

Rabbi Eytan Kenter and his wife, Staci Zemlak-Kenter, do not use electricity on Saturdays and walk to Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs, so they needed to live close to the synagogue.

They drew a 1-mile radius around the synagogue and narrowed their options to homes within it. After looking for a couple of weeks, then taking a couple of months off, and repeating the pattern, the couple discovered a home with room for entertaining.

Eytan, 31, and Stacy, 28, who works in fundraising and is pursuing her master’s in social work, chatted about their home.

Q: What other specific house needs did you have?

Eytan: It’s a unique situation in that we are only two people, but for my work, sometimes we are entertaining 30, 40, 50 people in our home. How do you pick out a house that can accommodate the people that are, on those days, in your home, but doesn’t feel tremendous?

Staci: Having a formal dining room was important to us. Neither of us are from Atlanta, so we wanted at least three bedrooms. Eytan is also a really fantastic cook. He would only move into a house with a gas stove.

Q: How did this home appeal to you?

Staci: It was built in 1957 and we really like the charming features that come in an older house, in addition to the land. We’re on a half an acre.

Q: Did you know right away it was the one?

Staci: I think so. I think that it felt like we could have been friends with the owners and moved in and used all of their furniture. There are granite countertops in the kitchen and crown molding and baseboards. There’s also a really charming telephone alcove in the hall that’s from the '50s. Cute things like that to us made it not just another average run-of-the-mill ranch house.

Q: How was the entertaining space a good fit?

Staci: The kitchen actually opens up into a sitting room as well as a space that we use as an eat-in kitchen area, but it’s really a room with another big table. The sitting room opens right into the backyard, which is totally flat. We’ve got tall trees on the property line and it’s totally fenced in. We had probably 30 people over toward the end of the summer and there were tables and chairs back there.

Q: How did you go through the process of getting a loan?

A: We met with [the mortgage company] before we looked at this house to get a sense of what this big, bad mortgage world is really about. Unlike many couples our age, we really only looked at houses for which we had a 20 percent deposit. Now our mortgage payments are significantly less than what our rent was, which is always nice.

Q: What tip would you give buyers?

Staci: We looked at another house that needed a lot of work. We went back and forth, [asking] is it enough of a deal? We bought a contractor out to give us an estimate, which I think was very helpful. That steered us from that house into something that is much more sound and stable.

At a Glance

Rabbi Eytan Kenter and Staci Zemlak-Kenter’s home, built in 1957 in Sandy Springs, has three bedrooms, two baths and about 2,800 square feet. They purchased it in March, assisted by Debbie Sonenshine with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Three-bedroom homes in their area are listed in the $250,000s-$350,000s.