“Let’s get it done, let’s get a house”

They’re primed, in other words, and Kunz greets them with news likely to prime them even more: Three of the six Gwinnett County houses she had planned to show them have already sold.

This is the Cooks’ first full-fledged outing with Kunz, but she’s already showed them one house, so she could get to know them and what they want. After living in an apartment for years, he wants space, and she wants the freedom to paint or hammer nails at will.

That’s the surface stuff, but like any good salesperson, Kunz has already taken their measure at a far deeper level.

“Clients will tell you one thing, and when you show it, they buy another thing,” she says. One key to the Cooks, she believes: Amber may say she’s willing to settle for less than her ideal, but her parents lived in the same house for decades. “He wants something right away,” Kunz says. “And she wants her home.”

A lot of work

They’re trying to stay under $125,000 or $130,000. Their first stop on this night is a traditional two-story in Lawrenceville, a large white box with a cheery red door, for $105,000. In the basement, Kunz points out missing Sheetrock, raising the possibility that the house had moisture problems.

“I always like the way it looks on the outside,” says Amber, who works in customer service. “It has a lot of potential. But I think it needs a lot of work.”

“A lot of work,” Ben agrees. “And the master bathroom’s small.”

Onward.

Kunz can pinpoint the moment she knew the market was really coming back to life.

One day in April, a client wanted to buy in the Collins Hill school district. “We could not find anything,” Kunz said. “That was my shocker.”

The bust years were a candy store for able buyers, but a desperate time for sellers. Kunz and her husband fell behind on their own mortgage payments. The big vacations where she paid for her seven adult kids, those vanished. Her income went from north of $300,000 to $80,000.

She stayed afloat by shifting with the times, getting into the rental market.

Now, investors have snapped up much of the surplus inventory, and individual buyers such as the Cooks are back in the hunt. The result: prices in metro Atlanta rose 18.5 percent from July 2012 to this July, according to the Case-Shiller index.

Now the biggest problem is bank appraisals that don’t recognize the rising prices, but that’s easing up, too.

Two of Kunz’ children, including her daughter, Anna, are also Realtors, and a third is becoming a loan officer. She thinks the industry lost too many young Realtors when the bust hit. “I said, ‘Anna, just stick this out and you will love it.’”

A foreclosure

The Cooks’ next prospect, a Snellville two-story, is listed at $106,000. According to county tax records, in 2007 it sold for $188,000.

It’s a foreclosure, four bedrooms, two and a half baths. Inside, someone has left tall black graffiti on the cream-colored foyer and living room, including the words “6 DOPE CA$H.” Other than that, the house looks nice, open and airy at a glance, though the living room could be bigger.

Kunz finishes the walk-through, then opens the kitchen door out to the back yard. For a moment she stops the patter of showmanship, letting the Cooks take in the sunny, corner-lot back yard, with a couple of fine young trees and a half-view of a storybook neighborhood beyond.

They run through the house’s pros and cons, and after a few minutes Kunz stops again. “Alright,” she says. “You’ve been to two. Tell me.”

Without hesitation, the Cooks blurt out where this house ranks:

“One.”

“One. I’d say one.”

It’s likely to sell in one day, Kunz tells them. “I want you tonight to push and think and, if you want it, make an offer.”

But first, they have one more house to see.

Small rooms

It’s a wash, with small rooms and a creepy house next door.

The day’s hunting over, they stand on the lawn, discussing their options. Ben, his red tie and blue button-down shirt loose, stands next to Kunz, in blazing yellow pants and blouse.

“House number two,” Ben says, “I was really impressed with it.”

Amber agrees, but her voice is at half-throttle. She talks about the living room — sort of small.

Kunz watches, looking sharp and uneasy.

“The question is, will we find something like it in the future?” Ben muses.

Amber says she can see her way to making an offer — as long as they won’t be bound by it if they find something better.

That settles it for Kunz. “I would want to go walk through it again after work before you make an offer,” she says. “You have too much ‘I don’t know’ for me to say, ‘Let’s send them the money right now.’”

“We should have done this a year ago,” Ben says, hands on his hips.

Kunz is chipper: “Hindsight’s 20-20.”

They make plans to meet again.

The Cooks say they will continue to think about house No. 2.

“It’s a good beginning,” Amber says. “I feel like there’s more to look at.” Ben agrees.

After they part, Kunz offers her summation: “If they bought the second one, he would buy that. But in my opinion they would not be happy.”