After being one of multiple offers on a Virginia-Highland home, then finding a new listing on the market in Candler Park but discovering it had just gone under contract, Kelly Anderson and Adam Krolikowksi decided to take a more aggressive tactic in their search.
So they put an offer on a new Inman Park listing sight unseen, believing the home would quickly sell and relying on their real estate agent Butch Whitfield’s knowledge of the market and their needs. The couple, is in their early 30s, chatted about their purchase.
Q: Why did you decide to buy now?
Adam: It’s right in the time of our lives. We’re getting married in January. We saw how low interest rates are, and we heard that the economy is turning slowly. It felt like you could get a very good deal.
Q: Did you find deals?
Kelly: The locations we were looking in didn’t depreciate as much as the broader market (they were looking at homes in the $400,000s). But the interest rates were just too attractive to ignore.
Q: What were you seeking?
Adam: We were definitely looking at three bedrooms, two baths as our minimum. We wanted a single-family home. We didn’t mind having a renovation project, but with our work schedules and our first house, we started leaning away from that and wanted something more turnkey, which was a little difficult because we were disappointed in a lot of people’s upgrades, especially in the kitchen area.
Q: What about the upgrades disappointed you?
Kelly: It really seemed that there were a lot of upgrades made to homes that were done on a budget.
Adam: People would put in granite and new cabinetry, but it wasn’t what we would consider good quality materials.
Q: How did you find the home you bought?
Adam: Kelly found it online. Butch said we needed to make an offer. We did that immediately because our work schedules wouldn’t let us go see it in a day or two. We knew the Inman Park Festival was that weekend and (the area) was going to get huge traffic. We came up with the strategy - get our offer in, get under contract, get the contingency period (to inspect the home).
Kelly: I feel so lucky to have had Butch as our agent because he really understood what our taste was and what our priorities were. He knew a good thing when he saw it. He also encouraged us to be aggressive. Unless you want to be disappointed time and time again, you’re going to need to be aggressive.
Q: What did you think when you saw the home?
Adam: It’s the old bungalow that is now renovated with new concepts. It has an open, white marble kitchen that Kelly loves, with great accent lighting. It’s still practical in the fact that it’s a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, so we can definitely grow into it. We definitely have room to go downwards too, with a huge basement that is not finished. Then it has location, location, location.
Q: Did anything come up during the buying process?
Adam: If it’s a renovated home, find out if the lender will consider it a flipped property. Since it was purchased and sold within a year, we needed more appraisals (a requirement for the loan). We got delayed on our closing because of it.
Kelly: Luckily, the second appraisal came in above the selling price. That was a little nerve-wracking. We were leaving for vacation the day we ended up closing, so that was stressful.
At a Glance
Kelly Anderson and Adam Krolikowksi’s home, built in 1928 in Inman Park, has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and about 1,850 square feet. They purchased the home in June, assisted by Butch Whitfield with Harry Norman, Realtors. Homes in Inman Park range from the $220,000s to the $940,000s.
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