While planning for their June wedding, Nick and Megan Boyers also said “I do” to buying their first home. The couple snapped up a Suwanee foreclosure needing some tender loving care in the low $100,000s. Nick, 25, a teacher at White Oak Elementary School in Sugar Hill, and Megan, 25, who works for the nonprofit organization Heart for Lebanon, chatted about their purchase.
Q: How many homes did you look at during your search?
Nick: We looked at four or five homes. We made an offer on a house that was a short sale, but that didn't end up working out. The house we ended up buying was a foreclosure that had just come up on the market. We had a sense that foreclosures were going fast, and we knew this was a really great deal and it wouldn't stay on the market long, so we just jumped on it.
Q: What was the condition?
Nick: It needed a lot of painting. We had to replace quite a bit of the ceiling where there were leaks on the downstairs floor [coming from the upstairs bathrooms], fix some of the plumbing and fix part of the roof. The ceiling was the mid '90s textured look. We decided to sand down all of the ceilings. That's been a really big, messy project.
Megan: The wood floors were in pretty good condition, but the stain was a light color. Nick and his dad sanded down all of the wood floors and refinished those.
Q: How fast did the negotiation and closing go?
Megan: It went on the market Monday, and we saw it on Tuesday. We made the offer on Wednesday (they offered list price, assisted by agent Mack Perry with Re/Max Center in Suwanee). We wanted to avoid a multiple-offer situation. We knew by Friday that they had accepted the offer. We closed within 45 days.
Q: What did you want in a house?
Nick: We like to entertain, so we wanted a good-sized living area and decent dining room and kitchen. As we started looking, I started to think that I needed a basement for storage and tools.
Q: As a tip for a buyer, what did you consider when choosing the location?
Nick: It was in close proximity to my school [about 15 minutes away]. Suwanee has a nice town center that's a good family area with a lot of restaurants. One thing that Megan really likes is the Suwanee Creek Greenway, so she can run and ride a bike.
Megan: Suwanee is like a smaller town with a community type of feel. We go to Perimeter Church in Johns Creek, so we didn't want to be too far from that. We have a lot of friends in the Norcross/Duluth area. We didn't want to be too far north.
Q: What’s an example of how being a homeowner can change your daily life?
Nick: At one point I looked at my credit card statement, and we had been to Home Depot 19 out of the last 20 days. There was a point where we walked in and a manager stood there with his hands on his hips and said, "Isn't it about time for you guys to clock in?"
At a glance
Nick and Megan Boyers’ home, built in 1996 in Suwanee’s River Run neighborhood, has four bedrooms, two full and two half baths, a basement, and about 2,500 square feet. They bought it in March. Homes in the neighborhood are listed from the $120,000s to $160,000s.
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