At a Glance
Antonio and Sherida Adams’ new home in Atlanta’s Pittman Park community has five bedrooms, four baths and about 3,500 square feet. They purchased it in October. Homes in Pittman Park range from $169,900-$216,900 (base prices).
Attending a bridal show at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria Centre not only gave Antonio and Sherida Adams ideas for their wedding. Antonio, 29, who owns and operates an 18-wheeler, and Sherida, 30, a nurse practitioner, met real estate agent Latisha Williams with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metrobrokers, who was a paid vendor at the show, promoting herself as “The Wedding Realtor.”
A few years after their 2009 wedding, Williams helped the couple, who moved from Albany, Ga., buy their first place. Sherida talked about their home in Pittman Park, a new neighborhood by Peachtree Communities in south Fulton County’s Camp Creek area.
Q: What was one of your first steps?
A: We started the pre-qualification process with Wells Fargo at the same time we were transitioning back to the city.
Q: Why was getting pre-qualified important?
A: It gives you an idea of what you can afford. You don't want to spend a lot of time looking at places that you later find out you can't afford. Then it looks a lot better to people who are selling if you've already got your financing taken care of. We wanted to make sure everything was in order.
Q: How did your price range change during the process?
A: Initially we were prepared to pay a smaller amount. I didn't ask what the maximum could be. We just said, we want our mortgage to be XYZ, and we got that figure. The initial pre-qualification amount was $175,000. When we started looking, I was not finding what I wanted. I had looked this place up online and the prices were extremely high. We weren't going to come here, but we did. But it had the sale prices. The house we purchased was a little over $200,000. When the lender asked what price we were going to be looking in, she said we had enough room to go there.
Q: What did you like about the homes?
A: The homes here look deep. When you see them, you're like, "How do they put these five bedrooms and four baths in here?" And the rooms are very spacious. I love the closet space. My husband has his walk-in closet, and I have mine.
Q: In building the home, what did you add?
A: We did a few upgrades. We put the hardwood floors through the kitchen. We added onto the back porch.
Q: Was there a feature you wanted that you didn't get?
A: I initially was really obsessed with a corner lot. A corner lot is considered prime and an upgrade. I thought about it. My husband wanted a covered back porch, so we compromised on the corner lot.
Q: How did you celebrate buying a new home?
A: We got some really good seats to the Hawks when they played the Miami Heat. We bought some furniture — a platform-style bedroom set and a living room set from Ashley Furniture, and a dinette table for the eat-in kitchen from Darby's Furniture.
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