Living in five different apartments for the last five years propelled Matt and Katie Kissel to purchase their own place. Hearing about increasing housing prices in Atlanta coupled with the low interest rates solidified their decision to buy.
Katie, 24, who works in food ingredient sales chatted about their purchase in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood.
(Matt, 26, works in IT for Ascensus.)
Q: Where were you living?
A: We moved to Atlanta in September of last year. We rented in Old Fourth Ward and liked being inside the perimeter.
Q: How did you search for a home?
A: Online we probably looked at 200 houses. We didn’t really find the need to go see a bunch of those houses in person. We found one house on Hosea Williams Drive (in Kirkwood). We finally were like, OK, this is something we definitely wanted to take a look at. That is where we met our Realtor (Margie Yondorf with Atlanta Intown Real Estate) because she was selling that house.
Q: Howdid the search progress?
A: Later that day, we saw the house we live in now on Zillow.com. We absolutely loved it. We were going to look around a little bit more. You know how it is: You love the house but feel bad because you’ve only walked inside two? The next weekend we got a call from Margie that an offer had been put in on this house. We decided we weren’t ready to give it up so we decided to put in an offer.
Q: How did you decide what to offer?
A: We thought the house was pretty fairly priced. But we definitely decided to go ahead and as our initial offer put in something a little bit lower. Then there was a little bit of back and forth as far as what the homeowner needed to sell the house. When we looked at it and we looked at that amount, it wasn’t that much more than what we originally offered. We decided it was ultimately worth it.
Q: What did you love about the house?
A: The house is currently a three-bedroom, two-bath house, with 1,700 square feet on the main floor. It has an upstairs that is unfinished that would add at least, I would say, another 1,400 square feet or so. This worked absolutely perfect for us because we don’t want to have to move in a few years when we start having kids. When the time comes where we have the finances and the need for that upstairs area, we could go ahead and do that. We think we could definitely gain value.
Q: What’s something you always wanted in a house and got with this house?
A: My house growing up was on a concrete slab, and it was a one-story house and it didn’t have a fireplace, either. Two things for me were: stairs with a banister and a fireplace for Santa to come down the chimney.
Q: What did you learn about buying a home?
A: I wish I had done more research on what is required of the closing process because these was so much stress involved in that. No matter how much you think you have everything in order, it never is.
Q: What’s something stressful that happened?
A: I traveled down in Florida (on business) the day my paperwork was due. That day I get a call and it is, “We still need X, Y and Z paperwork.” I’m having to say, “I’m sorry can you excuse me for a minute? I have to fax this over.”
Q: Did that result in your closing getting pushed back?
A: It did, just a few days, thank goodness, because I’ve heard horror stories of closings getting pushed back months. Of course the law firm that did the closing, they did everything excellent. They were on top of it, and of course Margie and Sally (Alcock with Prudential Georgia Realty Midtown, who represented the seller) were all just great. The homeowner herself, she was just fantastic. I’m so happy that we got to meet so many wonderful people throughout the experience.
At a Glance
Matt and Katie Kissel’s home, built in 2003 in Kirkwood, has three bedrooms, two baths and about 1,700 square feet. They purchased it in April. Homes in Kirkwood range from $75,000-$485,000.
About the Author
