By Carolyn Crist
For the AJC
After Danita and Anthony Moses got married in 2008, they set a goal to own a home in five years. The couple started looking in May 2013 and in November, Scenic Overlook Homes began construction on their house.
Danita, 47, a full-time pre-law student, and Anthony, 45, a car salesman at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet of Buford, talked about their five-bedroom home in Sugar Hill’s Primrose Creek neighborhood.
Q: What were you looking for in a home?
Anthony: We were already renting a home that had everything we wanted — a full basement, five bedrooms and three baths. We wanted something similar to that and needed the same size for our kids.
Danita: In fact, we tried to buy the house we were renting, but the landlord was unwilling to negotiate on cost. It was an older home that needed a lot of upgrades, and we knew it would cost about $40,000 to renovate if we purchased it, so we decided to start looking.
Q: How did you move on this home?
Danita: We decided to go to a builder and have one built, but the first process was upsetting in a different subdivision. I asked many questions about the different options regarding framing, a basement, granite countertops, cabinet colors and hardware in the kitchen, and I kept getting a “no” or running into problems. It felt like we were being nickel and dimed from the very beginning. One night after studying for hours, I laid down to go to sleep but immediately jumped up and hit the street to look for a new place that night. A subdivision just minutes from our house, which we passed all the time, offered new construction homes, and we fell in love with the model home.
Q: What did you love about the house?
Danita: We built it from the ground up, and it really is everything we wanted, including the granite countertops and beautiful cabinets. For this builder, all the answers were “yes.” It’s also in the same ZIP code as our last home — just five minutes around the corner — which was great because we didn’t want to uproot our kids from their schools.
Q: What was the closing process like?
Anthony: I’m a veteran, and the final piece waiting on the (loan through the Department of Veterans Affairs) took longer with the appraisal process, but it was OK. We had to push back the closing time slightly, but it was no problem.
Q: What’s a tip for first-time buyers?
Anthony: Buying a home is a process. Get pre-qualified for a loan and have all of your financial documents in order. Monitor your credit score and search for a home you can afford.
At a Glance
The Moses’ new home, completed in March 2014 in Sugar Hill, has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3,000 square feet. Homes in Primrose Creek range from the mid- to high $200,000s.
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