Senior Living
Paul and Delcia Reece embraced fixer-uppers in the past, trying out new ideas along the way. When they decided to downsize, the couple wasn’t scared off by an “uninhabitable” foreclosure.
Retiree Paul, 69, and Delcia, 52, who works for an Atlanta-based media company, chatted about the challenges they tackled in their Marietta purchase.
Q: What were your priorities?
Delcia: We're at a mindset where we really wanted to simplify, downsize and also move into one-floor living [their previous home was two stories, with more than 2,500 square feet].
Paul: Because of our late-in-life fascination with motorcycles ... we need garage space for them. This house has a garage underneath in which there is easily enough room for four cars and four motorcycles. It was ideal for us.
Q: What was the condition of the home?
Paul: The house was a monumental disaster. Structurally, it's sound, but the people who lived there before us had two dogs that never went outside.
Delcia: The smell of urine ... would just knock you out.
Paul: The first thing we did was have the underlayment [three-quarters of an inch particle board between the subfloor and old carpet] ripped out and new state-of-the-art underlayment put down.
Q: What is your vision for this home?
Paul: We're not changing the footprint of the house. The foundation and framing stay the same, but we're knocking out walls, moving around windows and doors.
Delcia: One of the things that's really important to me is to make this home as energy-efficient as we possibly can, on a reasonable cost basis. We put in a high-end heating and air conditioning system. We put in a high-efficiency water heater to replace the broken water heater.
Q: As you look at aging, what’s one specific change you are making?
Delcia: In the bathroom remodel, we're putting in a large walk-in shower pan. That is less pressure on the need to step over the tub to get into the shower.
Q: What was unique about buying this foreclosure?
Paul: It had to be purchased under a specific mortgage financing purchase program that Fannie Mae has called HomePath [the program offered a renovation loan connected to the mortgage]. In order to bring this disaster up to a living standard that the bank will accept in order to give you a mortgage on it, you borrow additional money. This is based upon a checklist of improvements that you're going to make to it. We came up with $45,000 in things that needed to be done [working with a contractor].
Q: How did the program enable you to go ahead and buy this house?
Paul: Usually the big hurdle is selling your current house. You can't do major renovations on the house you just bought until you get the money out of the house you already own. We have until the end of February [to make the changes noted when they got the HomePath financing]. At that point, the bank comes in and looks at the house and says, OK, not only is this house habitable ... but it's worth more than you borrowed on it [if so, the loan is forgiven].
At a glance
Paul and Delcia Reece’s home, built in 1979 in Marietta’s Mitsy Forest neighborhood, has three bedrooms, two baths and about 1,860 square feet. They purchased it in August, assisted by Ed Robeson with Keller Williams Realty First Atlanta. Homes are listed from the $220,000s to $295,000s.
