Midtown renters Bryant and Britt Bilal wanted to stay close to Georgia Tech, where Bryant is pursuing his MBA, during their search for a single-family home.
The process began in March 2010, when they looked in Atlantic Station in hopes of taking advantage of the first-time home buyers tax credit. But they didn’t find anything they loved and renewed their lease.
When the couple started looking again in February, they found a home near the West Midtown area with room for their baby on the way. Although the government’s tax credit had expired, they took advantage of the low interest rates to buy a home where the seller proclaimed a $100,000 loss.
Bryant, 28, a construction specialist with AGL Resources, and Britt, 28, a first-grade teacher with Fulton County Schools, chatted about their home in Atlanta’s Hills Park neighborhood.
Q: What were some must-haves?
Britt: I like the open floor plan. A newer house was ideal for me just because it was less of a fixer-upper. We still wanted to be near the city, inside the Perimeter, but also at a good price point (they were looking between $200,000 and $250,000).
Bryant: I wanted to see a skyline.
Q: How do you describe the floor plan?
Britt: It reminds us of a beach condo. It's a tall, narrow, almost three-story house, but the bottom is the bonus room. Then we have the two full porches. We have a full porch off our master bedroom, which is where we can pretty easily see the skyline of Atlanta.
Q: How else did this one stand out?
Britt: We have a large kitchen with an island and granite countertops. It had all the amenities and luxuries of a newer home.
Q: Were you able to negotiate for a lower price?
Bryant: There were about four offers. I was very surprised that there were so many offers. We went for the asking price ($215,000, with the seller paying $3,000 toward closing). The appraisal was definitely over the purchase price, but it wasn't over by that much.
Q: What’s the biggest thing you learned during the process?
Bryant: I'm a lot more educated about homeowners associations. I wanted a condo really bad. Some of the fees were advertised on the listing as one price, but ... they were substantially higher.
Britt: Almost every place I looked at, I would fall in love with it. For me, it was learning to look at it not as emotionally, but realistically and logistically. Every place I looked at, I could see our furniture. But it would take away from me not seeing structural [issues].
Q: What was your savings goal for buying a home?
Bryant: We wanted to save enough where we could put 20 percent down and still have six months of emergency savings left over.
Q: What have you enjoyed purchasing for your home?
Britt: We bought an entire new master bedroom set [the Hopen series from Ikea]. We always wanted a king-size bed and never had the space for it, so we finally got that.
At a glance
Bryant and Britt Bilal’s home, built in 2005, has three bedrooms, 21/2 baths and about 2,200 square feet. The couple, assisted by James Marks, Atlanta market manager and broker of Redfin, bought it in March. Homes are listed from the $130,000-$200,000s.
