AT A GLANCE
David and Darlene Henderson’s home, built in 1993 in Tyrone, has four bedrooms, two baths and about 2,206 square feet. They purchased the Fayette County home in March, assisted by Kimberly Sherrod with Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers. Homes in the area range from the high $100,000s to low $200,000s.
Reaching retirement gave David and Darlene Henderson an opportunity to head back to Atlanta and not miss out on their grandchildren’s important school and sports events.
David was transferred from the Atlanta area to Leesburg in South Georgia in 1987. David, who retired in 2011, and Darlene chatted about buying a home in Tyrone, which allows them to spend more time with family and host holiday get-togethers.
Q: Why was it important to move closer to your family?
Darlene: I love being around them. We just have such a good time together. I missed them when I would come visit and go home.
David: We missed in the past a lot of (the grandchildren's) functions. Because we had a three-hour ride, we just couldn't come. But we're going to make it up.
Q: What were you looking for in a home?
David: We did not want a two-story house where we would climb up and down stairs.
Q: How long did you look for homes?
David: About four months. When we weren't available to come up and look, we would get my daughter to go out and look at homes. She knew exactly what our taste and flavor was. She would send us some pictures that we could look through.
Q: How did you find this home?
David: I found this home through Zillow.com. It had just come on the market. We were the second people that looked at this house. It looked like it wasn't going to stay on the market real long. We put an offer on it about the same day. We went ahead, under faith that ours (in Leesburg) would eventually come under contract. This was somewhere around the first part of March. The people that owned the house didn't want to take a contingency at first. (They agreed to the contingency) if our home would be under contract or try to sell by the end of March. We were a little stressed there for a while. A week later, we had somebody come out and look at our house and give us a contract that we liked. It worked out, so we felt like that had to be God in the making right there.
Q: What was the condition of the home?
David: We knew the original appliances would have to be replaced, which we did. We replaced the water heater. But overall the house was in pretty good condition. We had to do some repainting. My daughter came over and helped me. We repainted the sitting room, living room and dining room. Then I put up judges paneling underneath the border. I've been putting up some crown molding in the house. It's looking more and more like home and feeling more and more like home.
Q: Did anything unusual happen with the closing?
David: The people that bought our place wanted to close out the same day this house wanted to be closed out. We had our son-in-law be power of attorney, since we couldn't be down there moving and be up here at the same time.
Q: What’s a tip for senior buyers?
David: I know some older people just have a hard time transplanting because of their friends. If (being near family is) really what they want to do, they need to go for it. You want to be next to your children and enjoy the years you have left to be with them, and you can always make new friends.
Q: What have you enjoyed about living near your family?
David: We got to see both of our granddaughters off to their proms. We got to see both of my grandsons' musical performances at school. We've seen my son's boy play baseball.
Darlene: Mother's Day, I had all the kids and grandkids here at my house, so that was great.
