Frequent visits to Atlanta helped Riley LeBrun keep his pulse on the real estate market. But when he got serious about buying a home here, he was surprised to find more aggressive buyers and fewer properties for sale.
Why Atlanta?
LeBrun, who lived in California, already owned real estate in Atlanta, but it was a commercial property.
“I thought I could manage it from California and live the dream of managing something from afar, but it turned out it was more work than I thought it would be. I moved here, more or less for the job, and bought more property since moving,” said LeBrun, 36, who works for Epic Enterprises, a company that buys and sells commercial properties, and Baseline Asset Management, which manages those complexes.
LeBrun was making trips to Atlanta every two or three months in 2011 and 2012. “I just kept an eye on it,” he said. In October 2012, he decided to move to Georgia, but the housing market was shifting away from a buyer’s market. Fewer homes and condos were available, and multiple buyers were bidding. “Everything I started looking at suddenly got multiple offers on it and disappeared within a day or two. Inventory dried up real fast,” he said. “I was very fortunate to have gotten into my condo.”
Putting down roots
LeBrun was seeking to buy an inexpensive property he could fix up, live in and possibly sell in the future. After making offers on about 25 properties, LeBrun thought, “Maybe this isn’t going to work. Maybe it’s not the right time to be buying.” For example, for a three-bedroom, two-bath house, LeBrun said his offer was among more than 45 placed on the property in three days. He offered $79,000; the home ended up selling to another buyer for $145,000.
“This has a faint echo of the buying frenzy when I was in California selling homes,” he says.
In the middle of his frustration, LeBrun looked online and came across a short sale condo represented by Adell Forbes, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Residential. Another buyer had placed an offer on the Midtown condo, but some paperwork needed to be filed by a certain deadline for the sale to occur. LeBrun wrote an offer, which the bank held onto for about a month. When the other buyer was unable to move forward, LeBrun was approved as the buyer with his $70,000 offer (units of the same size were selling for $110,000, he said). He purchased the one-bedroom, one-bath property with views of Midtown and Buckhead in March.
LeBrun embarked on renovations in the nearly 770-square-foot condo, which was built in 1989. LeBrun removed the pass-through window between the kitchen and living room to open the space, also adding a bar. A built-in bookshelf and art niche was constructed in the entryway, and he replaced the carpet with a wood-grain laminate. The original fiberglass tub/shower was removed and a slate tile shower was added. The walls and ceilings were painted as well.
Relocation tip
Find an agent that will work with you and coach you throughout the sale, especially if you’re buying in an area where multiple buyers are bidding, he said. “The strength of a buyer right now is in their agent,” LeBrun said.
