Kimberly Shupe found so many of the houses she wanted for herself snatched up by other buyers that she came up with an unconventional strategy after moving from Florida. She told her real estate agent, Lisa Harris with RE/MAX Center, to start the offer process if Harris saw a house and if Shupe was unable to get away from work to view it.
The process didn’t have to get to that point for Shupe, 46, a legal assistant who moved from Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Why Atlanta
Shupe desired to move near her brother and sister in law, who live in Buford. “I had visited many, many times over the years,” she said.
Putting down roots
Shupe discovered the home inventory in Buford was limited, and quality homes in the $65,000s-85,000s were even smaller. She has previously purchased homes in Florida and New York.
Shupe typically would have 95 to 110 houses in her search parameters, but less than a dozen actually would be available, she said. The rest would be under contract and pending sale. Some of the remaining homes were ones she had seen and knew needed major repairs. She expanded her location north of Buford, to Braselton, Hoschton and Winder. Her price also increased to $85,000-$125,000.
At first, Shupe lost out on the home she ended up buying in Buford’s Windgate neighborhood. Her offer submitted online for the HUD foreclosure came in second. She kept looking, putting offers in on other homes. After the winning offer on the Buford home fell through she learned the house was hers for the taking.
“Then three or four weeks later, Lisa emails me and says, ‘We got it.’ I said, ‘Great, which one? Which house is it and how much did I pay for it?” Shupe said.
The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home, built in 1994 in the Windgate neighborhood, has about 2,035 square feet. It has a bonus room, which she plans to add a closet to, creating a fourth bedroom. Extras include a fireplace, which Shupe has never had in a home. Changes were needed, though. The hot water heater had been dismantled and parts were missing. The stove and dishwasher were in bad shape and needed to be replaced, as did some rot and trim.
She closed on the home in about four weeks and looks forward to making changes to areas including the backyard. “It’s over half acre and essentially a blank canvas. The yard needs very little undone as far as landscaping because there’s not much there. I can do what I want with it,” she said.
Relocation tip
Use online resources to learn about the communities. Shupe visited chamber of commerce and city websites to learn about restaurants and stores and special events such as farmer’s markets and festivals.
Using Google Earth, she could plug in the address for an aerial shot and see what the neighborhood looked like and even how residents kept up their properties. Sites such as crimemapping.com enabled her to enter a home’s address and see if assaults, thefts, robberies, burglaries and other incidents had occurred nearby. Viewing country property tax records online revealed who owned the home and the status of the last tax bill. “Research, research, research. Get an address, plug the whole address into Google and see what comes up. You never know,” she said.
Newcomer Living is a new feature that will appear regularly in Homefinder. If you moved to Atlanta in 2013, bought a residence and are willing to share your story, contact Lori Johnston at lori@fastcopy.biz.
