Name: Eugene and Dorotha Elkerson, and Dorotha’s daughter, Aiyana Hayes, 22. Eugene is senior pastry chef at the J.W. Marriott Buckhead; Dorotha is a Lead Utilization Management RN for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia.
The home: A four-bedroom, three-bath home built in 2003.
Where: Atlanta
Why they sold: Dorotha purchased the home in 2004. After she and Eugene got married in 2009, they wanted to buy a house together. “It would be a fresh start,” she said. Eugene sold his townhome, and the Elkersons saved for the next purchase. Last August, they found a “steal” — a house for $355,000 in Smyrna’s Concord Lake Village neighborhood (sold for $588,000 when built in 2005) — so the Elkersons put their home on the market. The Smyrna home, on a corner lot, had luxurious features such as detailed molding, Dorotha said. It was already a busy time in their lives, with Dorotha in graduate school, and Eugene completing an externship at Le Cordon Bleu (he graduated in May 2013).
Time on market: 90-plus days
Original price: $130,000
Sale price: $130,000
What it took: The Elkersons recently put in a new sink and Silestone countertops in the kitchen. When they decided to put the home on the market, they replaced old carpet in the bonus room. Neutral paint toned down the bold color palette, such as brick red accent walls, a maroon hue in the bedroom and guacamole green paint in the kitchen. “It made such a difference because it looked so clean,” Dorotha said. To paint, all the pictures came off their walls and they didn’t put them back up. “We pretty much were in a move mode,” she said. Little things came up, too. The front door handle got jammed around the same time they were putting the home on the market, so they replaced it with a new lock and handle.
Potential stumbling block: The couple had accepted one offer, but the buyer became demanding, wanting them to leave items such as the washer and dryer, Dorotha said. “I said I would sell it to her, but not give it to her,” she said. The buyer terminated that contract a week before they planned to close. “That threw everything off,” Dorotha said. “Then we had to wait a bit until we got the other buyer.” In the meantime, they were concerned the seller of the Smyrna house would terminate the contract, which was contingent on the sale of their home. They received another offer on the Atlanta home in time, even though they had to pay closing costs for the homes they sold and purchased. “God just worked it all out,” Dorotha said. The Elkersons closed on both homes the same day, in late November 2012, working with Danielle Alleyne of Prudential Georgia Realty.
Seller’s hint: Recognize the power of curb appeal. “I always got my yard cut and landscaped,” Dorotha said. “I never liked my yard to look unkempt.”
