As the housing market picked up, Justin and Nikki Soss decided to jump in again and try to upgrade into a home with more bedrooms and amenities.
‘With the interest rate being low, we could get something bigger but payments could be lower,” said Justin, 32, who works for Georgia-Pacific.
The couple owned a three-bedroom home in Kennesaw, which they decided to rent, but they didn’t want to leave the area. With a daughter, Taylor, who is 2, they hoped to find a house in Kennesaw’s Bullard Elementary, McClure Middle and Kennesaw Mountain High School district. Working with Janice Overbeck of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, they viewed these three Cobb County homes.
No. 1
Spacious brick traditional
A four-bedroom, three-bath home with an unfinished basement on Mayes Farm Trail in Marietta boasted 17-foot ceilings in the great room, plus a separate living room and dining room. The layout, with a bedroom on the main level, also offered accessible space for Nikki’s father when he visited. The home was not in the school district they preferred, though. The home, built in 2002 in Madison Woods, was listed for $265,000.
No. 2
Newer, on corner lot
A four-bedroom, three-bath home on Arlington Point Way NW in Kennesaw featured a ranch-style floor plan and beautiful interiors, said Nikki, 33, who works for a chemical company. Two things made the couple pause: The home was on a main road in the Arlington Pointe neighborhood, and it was a short sale, which could lengthen the purchase process. The home, built in 2004, was listed for $270,000.
No. 3
Fantastic decor and yard
A five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home on Honeydew Lane in Kennesaw boasted a basement that wowed them, with its hardwood floors, full bathroom with tile floors and space for an office and playroom. The acre-plus lot had a creek in the backyard, and they could envision their daughter playing in the woods and catching crawdads in the creek. The setting offered privacy from the screened-in porch and yard, they said. The home, built in 1996 in Ivey Grove, was listed for $274,600.
The Choice
No. 3. They had been hunting for about 10 weeks, and when Nikki walked into the Ivey Grove home, she gave away her poker face, Justin said. They knew they would need to offer the asking price, since other buyers were viewing the property and appeared interested. Within two hours they put in an offer, which was accepted. During the negotiations, they added in the furniture, including the small chandelier in the master bathroom that Nikki loved. "I felt like I had decorated this place myself," Nikki said. They closed on the home in July 2013. "The home is perfect," she said.
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