The unexpected opportunity start an ear, nose and throat practice at DeKalb Medical Center intrigued Dr. Preston Imhof. Atlanta, however, had not been on his list of potential cities he was exploring for his next move.
A Buckhead townhome community offered a short commute, a location near shopping and restaurants and a unit spacious enough to add a wine cellar.
Why Atlanta?
Imhof, 31, was finishing his last year of residency in Joplin, Mo., and has traveled to cities such as Phoenix, St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., to potentially set up a practice. A recruiter contacted him about DeKalb Medical Center. The ease getting in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the restaurants in the upscale Buckhead area impressed him.
“Everybody was just so nice in general, from the people at the airport to the people at the hospital to the people at the hotel,” he said. “It just felt very much like the Midwest, where I’m from.”
Imhof had owned a home in Missouri for five years. He wanted to buy a home when he moved, due to the low interest rates and buyer’s market.
“I also wanted to make a commitment to the job and the city itself,” said Imhof, who sold his home in Missouri in August.
Putting down roots
Imhof emailed back and forth with his agent, Sue Marshall of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty, to discuss his desire to buy a townhome built in the 2000s close to nice restaurants and shopping.
“On a daily basis I would get updates on any new homes on the market, any homes that went under contract,” he said. “Sue would also weekly send me an email, and we would discuss whether to put a house on the list to view or whether not to view that house. She would go check out a townhome or a house. I trusted her because I felt like she knew what I was looking for.”
On his visit to Atlanta, he had a list of 11 places to view. A four-story townhome, built in 2001 and with four bedrooms and three baths, was the first property he toured in Buckhead. Each townhome in the Alexandria community, on Lenox Road, had a unique exterior, and unexpected features included an elevator. Townhomes in Alexandria currently range from the mid $400,000s to mid $500,000s.
They continued to look, but he said he would compare each property to the first townhome’s qualities, including solid wood floors and doors, nice wood molding accents, and better quality construction overall. “By the end of the day we circled back around to the first house,” he said.
When Imhof decided that the Alexandria townhouse was ideal, he immediately put in an offer. The seller, however, accepted a cash offer instead of Imhof’s offer, which had a financing contingency. Marshall said she encouraged Imhof to submit a backup contingency offer so he would be in first position in case the cash offer fell through. The seller accepted the backup contingency offer. A few days later, the original buyer terminated the deal and Imhof was immediately under contract. He closed on the property in May, graduated from his residency in June and moved to Atlanta.
The only change needed so far is replacing the carpet in the bedrooms. In addition to plans to make the bedroom in the basement into a wine cellar, Imhof turned another bedroom into an entertainment/workout room with a foosball table, dartboard and a treadmill.
Relocation tip
Research commutes and alternatives such as public transportation. The townhome is about a mile from a MARTA station, for example. Imhof drives against traffic to his practice – Atlanta ENT Specialists, a DeKalb Medical Physicians Group – with about a 20-minute drive each way consistently.
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