I have a longer post in the works, but I’ve been bust at work today so I haven’t had time to shape it into anything coherent. But since the GDBF and I in the early stages of house-hunting (it’ll be early next year when we actually do this thing) and I’m the type of person who meticulously researches anything new (aside from a few unfortunate exceptions) and tries to be as educated as possible before making important decisions, I’ve basically been interviewing all my coworkers who are homeowners about their houses. So now I’m turning to my blog readers as well. If you own a home in metro ATL, lay it on me: what do you like about your house/condo/whatever, the neighborhood, etc., what do you not like… anything you can think of that you feel like sharing. Thanks in advance!
ETA: Because I’m not a moron, I can figure out things like “lots of electrical outlets” and “nice neighborhood.” This is exactly why I want to hear specifically from people who own homes in Atlanta. I want to hear about things like what you like/dislike about your neighborhood, what your taxes are like, what your HOA (if there is one) is like, etc. Joeventures’ comment is a good example.
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11 Responses to "Open house thread (ha, aren’t I so clever…)"
You know how they say you can never have too many electrical outlets? They are right. My house was custom built…. and I’ve got too few electrical outlets.
Go through normal, boring routines in your head. When I walk into this kitchen, where can I sit the groceries while I put them away? When I’m looking for X in the pantry, shelving, at midnight, will there be enough lights? How will we get that bed up the stairs? Where are the dirty clothes going to go until its time to do the laundry? Where’s the junk catcher? (I.E - where are you going to dump the mail for sorting out and processing?)
I’ve actually got a book I bought somewhere that talks about all these sorts of issues. I designed my own house, and I’ve got nothing but compliments about how its laid out, and the general utility, most of it thanks to excessive thinking about questions like the above, that the book runs through. Doesn’t mean I didn’t fuck a lot up too, but less than I could have. When I get by the bookshelves in a bit, I’ll see if I can’t find the book and will post the title/author, if so.
If there is one thing I’m glad I did, I worked through an agent. He found listings that I would never have found, or that I would have dismissed early in my search. There are good agents and bad agents, and I got a good agent who asked lots of questions and listened very carefully for what I was looking for.
One thing I could have done better: I did not adequately consider my long-term needs. At the time, I was thinking first of getting myself somewhere very accessible to MARTA, and second, of getting myself out of my parents house once and for all. So I was a little hasty in my decision — that I got as good a place as I did was more luck than anything.
When I had the condo inspected, there were a few flaws uncovered, all of which could have been fixed by the owner. Two of the flaws were fixed. For the other two, I asked for a cash reimbursement for me to fix those flaws. Bad idea. I should have either asked the owner to fix all the flaws I wanted fixed, or lower the price. What I did added at least two hours to the closing — the closing attorney insisted on having invoices for the items I was getting a cash reimbursement for.
The best part of my deal was the mortgage. I’m happy to refer. The deal was incredible. 5.5% fixed rate 15yr. Having 20% down payment helped, I’m sure, but the deal was still far better than I was expecting to get.
As far as the neighborhood goes, some of the politics have been surprisingly regressive. The movement to preserve the neighborhood, I feel, is born more out of an ignorant form of nimbyism than it is any sort of an enlightened, progressive movement. Most of all, living in such a low-density, single/low-use neighborhood that sits where it does contributes much more to the public safety issues than what sorts of people you can find here. I’m sorry today that I didn’t give other places a more serious look.
Overall, I feel lucky to have the place that I have, though I’m sure had I been more patient in my search, I could have done a little better. I hope my experience is helpful to you. Good luck!
Homeowners’ Association - we don’t have one. Bad - ppl are not compelled to keep up their houses, some places around here look kind of bad. Good - they don’t hassle us because we don’t have enough time to mow the lawn during show season.
Fixer-Upper - ours was not necessarily a huge fixer upper, but there was/is work to do here. Mostly we’ve liked it but even when well-planned projects do not necessarily go as we think they will. We are doing the work ourselves; if you hire people it goes differently, naturally.
HVAC - a new HVAC system is a godsend. If the system is old, plan on replacing it and don’t cheap out. Or, find somewhere that has a new HVAC system. It cost us about $5,000.00 to do ours and it has been worth every penny.
Storage - You need it. I know you guys are living in a pretty small apartment and you seem to have purged a lot of stuff. You still need storage, and you will need/want more than you have. Two words: Container Store. Putting that shit in our closets has been the best thing ever.
Kitchen - a shitty kitchen makes for a shitty house. Same for shitty bathrooms, so far as I’m concerned. I love our kitchen. It makes up for the smaller bathrooms and the other stuff that I don’t necessarily like about this house.
Yard - whatever amount of yard work you plan on doing, buy the house with that yard. We did not - our yard is a mess and has been, will be, until we decide to do anything about it. We erred on the yard thing.
Home inspection - when you get to that point, be sure to pick an inspector and get it on your own.
Okay, my thoughts will be useless and annoying, because I’m from Baltimore and I only spent a week in Atlanta over the summer. Someone told me to take a walk through Little Five Points, and I did, and I was floored by — of all things — those butterflies that everyone has hanging on their houses.
I live in a neighborhood where the heroin dealers and the whores fight drunks for space on the street corners. I say hi to the man across the street every morning, knowing full well that his kid killed one of my co-workers.
I don’t know if houses in L5P are affordable, or if everyone who lives there is a jackass, or what the truth of that neighborhood is, but when I walked through it on a muggy evening in July, I totally fell in love with it. So my two cents: move there. Based on a three-hour visit, it seems like the perfect mix of both the harsh and beautiful parts of life.
If you’re interested, the link by my name goes to my site, where I write about my neighborhood. I just started posting stories about my visit to Atlanta, those will be going up over the next month or so.
Oh, yeah. The guy who said get lots of electrical outlets. Brilliant man. Follow his advice.
Butterflies on the houses: you’re thinking of Inman Park. And watch it w/ your use of the word “whore.”
I like L5P but it’s kind of pricey. Plus I want to hear from people who actually own homes in Atlanta. Because they can tell me things beyond what I can just see from walking around.
We live in Drew Valley, which is in Brookhaven between the trains and the Buford Highway corridor. It’s pretty nice here if you like 50s ranch houses, a lot of people walk or run all the time, the house prices are fairly reasonable (probably due to constant airplane traffic from PDK, but you tune that out).
There is not a lot of crime and the neighborhood consists of young families, older people, and gay and straight couples. It is not very destination-walk friendly, but for fitness, it’s great and I often walk late at night without (much) fear. There’s a lot of dogs in the neighborhood and a lot of parties, so with the airport nearby, it can be a somewhat noisy place.
The neighborhood has a lot of mature hardwoods and there’s a base of granite under the soil, at least at my house. It’s starting to get old tear-down/new McMansions and the new houses are about 3x the cost of the ones from the 50s. My house is characteristic of much of the neighborhood–a California contemporary ranch with hardwood floors, half-brick/half wood siding, picture window in the living room, small kitchen, 1.5 baths, and pine beamed ceilings. I understand they are very fire prone with that wooden ceiling.
There’s no HOA which is a good thing since we haven’t mowed all summer (HA!), but there’s a fairly active civic association. Taxes are pretty reasonable as we live in unincorporated DeKalb County. The schools are good–I know you don’t care much about that, but it makes the neighborhood more desirable–Ashford Park Elementary, Chamblee Middle School, and Chamblee High School.
It’s inside the Perimeter, near Marta Route 19, and the Brookhaven Marta Station.
Thanks Joe, Nikki, and Laura!!
Oh yeah! HOAs… I forgot about that, and I’m on the board of mine.
You’ll probably hear this several times from several people, so if this is a repeat, please forgive me.
If there is an HOA wherever you’re buying, make sure you read through the docs before you close.
Many HOAs have silly rules, especially HOAs for single-family subdivisions. Even if the current board takes a relaxed attitude toward enforcing the rules, that will have no bearing on whether future boards will take the same attitude.
And besides, the board is entrusted to enforce the rules. Even when the rules are silly, it’s very much in everybody’s interest when the rules are enforced in a uniform matter. And that sucks, especially when the rules are silly.
So be much more on the lookout for silly rules in the docs than for good/bad HOA boards. The board can change, but the rules governing the HOA are much, much more difficult to change.
You know where I live and what my house is like, so I won’t bore you with details there. I have no HOA that I know of, though there is a Morningside Lenox Park Neighborhood association thingee that appears to be more social/neighborhood appreciation oriented than anything else.
Pros about my house: it has a lot of charm and character, it’s in a neighborhood I spend a lot of time in, the upkeep of the yard is just easy enough for me, and it doesn’t feel too big for just one person. The most important pro is the big, new kitchen that is a lot of fun to cook in. I loved the kitchen when I saw the house for the first time, and that ultimately is what made me love the rest. I also liked that the important things were either original materials or redone in a classic way–like marble in the bathroom, the original 1912 door still on the house, crystal doorknobs, etc. I know that some renovation was done to the house but it’s not done in a way that makes it seem like it doesn’t fit the character of the house overall.
I went into my search knowing I wanted a house with at least 2 bedrooms, hopefully at least 1 1/2 bathrooms, a not too huge yard, lots of storage in either a basement or an attic, and renovation potential in the long term. I also wanted to be in one of the more cohesive and trendy in-town neighborhoods with a lot of bars/restaurants/shopping in walking or quick driving distance, and a place that wasn’t transitional since I would be living alone. Ultimately, I had to compromise on the bathrooms thing with the hope of adding at least one on at a later time. I also picked somewhere with much less closet space than I needed, which is probably the biggest con in the house. The basement is scary, even though it serves its purpose. And while the attic could be expanded into a master suite, it will be very expensive to do so if I ever get around to it. Still, I decided those were cons I could live with.
Ultimately I paid more for the house than I had originally intended to pay, but I bought into a better neighborhood than I thought I could afford. I decided the most important thing would be finding a house that would hold its value, which meant that I needed a neighborhood with a lot of charm and good schools. I researched the neighborhoods that had held their value the best over the last 30 years, and Morningside was very high on the list.
One thing that was important to my home search, and may be important to you. I would go look at these houses and find ones that I really liked. But before I could make any decisions, I always felt the need to imagine myself actually living there. I would get in the car and go find somewhere to get gas, pick up my drycleaning, or grab something to eat. If I couldn’t find places right away that would fit those basic needs and where I felt like I could be really comfortable going to all the time for years and years, I would cross a neighborhood entirely off my list. That’s why I stopped looking in Kirkwood, Grant Park, Piedmont Heights, Garden Hills, and a bunch of other neighborhoods I initially considered. The feel just wasn’t right when I had to imagine it being part of my every day life.
Lots of good advice here. Just a couple things to add.
Once you narrow down to a couple of neighborhoods that you like try taking a drive or walk thru at all times of the day. What is it like at the time you get up and head out to work? What about Saturday night if you’re coming home really late? Check out the traffic, the mood in the area, and the overall activity level. Jerry insisted on doing this while we were looking in our neighborhood and I’m so glad we did - there were no big surprises about the ‘hood once we settled in.
If you have a sense of where you want to be (X distance from work; X distance from class; X distance from friends) then I would suggest you look at a map and explore all the areas that meet those criteria. You may be surprised to find an area that is new to you (and maybe your agent too) that suits you perfectly. That is exactly what happened with us. And don’t eliminate areas because of reputation or other random info - check them out for yourselves. Areas can change.
I love our house, and our neighborhood but I wish we were closer to a decent restaurant, a coffee shop, and a bookstore.
I don’t know the names of neighborhoods, but we have friends who live in the area sort of behind Agnes Scott. It’s close to Decatur, but still quiet and friendly.
[...] up about Midtown. (Rusty mentioned this in his post a few days ago, and Joeventures touched on it in a comment.) Living in Midtown would be nice because it’s close to work and is very walkable, Piedmont [...]
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