The Hunt is Over

Last week I wrote about our beginning adventures in house and apartment hunting in the Metro-Atlanta area. We have now spent the last two Saturdays looking at places (about six in total). Yesterday's journey took us to Alpharetta and Norcross. We absolutely loved both of the first two places we looked at and even got to explore a bit in Alpharetta while we killed time between our morning and afternoon appointments. So, I can now say that after living in the Metro-Atlanta area for a year and three months, that I've finally been to Northpoint Mall. Our visits to places in Norcross were very disappointing. One of the places, which I was iffy on anyway due to the very odd string of emails between Roxanne and the owner of the place (who lives in Oklahoma) met with a feeling of thinking it was possibly a scam. I mean, $900 a month including ALL utilities seems great on paper, but we couldn't even view the inside, nor could we even completely walk around the outside of the place due to how the place is built. It also appeared that the owner's furniture was still inside. Frankly, it looked like someone still lived there and I felt very uncomfortable looking in windows to try to view the place. The other place we were supposed to look at in Norcross was a big fat “no” as soon as I saw the outside of the place; it didn't help that the realtor never even showed up and when we called them, they tried to claim that we had emailed them to cancel the viewing. The offered to be there within ten or fifteen minutes, but by that time, they were already ten minutes late for the appointment, I was fighting a wicked bad migraine, and I had already decided that I didn't like the place based on how run down the outside looked.

So, after much debate and looking, we have finally decided on a nice little townhouse in Alpharetta, which is only five minutes away from my office. I have to admit, while I'm looking forward to no longer having to commute to work on GA-400 and I-285, I will miss the Decatur area. Ultimately, though, moving to Alpharetta (even though it is “OTP”) is the best move for us. The aforementioned commute, plus the better job prospects for Roxanne (with a BS in PR and Marketing and a MBA in Operational Management) make it a much more sound decision than trying to stay in Decatur just because we know where everything is. The increase in rent (by about $240) is easily offset by the savings in fuel and laundry alone (the place we'll be renting comes with a washer and dryer in the unit). I've even already started exploring the area via Google Maps, and we'll be within five to ten minutes of grocery stores and other shopping and restaurants.

The only thing left to do now is contact the realtor to start the paperwork, budget for the move (deposits, moving van, etc.) and start packing.

~ JC