Seven years ago at an accounting conference in Orlando, Shelby Dibs and Liam Kirker were paired in a teambuilding exercise. Both were young interns at big firms, and as it turned out, they made a pretty good team.
After the conference, Ms. Dibs went back home to New York City and Mr. Kirker returned to San Jose, Calif. “We checked in with each other during the pandemic and became super close friends, talking all the time,” said Ms. Dibs, 29.
Four years would pass before they saw each other again. In 2022, Ms. Dibs went out to Los Angeles to house-sit for her sister and brother-in-law, and wound up being offered an accountant recruiting job in the area. “As soon as the summer ended, I packed up my New York apartment and moved to L.A.,” she said.
Soon after, Mr. Kirker was visiting a friend in L.A., and arranged to meet up with Ms. Dibs for the first time since 2019. “Three months later, I moved to L.A. and we moved into a great apartment in Glendale,” said Mr. Kirker, 28.
They got married last May.
“We loved our apartment,” Ms. Dibs said. “Our rent was only $3,000, which is low here for a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom split-level with 1,500 square feet. We could walk to restaurants, shops and a Trader Joe’s.”
Mr. Kirker, now an accountant for a software company, wanted to buy a home but was discouraged by high prices. So the couple reached out to Alisandra Morisi, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty and a friend of Ms. Dib’s sister.
“Shelby wanted to live close to her sister and brother-in-law in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley,” Ms. Morisi said. “When we started to look last summer, some homes were taking a little longer to sell and that meant more negotiating was possible. Still, it’s always competitive in L.A., especially for first-time buyers.”
Though preapproved by a lender for as much as $1.5 million on a purchase, they “wanted to take the least risk possible,” Ms. Dibs said, which meant a budget of about $875,000 for the right house.
“My grandfather created a trust for each of his grandchildren to use for college, but I went to a less expensive local school, so I had some leftover for a down payment,” Mr. Kirker said. “By making a down payment of a little more than 30 percent, we were offered a lower mortgage rate of 5.625 percent.”
They hoped to find a place with at least the same space as their apartment, especially since Mr. Kirker works full-time at home and Ms. Dibs works at home most of the time. They each wanted a dedicated workspace, a yard for their two dogs and a guest room for their parents and friends to stay.
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