When Leonor and Taylor Willis moved to Miami in 2021, neither of them had ever set foot in the city before. “Not except for changing planes at the airport,” Mr. Willis said.
The couple, who met at Georgetown University, had been living in a rowhouse in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. Ms. Willis, 28, worked as a teacher and Mr. Willis, 31, was a consultant for regional airlines. They loved the city and their urban lifestyle. But when Mr. Willis was offered a new position at a Miami-based rail company, the two headed south for an unexpected new adventure.
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“When you think of Miami, you think of TV — ‘Miami Vice’ or ‘Burn Notice,’” Mr. Willis said. “Whatever you’re seeing there isn’t the real Miami, so I had very little idea of what the real Miami might be.”
They landed in a two-bedroom rental on the 47th floor of a downtown tower, to preserve the walkable lifestyle they’d enjoyed in Baltimore. They also kept their rowhouse, taking on a tenant to help offset the $5,000 rent at their new apartment, which they felt was worth it thanks to its huge windows and sweeping views.
Ms. Willis left teaching to take a work-from-home job handling business development for a software company (she also works as a freelance photographer), and used the condo’s second bedroom as an office. Even with three furry friends at home — a keeshond named Maurice and two cats, Napoleon and Charlemagne — the apartment was cozy but not overcrowded.
Then in late 2023, the couple welcomed a baby girl and squeezed her crib into their bedroom. They soon realized the baby would need her own room — not because she disturbed them, but because they disturbed her. “We were making too much noise in our sleep and waking her up,” Mr. Willis said.
The idea was to rent a new place with a primary bedroom, a home office for Ms. Willis and a room for their daughter, but it was tougher than it seemed. “It’s hard to find apartments that have three bedrooms,” Ms. Willis said. The ones they did find were asking significantly higher rents.
They wondered if it made more sense to try to buy a house — but without giving up the city lifestyle they loved. For Mr. Willis, who grew up in the far-flung suburbs of Dallas, walkability was key. So the couple started their search in neighborhoods where restaurants and shopping could still be reached by foot, as much for their daughter as themselves.
“As she gets older she’ll have the opportunity to do things a little more independently than being strapped in a car seat all the time, which is what my childhood was like,” Mr. Willis said.
They put the Baltimore house on the market to help with a down payment, and eschewed working with a broker, opting instead to comb listings on real estate sites and find their own way to showings.
Their search began casually and stretched over a year. By last summer, they had zeroed in on a couple of residential neighborhoods where Mr. Willis could have a 15-minute commute to his new job as director of commercial operations for a jet fuel company near Miami International Airport. They had sold the Baltimore house for $465,000 and set their budget for a Miami home to around $750,000.
On the couple’s wishlist: three full bedrooms and, if possible, a second bathroom for guests. Neither is keen on yardwork, so they looked at places with small yards. And both were hoping to find something with some architectural character, maybe Art Deco or Spanish revival.
Among their options:
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