Over the years, Teri and Kevin Love found plenty to appreciate about life in Henderson, Nev. There was the close-knit subdivision where they raised their four children. There were the careers they had built there: Mrs. Love works as a licensed professional counselor; Mr. Love is a civil engineer. Then there was the beauty of the desert and the sweet smell of creosote bush after a rainstorm.
Still, Mrs. Love, who had spent most of her life in the Las Vegas Valley, longed for a change of scenery, a place that offered more than the rows of identical stucco tract homes with gravel yards.
“I really wanted to move to the green,” she said.
It was a pull she had felt for years, especially after visits to extended family on the East Coast. There may have been more innate reasons, too. “I later found out my biological family’s there,” said Mrs. Love, 54, who was adopted. “I have a friend that’s like, ‘Well, maybe you knew.’”
After the three oldest Love children — Joseph, now 23; Cayna, 21; and Bethanie, 19 — left home for college, a cross-country move began to seem feasible. When Mr. Love’s company opened an office in Philadelphia, the timing, and the location, felt right.
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The Loves’ 16-year-old son, John, was on board. Mr. Love, 48, needed some convincing, but ultimately came around. “Not to sound too sappy, but I just wanted her to have the things she was really wanting,” he said.
There was one hitch: They didn’t know much about Philadelphia. The last time they visited, during a family road trip in 2016, “the most we did was get a cheesesteak,” Mrs. Love recalled.
“We didn’t even stay,” Mr. Love added. “We drove past the Liberty Bell.”
So the couple set aside a long weekend in June to scope out properties for around $500,000. They wanted something near public transit so Mr. Love could commute to his office (Mrs. Love can take telehealth appointments from home), in a place with a school district that offered a strong mix of academics and athletics for John, set to enter his junior year. They also wanted enough bedrooms to accommodate their children, including Bethanie, who is taking a gap year from college.
And Mrs. Love had one more box to check: “something just a little quirky.”
The couple contacted Brian Griffin, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Main Line, in Ardmore, Pa., who warned them that $500,000 could be a tricky number. “It’s right in the middle of the road,” he said. “There’s more people looking in that range.”
Together with Mr. Griffin and his colleague Chelsea Lamb, the Loves toured 18 properties in 11 towns, most in a C-shaped array around Philadelphia.
“They had some funny questions,” Mr. Griffin recalled. “It kind of blew their mind that, like, not every house has an irrigation system here.”
Among their options:
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