Photo by Kyle Kurlick // Buy this photo

Falls Robinson sits in his television room at his house in Memphis.

When Falls Robinson set off in search of his first home, he had three items on his wish list: location, location, location.

Falls Robinson’s home is located off Yates near the Memphis Memorial Park. He has been living in the house since September, 2009.

The front living room features a couple couches and an addition television for guests to watch with direct connection to the dining room. The kitchen connects to the television room including a open snack bar view where Robinson can prepare meals and still watch a game.Photos by Kyle KurlickSpecial to the Commercial Appeal

Robinson’s bedroom is simple in design with a piece of art work hanging over the master bed.

Specifically, that meant East Memphis.

“I don’t like driving far, so I wanted to be close to work for sure,” said Robinson, a financial adviser for UBS Financial Services’ office near Poplar Avenue and Massey Road. “That was the one thing that led me here.”

That, plus Realtor Margaret P. Burke of Marx-Bensdorf Realtors, who showed Robinson as many as 50 homes in two months.

The two started their search in the area of Marquette Park at Park Avenue and Mt. Moriah Road — an area Robinson initially thought was perfect for him.

“I told Margaret what I was looking for, and when we went looking, I realized that was not what I was looking for,” he said. “I realized I wanted something bigger, something that was not just a first-time home.

“So we kept looking until I found the location I wanted.”

That turned out to be the neighborhoods off South Yates Road near Poplar, which already felt like home for Robinson. His family lives half a mile away in the house where Robinson grew up.

“The location was perfect,” Robinson said. “Everything just worked out.”

Robinson closed on the three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,700-square-foot home on Sept. 29, his birthday. He paid $173,300 for the house.

“It was my birthday present,” he joked.

And it was exactly what he wanted.

The house had all the qualities Robinson hoped for in his first home, the primary one being “good bones.”

“I just wanted it to be a good home,” he said. “I didn’t mind having to do things to it to make it even better.”

So in the five and a half months since he closed on the house, Robinson has had the entire interior repainted, put in new lighting, added cedar posts along the front of the house and changed the shutters.

Eventually, he plans to update the bathrooms, but he’s in no rush. The kitchen had already undergone a minor facelift, with new dark laminate countertops and white paint and new hardware on the original cabinetry.

Robinson’s favorite spot in the house is “the den I didn’t think I would use,” he said.

“It’s where the fireplace is. It’s been my favorite room, and I thought I would never even use the fireplace.”

Upon entering the house, a formal living area houses two sofas that face each other and provide a nice spot for watching a wall-mounted flat-screen TV. Just off the room is a small formal dining space that contains an oval table with antique, cane-seat chairs.

The kitchen leads into a laundry area situated just inside the back entry. Its terra cotta tile floors carry into the den, where half of one wall is covered by the brick hearth of the fireplace Robinson does, in fact, use.

The room’s paneled walls are painted a soft beige. Built-in bookshelves line one wall, and another features a large, colorful painting by late Memphis artist Sam Mays.

Down the hall, a guest bath is almost entirely white: white tile floors and walls, white fixtures, white shower curtain. Above the tile, the walls are painted a shade of gold.

An extra bedroom eventually will serve as Robinson’s home office, and next to it, a guest room contains a roll-top desk and a bed with an upholstered headboard and green bedding.

The master suite features an en-suite bath, dark red bedding and another large, colorful canvas by Mays. The room also contains a bench made by Robinson’s mother, Ann Robinson, from a rough-hewn tree trunk, a hobby of hers. Another of her creations serves as a coffee table in the den.

The exterior of the home met Robinson’s needs and then some. He got the fenced, spacious backyard he wanted for Merrell, his yellow lab, as well as a large wood deck that provides ample space for entertaining.

Robinson, who started his home search simply because the market conditions for a first-time buyer were too good to pass up, couldn’t be more pleased with his decision.

“It was a great environment to buy a home right now,” he said. “I knew I was going to buy one soon, and the interest rates were low and I was ready to get out of the condo I was in.”

Burke, for her part, enjoyed helping Robinson break into the market.

“It was great working with him,” she said. “He was truly appreciative of everything, and it’s always a thrill for me to work with first-time home buyers and watch them get excited about their first home.”

She said she was happy to help Robinson find a house that was not only perfect for him, but also a great investment.

“We had an opportunity to find this home for him in an excellent neighborhood where there are a lot more expensive homes all around him, so there is only room for the property value to go up,” she said.

“It worked out perfect,” added Robinson.

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