David and Davin Wedel were living in a Boston condominium in 2016, awaiting the birth of their twin daughters, when it occurred to them that they might need more space for their family. So they started casually looking at houses outside the city, just to get a feel for the market.
Once they visited an oceanfront house in Marblehead, Mass., however, things began moving quickly.
“We weren’t really looking. We were supposed to be educating ourselves,” said David, 45, who previously worked for tech start-ups but is now focused on raising their children. “We got out of the car at