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Transylvania County, NC Real Estate News

By Isaac Allen, REALTOR, Brevard, NC area Specialist.
(White Squirrel Realty)
The startup may be the most important part.  It's the part that needs to have momentum if you plan to succeed.  I am a farmer when I am not managing vacation rentals, I plant seeds.  The soil prep is the most important first step I can take to assure success.  The seeds are important to choose carefully, and then the timing of the planting is critical, too early or too late can make all the difference.  Here are some pictures of the seedlings that are coming up this spring.  The garlic that I planted in November has made it through the winter and is looking good.  It is on track to harvest in July and I love garlic!  The potatoes are red and white variety and I like to plant them in the middle of march.  This year, the potatoes that I harvested last year had sprouted and I felt like the...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Today I had calls from Memphis, TN; New York; Fall Church, VA; Bay Point, CA; and Randallstown, MD. It would be great if those calls were coming from clients but I will never know because I didn’t answer any of them. Truth is, I’m a successful Realtor and I no longer answer my phone.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who is fed up with the run away number of robo calls, scams, unwanted solicitations, and unwanted texts notifying me that I’m a winner (thanks, but I already know that).  The National Do Not Call program is a joke. I’ve had my cell phone number registered for years, but it’s done nothing to curb the phone calls. And now there is this thing called spoofing. According to the FCC Caller ID spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller...
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By Isaac Allen, REALTOR, Brevard, NC area Specialist.
(White Squirrel Realty)
Isaac Allen owner of Residential Property Management & Sales LLC manages 90+ rental properties with a mix of long and short term rentals.  We are currently growing our rental portfolio.  My office team includes Jana Livingston and Hope Van Leeuwen, both can assist with listing your property as a rental with our firm.   Find us on the web at; www.brevardncvacationrental.com Here at Residential Property Management & Sales LLC Vacation Rentals we understand what makes a luxury vacation home right for you. We make it our business to find a vacation rental that meets all of your needs and goes above and beyond your expectations. By providing the finest in vacation rentals we can ensure that your vacation is a success no matter where you decide to stay.AttractionsWhen you are staying in Resid...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
We admit it....when it comes to living in Brevard, North Carolina we are biased. After living in Florida for 30+ years and watching the area morph from a nice Gulf-side community to a bloated, over-populated megalopolis we were ready for a change and anxious to leave the heat, humidity, hurricanes, and hectic lifestyle in our rear view mirror.We had vacationed here in western North Carolina for years, mainly in the Franklin and Cashiers area. But when it came time to choose a community where we could put down new roots, it was Brevard. Brevard, NC is everything you want in a small town.  It has plenty of shopping but if you need or want more, it's a 30 minute hop over to Asheville.  People live here who were born and raised here insuring that the rich mountain and farming cultures are s...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Up until a few years ago most blog posts about this area of western North Carolina were all about the waterfalls, the fantastic mountain scenery, the amazing array of outdoor activities, mountain biking, and the life style.  Those things are all still big drawing cards for Asheville, Brevard, Hendersonville, and the surrounding areas, but we have a new reason to love this area. Beer!  From the big names like Sierra Nevada to the small local microbreweries, beer is a big deal around here. So big that Asheville has been dubbed Beer City with more breweries per capita than any city in the US. And that's just Asheville! There's more in Hendersonville and Brevard.Among the big boys in beer is Sierra Nevada, centrally located in the Mills River area, near the Asheville Regional airport and it...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Once upon a time there was a Mr. and a Mrs. and together, they built a sweet little house where there were trees and streams, birds and flowers, and nature all around. The Mr. and the Mrs. were happy. The little house was happy and life was good. Then one day, the Mr. grew old and was gone, leaving the Mrs. and the little house all alone. The Mrs. was sad. The little house was sad. Soon, the flowers and trees that the Mr. had planted and cared for were sad too.The years went by until one day the Mrs. said, “It’s time to find a new place to live that is just right for one."A dashing real estate agent stepped forward announcing boldly ”I will sell your house for you”. So the Mrs. said yes. People came to visit the little house with trees and streams, birds and flowers, and nature all arou...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Tuesday May 10, 2016 - 4:45 pm.  It started like any other afternoon with a game of ball in the side yard.  Our two little dogs, Sunny and Boo chased the tennis balls, Ace ran big circles around us barking at who knows what. We had played this game hundreds of times with Ace eventually loping into the woods to chase a squirrel. Sometimes he would go deep into the woods to the creek and you could hear his bark echo back. Other times, he’d pop out up by the road.  Whatever route he took, rarely was he gone more than an hour and usually it was only a few minutes before he came back to catch his share of the tennis balls. This time, and for reasons no one will ever know, he disappeared into the woods and vanished without a trace.When an hour had passed and the sun was getting low, we starte...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
The news this month is all about the Brevard/Pisgah Forest market and the current "buying" season. One of the indicators that we consider when we talk about how the market is doing is how long it takes for homes to sell. You'll see that number indicated in listings as CDOM (cumulative days on market). The contrast between this year and last year is startling.  In the Brevard/Pisgah Forest area last April, the average days on market was 386.  April this year, that number dropped dramatically to 170.  We are seeing the most activity in that ever-popular price range $150,000 to $250,000 price range. It's back to being a seller's market in that price point with multiple offers and very few days on market.  There were 36 residential properties sold in Transylvania County last month and 25 of...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Signs of spring are everywhere in the mountains of wester North Carolina. The weeping cherry trees are already showing off their blooms, the red buds are close behind, bright yellow forsythias line driveways around town, and shades of green are starting to dot the mountainside as the hardwoods come out of hibernation. The same is true with our real estate market. By any standard, 2006 was a banner year for real estate in the Brevard area. Based on 1st Quarter sales, we could reach or even eclipse those numbers in 2016...making this the best year for home sales in a decade. This market was never as inflated as other parts of the country so when the market fell off back in 2008, we were not as affected. Fact is, our market has rebounded nicely since the "darkestdays" of 2009 and now, in c...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
I'll get this one thing on the table at the start.  Fixed rate, "budget brokers" cannot and do not do what a full service broker does for a seller.  Sure, for a nomimal flat fee, you get your home on the MLS. But that's about it.  I suppose if you are the kind of seller who has real estate experience; understands real estate law in your state; knows how to negotiate based on qualified information about the market; lives in the home (or nearby) so you can make sure the home is in showing condition; knows the smart tricks about how to effectively stage a home; can recite reliable comps; knows the ends and outs of the various documents required to solidify a contract; has the skill set and the knowledge to effectively market a home beyond putting a listing on the MLS......well, maybe a fla...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
It's spring time in the mountains around Brevard, North Carolina.  That means the daffodils and tulips are blooming and the local farmers market will be opening soon.  It's also the time when Brevard real estate starts its year.  Memorial Day is when the official starting gun fires, but in the month or so leading up to that, you can sense a shift in the air.  From everything I'm reading and based on the drum beat I hear among my fellow REALTORS, 2015 is going to be a good year.So how are things looking so far? Transylvania County and the Brevard area continues to be very active. In fact in March, we nearly doubled in residential sales over the previous year.  The lions' share of sales continues to be $350,000 and under, a trend that has been steady the last 3-5 years.  Plus, while our a...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
There is no denying the impact that social media has had on our lives.  Websites like Twitter, LinkdIn, and Facebook make it possible to communicate with people 24/7 no matter where we are in the world. All of these sites all have their place in our lives and our businesses and they can be a fun diversion....when we use bit of common sense.   Facebook in particular has become a hot spot for all sorts of information sharing and I admit to spending more time there than I should some days.  I learn things, I pass along information that I think my friends would like, and I enjoy the occasional debate over hot topics. But sometimes I’m amazed at what people post about their relationships, their jobs, and frankly the intimate details of their lives. Some posts make me outright uncomfortable b...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
                Fall is officially here in the mountains of western North Carolina.  The big show, the changing leaves, has begun and according to some reports, should peak sometime the middle of the month. We know from experience though that there can be, weather permitting, plenty of color all the way to Thanksgiving. The end of summer lead to an active September, especially in home sales. In fact, for the first time in a while, we saw a good jump in the number of higher end home sales.  There is some research from around the area that speculates this will become a more common trend because the foreclosure inventory is so low and investors are moving on, leaving the door open to buyers.  For the last several years, the "sweet spot" for our market in the Brevard, NC area has been in th...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
Today I learned the hard way that I need to add one more thing to my official "Seller Do's and Don'ts" manual. Today we were out with buyers and walked into a home they had wanted to see.  As we came through the front door we were assaulted (no, that is not over stating it) with an orange/citrus scent.  It may have been one of those scented air filters or it may have been some over used air freshener. Whatever it was, I was only in the house about 10 minutes when my lungs began to feel like they were in a vise grip and it was imperative that I get outside for some fresh air. It was a little scary, frankly, and my lungs continued to feel constricted the rest of the day. I have only a mild asthma condition and have never had a reaction to a scent like this in the past, but I clearly had o...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
I've been working with a great young couple who have uncovered the secret code of Realtors. They will be relocating to the Hendersonville, NC area and have taken a very active role in their search by doing a drive by on every home they want to see. Not only does this save me valuable time, it helps them understand the various communities so they can narrow in on exactly where they want to be.  The fact that they are incredibly tech savvy and can find any location on their phone or Ipad...and get there... has been a bonus. When we go out to look at homes together,  they have already scoped out the area and are ready to take a closer look. Along the way they commented that they are learning to read between the lines and interpret the true meaning behind the words and phrases some Realtors...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
I enjoyed school for the most part. Once I got to college at the University of South Florida, though, I had to deal with classes that were required for my major whether I liked them or not. The one and only class that gave me fits, and the one and only class I ever had to repeat in college was (cue the scary music) statistics. I love research but statistics and I never saw eye to eye. It was much the same way in Algebra. I wanted to know WHY X=Y. I wanted to know WHY one formula was right but other perfectly good formula was not. I’ve always enjoyed the study of human behavior and learning why we do the things we do so it seems fitting that statistics frustrated me because I could never get to the WHY. Just the same, I’m a sucker for magazine articles about behavioral patterns that teac...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
For some people, summer time means family vacations or a trip to the beach. For me, and other foodies, the summer months are when we can flex our cooking muscle with the freshest fruits and vegetables of the year. I'm not talking about tomatoes that were grown in California and shipped in or green beans that have been transplanted from Ohio. I'm taking about vegetables with local roots that are so fresh you have to brush the warm soil off them. It may sound strange to anyone who has only known life in a big city where "fresh" probably means anything picked in the last 2 months, but there is a world of difference between a potato straight out of the field and the potato you find in your local grocery store. And don't get me started on tomatoes. I feel a little sorry for anyone who has on...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
When was the last time you really just kicked back and let the world pass you by?  It's hard to do these days with all the rushing around we do, cramming as much as possible into a 24 hour time frame.  Maybe what you need is a river to swim in, a mountain get away with a laid back attitude, and some tranquil views thrown in for good measure. What would it take to get you to slow down a little? Would it be the feel of smooth rocks under your feet and cool mountain river water on a hot summer day?  Maybe a peaceful view of the meadow and the mountains on the horizon would do it.  Either way, spend some time at this cabin near Brevard, North Carolina and you just can't help but feel good about where you are. It’s as comfortable as your favorite pair of old jeans and a perfect place to crea...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
If you are buying or selling property in North Carolina you need to understand the ins and outs of Due Diligence.  It’s a wrinkle in the Offer to Purchase brought to us a couple of years ago by the good folks in Raleigh.In the most general of terms, whether you are buying a home, a car, or a stock, “doing due diligence” is thought of as the time you do your research about whatever it is you are buying. In real estate, it means that and a lot more and it has some major implications.Before the real estate commission changed our contract, an Offer to Purchase was usually contingent on a buyer getting financing and on inspections.  Typically a buyer and seller would agree that a buyer could bail on a contract if the buyer was unable to get financing with the terms they were looking for or i...
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By Carol Clay, Broker/REALTOR, Brevard NC Real Estate Specialist
(Looking Glass Realty)
I knew I would enjoy working with these new buyers after the first email exchange. In the book Blink, it illustrates how we think without thinking and delves into the reasons why some people are able to make quick and decisive decisions while others seem incapable of making a decision about anything. While the book deals mostly with face to face communication, I believe you can tell a lot about a person from their electronic communication too. It's a good read and a theory that any Realtor can appreciate. In this job we have to be able to size people up quickly and get to the gist of what they are looking for and learning to embrace your "Blink" is a good way to do that. And so it was with this new couple. It began with an email asking the kinds of questions that come from someone unfam...
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Transylvania County, NC Real Estate Professionals