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A Beautifully Upgraded Hiking Trail
I am asked frequently for advice on places to hike in out beautiful area. The above picture is the start of the Andrews Bald Trail that begins at the Clingmans Dome parking area, at the end of the Clingmans Dome Road. The road begins at Newfound gap off Highway 441 which crosses the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The parking area is usually busy with visitors and tourists. Most of the visitors take the short, but steep, half mile trail up to the observation tower that tops Clingmans Dome. Fewer visitors, however, take the 1.8 mile trail to Andrews Bald. Just a few years ago, this was a very rough trail that had eroded down to bedrock in many areas, and the footing was dicey at best. The Friends of the Smokies, through the Trails Forever program, tackled the rebuilding of this trail in 2008. The results of their efforts are amazing. Steps were constructed of locust wood, and in many places, large flat granite stones. The rough sections of the trail were transformed to boulevards. I can’t walk on this trail now without admiring the wonderful work that was done in rebuilding this trail. The trail is only 1.8 miles to Andrews Bald, but could be hiked by almost anyone in the family. Soon after beginning the hike you usually leave the crowds behind in the parking lot.
Once you get to Andrews Bald, there are great views of the Smokies to the south and west. Nature seems to be in the process of reforesting the bald. Besides the grasses, rhododendron, mountain laurel and flamed azalea are now taking over the bald. On my last hike to the bald I came upon a deer grazing. Deer are common on the bald in early mornings and early evenings. Andrews Bald is the ideal location to get away from all the city noise and just contemplate and enjoy nature. (It’s a great place for a picnic lunch.) Clingmans Dome Road is closed in the Winter and early Spring, so take advantage of the season and get hiking.
Living next to one of the great national parks is just one of the perks of living in Haywood County, NC. Won’t you come join us?
10 Steps to a Successful and Profitable Home Sale
This time of year I have customers who ask “What should I do before I list my home for sale?” I came across the below “10 Steps to a Successful and Profitable Home Sale” compiled by the National Association of Realtors. I am proud to say that all of us here at Mountain Dreams Realty of WNC, Inc. are members of the National Association of Realtors, the North Carolina Association of Realtors, and our local Haywood Board of Realtors.
1. Price your home with the competition. Don’t price your home too high for your neighborhood. Buyers are looking in your area and they could see homes that are comparable to your home for less money. If your home is too high for the area, buyers will not even come to look at your home.
2. Get a home inspection before putting your home on the market. Review the inspection carefully and fix everything that needs repair! If buyers see too many things wrong with your home, they will walk away. Buyers want homes that are in move-in ready condition. By doing your own home inspection and fixing up your home before you start showing it, you will greatly reduce the odds of losing the sale of your home during the due-diligence period (or “look-see” period), which is when the buyer has time investigate the property’s condition and see if they remain satisfied with it before finalizing the purchase.
3. Get a consulting appraisal of your home. This way, you will know even before you put your home on the market what an appraiser thinks it is worth. When you sell your home, you and your agent will have a defendable fair market value. If you get a lowball offer, your agent can show comparables to the buyer’s agent that justifies your sale price.
4. Curb appeal is extremely important. It is the window to your home! You want your home to make an emotional appeal at first sight. Some buyers won’t even enter a home if they are not attracted to its exterior. It should be neat, freshly painted and nicely landscaped, begging you to come in for a closer look. Discuss with your real estate agent the best ways to make the outside of your home the most appealing.
5. Dress up the inside of your home. A fresh paint job will get buyers excited. It gives a fresh and lively look to your home. Always use light colors such as off-white, pale blue, tan and light grey for interior walls and carpeting. Have your carpeting professionally cleaned and replace any carpeting that is stained or worn. If the walls and floors look immaculate, buyers will assume that you also took very good care of the rest of the less obvious places of your home. De-clutter so your home looks spacious.
6. Make potential buyers feel at home. Do not be at home during showings. You don’t want to distract buyers from feeling like this could be their home. Remove all personal photos and collections. Work with your real estate agent and/or a professional stager to place furniture to best utilize the space in your home. This will put your home at its best advantage and put it a step above all others in your neighborhood.
7. Don’t overspend on improvements to your home. Do improvements that will keep you up with the rest of the neighborhood so you can get fair market value or above for your home. However, system replacements are essential so do keep current with air conditioning, heating, roofs and other major systems.
8. Be prepared to make a deal to sell your home. Be ready to compromise if necessary on price and terms. Your real estate agent will help you work with reasonable offers. Generally, your first offer is your best. Do what you can to make it work. Keep in mind that you want this process to be a win-win situation. The process from offer to closing can be a reasonable and mutually beneficial situation for both the sellers and the buyers.
9. Always go into the negotiating process with a positive attitude! Your real estate agent has been in this situation many times before and can best advise you how to proceed in any given situation. Remember that you, the buyers and both agents all want this deal to work.
10. Hire a professional real estate agent. Hiring a professional agent can help identify comparative homes in your area so you can list your home for a competitive price. An agent will advertise your home with internet marketing to the public in ways that are only available to a professional. Finally, an agent understands comprehensive agreements and can best negotiate with the buyer’s agent to sell your home for the highest price.
100- Year Anniversary of National Parks
2016 marks the centennial year of the legislation that led to the creation of our national parks. Here in the Smoky Mountains we are very fortunate to have two of the most visited parks in the nation. We have the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the largest area of wilderness in the USA east of the Rocky Mountains. The GSMNP has over 800 miles of hiking trails. If you love to visit waterfalls, the GSMNP has dozens of waterfalls to explore and photograph. Also, admission to the park is FREE! When Tennessee and North Carolina donated land for the park, it was with the stipulation that no entry fee or road toll could ever be charged. The photo above is of a steep, craggy peak just north of Newfound Gap on the Tennessee side of the park. I took this photo last Sunday.
The Blue Ridge Parkway has 4 highway access points in Haywood County. In fact, the highest elevation point on the entire parkway is located in Haywood County. One of my favorite parts of the parkway is a road called the Heintooga Spur Road. This road begins just a few miles north on the parkway from the Hwy 19 entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Soco Gap, just past Maggie Valley. The paved spur road will take you to a campground, and a nice high-altitude picnic area. There is a col-de-sac at the end of the road by the picnic area. Look for the sign that is the entrance to the Heintooga- Round Bottom One Way Road. This is a 28 mile narrow, winding mountain road (more like a driveway) leading down the mountain to Round Bottom and on into Cherokee. It takes about 1 hour (more if you take lots of pictures) to travel down to Cherokee. The road is closed in the Winter, but usually opens sometime in May.
If you have always wanted to live in the mountains, come on up. Adventures are waiting and time is fleeting!
There are still Good Buys Available in Haywood County
I listened to a segment on the news from WLOS-TV in Asheville. A one bedroom apartment in Asheville now rents on average for $940. In my opinion, that is a fairly hefty rent for a one bedroom apartment. Asheville housing costs are now the highest in North Carolina. I was looking today at closed listings in West Asheville. I found small homes built in the 1920’s and the 1930’s selling for around $200 to $250 per square foot. Some Asheville agents are now bringing their clients to Canton, Clyde and Waynesville to find homes they can afford. Buyers are finding it less expensive to live 20 to 30 miles away and commute to work than to buy a home in Asheville.
There are still good buys available in Haywood County. Most homes here in the county are still selling for between $100 and $165 per square foot, with some selling for less than $100 per square foot. Combine those prices with current interest rates, and that translates into a great value. One could purchase a pretty nice home here with a 30 year mortgage payment less than a 1 bedroom apartment rental in Asheville.
If you are going to be in the home-buying market soon, come see us. Let us show you how much home your dollar can buy in Haywood County.
Why Buy A Home Now?
To answer my own question: interest rates are still historically low, and prices are increasing due to lower inventories of existing homes for sale, and lack of construction of new homes. Interest rates today for a 30 year conventional home loan are quoted between 3.71% and 3.93%. Interest rates for a 15 year conventional loan are as low as 2.98%. Interest rates were around 6% when I was a boy. I did not think I would ever see 6% again. In the early 1980’s interest rates on home loans ran as high as 14 to 16% for a while.
As to prices increasing, the average price of the 39 homes sold in Haywood County, NC, in February 2015 was $164,011. In February 2016 there were 52 homes sold with an average price of $189,781. That represents an increase in the average price sold of 15.7% in one year’s time.
If you are still thinking about renting, prices on rentals have increased considerably also, due to lack of inventory. I saw a small brick home for rent last week for $1000 per month. The home was just over 1000 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths on a small lot. This home would probably sell in the neighborhood of $130,000. If a buyer paid 10% down the principal and interest payment on a 30 year loan would be about $554.00. Even with taxes and insurance escrow, the payment would only be $685.00. As you can see, you can live in home you are purchasing for considerably less than you can rent that same home. Also, your interest on a home loan may be deductible on your income tax, but rent is not deductible.
If you are a bargain hunter, the current interest rates, coupled with the current market , present a real opportunity.
We Lost a Faithful Friend in our Office
I am sure that many of you have been to our office and met our office mascots, Paul’s dogs Romeo and Rascal. On March 2nd we lost Rascal. He is shown in the picture above with snow on his nose. (He liked plowing in the snow.) Rascal just showed up at Paul’s home about 6 years ago. One morning he arrived from a walk-about with some serious cuts on his eye and face; it seems he got in a fight with another stray. Paul took him to the vet’s office to have him sewed up. I remember Paul calling the vet office that day to ask if they were done only to be told he was still in surgery. Paul took all this in stride and paid a rather large bill to get Rascal mended. After the surgery Paul took great care of him, applying his eye drops on schedule. Rascal was a gentle soul. He never barked at anyone who came through the door at the office. He would lay quietly under Paul’s desk. When I would walk by Rascal, he would occasionally come out from under Paul’s desk to ask for a treat. He would walk up behind me and punch me in the back of the knee with his snout. He was not picky, he would gratefully accept any treat with subdued enthusiasm.
He will be missed.
Haywood County Entertainment Options for March 2016
You may not know that Waynesville has an award-winning performing arts center- HART Theatre. On March 11th, 12th and 13th there will be a performance of “12 Angry Men”. The original movie was released in 1957 about a jury who must reach a unanimous verdict on a murder case. Henry Fonda played juror #8. In the 1997 remake of the film, Jack Lemmon was cast in Henry Fonda’s role. For ticket information, season tickets, and performance times, you can go to www.harttheatre.org, or call 828-456-6322. I have enjoyed several performances in the past at HART Theatre, and I highly recommend the venue.
In downtown Waynesville we have an old movie theater, The Strand, that is being lovingly restored. In March the theater is showing a free children’s movie, “The Good Dinasaur” on Saturday, March 5th, 12th and 19th. March 1st- 13th the Strand will be showing “Spotlight”. This movie is about the Boston Globe investigation of abuse and the cover-up of abuse in the Catholic Church. The movie just received an Oscar for Best Picture. For show times and ticket information go to www.38main.com or call 828-283-0079.
Thank you for your time, and come to see a play or movie in our beautiful mountains!
Downtown Waynesville is a Happenin’ Place
Downtown Waynesville at Night
Downtown Waynesville now offers many restaurants and craft breweries that did not exist just a few years ago. Back then the city could sweep the streets after 6:00 PM, for there were almost no vehicles parked downtown in the evenings. Now on some evenings, especially Friday or Saturday night, one may find it difficult to find a park on Main Street. Below I have a partial list of restaurants and breweries for your enjoyment. When you make your next trip to the area, don’t forget to check out downtown Waynesville. (Restaurant List courtesy of The Downtown Waynesville Association)
Restaurants
Big Snow Storm on January 22nd – 23rd !
Snow began falling very early in the morning of January 22nd. Snow continued to fall most of the day, into the evening and night. We had snow showers on the 23rd adding another 3 inches or so. In total I had about 13 inches at my home shown in the above photos. In Maggie Valley, some locations reported as much as 18.5 inches. On Mount Mitchell, at Mount Mitchell State Park north of Asheville snow totals accumulated to and astounding 66 inches! This snow won’t top the record books at my home, as we recorded 41 inches from the blizzard in March, 1993.
Cataloochee Ski Area was indeed grateful for the snow, as they now have a good base. In fact, they opened “The Meadow” for skiing for the first time in years. The Meadow is a large pasture on the west side of the mountain, adjacent to the ski area.
After the mild December, it was great to have a little touch of Winter. Now I’m looking forward to Spring when the leaves come out again, and flowers start blooming. That’s the great thing about these mountains. We do have 4 seasons. Our longest seasons are Spring and Fall. The cold days of Winter, and the warm days of Summer are our shortest seasons. If you are getting tired of the monotony of Florida, South Georgia, or Alabama, then come on up!
December was very mild, but Winter has returned in January (Let’s go SKIING!)
December was probably the mildest December I have seen in my 41 years here. We had many days over 60 degrees and some days above 70 degrees. Unfortunately, the ski areas in Western North Carolina suffered due to the mild weather. (The temperature must be close to freezing to make snow.) Finally, the week after Christmas, temperatures fell back to normal for the area. This was good news for Cataloochee Ski Area. The ski area is now open and has to their credit blown enough snow to open the entire mountain (18 trails and 5 lifts), with a 28 to 60 inch base for the Martin Luther King weekend.
Sooo…come on up, the skiing is GREAT!!
