Western North Carolina Real Estate

Margie Smith

Asheville Realtor

Your Guide to Mountain Living

Archive

Mountain Lan Drone Aerial

Buying Raw Mountain Land: What the Listing Won’t Tell You

Found a mountain parcel that looks perfect? Don’t schedule that showing yet.

Last time, I showed you how to pull up a property’s GIS map for a closer look than any listing gives you. Now it’s time to read what that map is telling you, because the biggest red flags in mountain land aren’t always obvious.

The questions that matter: How do you get to it? How do you power it? How do you connect it to the outside world? Skip these, and a “great deal” turns into an expensive lesson.

Here’s exactly what to look for, using a real property I recently helped clients evaluate.

Read More

Buying Mountain Land

That $75,000 five-acre parcel in the Blue Ridge Mountains you found on Zillow? There’s usually a reason it’s still on the market. Before you burn a tank of gas driving out to see it, there’s a free tool that can tell you almost everything you need to know from your couch: the county GIS system. In this post, I walk through exactly how to pull up any property using its parcel number, what to look for once you’re in, and the five questions you should be able to answer before you ever schedule a showing.

Read More

Vacation Home in Asheville? 5 Things to Think About

A vacation home should feel like a reward, not a second job. A little preparation — the right people on call, the right systems in place, the right insurance — goes a long way toward making sure it stays that way. If you’re exploring vacation or second-home options in the Asheville area, I’m happy to walk through what ownership looks like here specifically, from mountain weather patterns to local property management options.

Read More