Why 2009 will be a good year for real estate in Murphy, NC

There's no doubt that a good year is what we'd all like, especially those of us who own homes or investment real estate in today's market. Here are 4 REASONS why 2009 will be a good year for real estate in Murphy.

1. THE BUYERS ARE OUT THERE
In the last five months, we've had nearly 200 new prospects walk in our door, asking about real estate opportunities in this area. Most of these folks are Floridians who want very much to relocate to our mountains. They are watching our market while they wait to sell their Florida property. Some of them are acting now to snap up a great place here at prices they know won't be at this level forever.

2. THE MONEY IS OUT THERE
Mortgage rates are at 50 year lows and buyers with good credit can still get loans from our local banks, even on vacant lots for sale.

3. OUR LOCATION IS ONE OF THE BEST IN THE NATION!
Last year North Carolina was the 4th fastest growing state in the US, and the #1 state east of the Mississippi in population increases. Charlotte, NC has the strongest real estate market in the country right now. Baby boomers still want to head south when they retire from the Northeast and Midwest and we have the mountain scenery and mild climate they're looking for.

4. IF IT'S PRICED RIGHT, IT SELLS!
Last week we had a seller who FINALLY agreed to reduce the price of his lot after nearly 2 years on the market. We had an accepted offer in 48 hours - just another indication that even in today's market, there are still people eager to buy. Buyers are doing their homework and they know when a property is a good deal.

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings.
Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

It's Only a Buyer's Market if You Buy!

We're all hearing it, reading it, seeing it on the news. There are some incredible deals out there today. But how do you know WHEN it's time to jump in, and when it's time to stay on the fence? Here are five ways to be sure you're making the most of this opportunity, no matter where you are.

1. Do Your Homework
Every market is different. And in the same city, some neighborhoods may have dozens of homes dropping in price, while sellers in other areas are holding firm. Find out what is on the market in the area you're interested in. Get an idea of how long the average property takes to sell. Compare asking price to sold price on recent sales. Your Realtor has these statistics available.

2. Look at Your Finances
The biggest bargain is no bargain if you can't afford to hold on to it. But if you know you're going to retire in five years and you've fallen in love with that home in the mountains with the incredible view, maybe now is the time to tap some retirement assets. Pay cash and rent the place out for a few years. You'll sleep nights without an adjustable mortgage hanging over your head. And you'll have the home of your dreams waiting for you - while adding that monthly rent check from the tenant to your retirement stash in the meantime.

3. Don't Stick to the Foreclosures
Many of the bank-owned homes were purchased at the top of the market, with low down payments and big mortgages. The banks are concerned with keeping their losses to a minimum. On the other hand, a seller who paid $100,000 six years ago and has to move can accept $150,000 today and still make a profit. And the developer with ten spec homes may be happy to sell one at cost and forget the profit he hoped to make on that lot.

4. Think Outside the Box
Maybe you can't afford to buy your ideal home right now. But you may be able to afford the lot today that was out of your reach two years ago. Take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to that great location and start collecting house plans, instead of putting all your dreams on hold.

5. Don't Be Afraid to MAKE AN OFFER
When you've done all your homework and kicked all the tires, it's time to take the final step. In today's market, multiple offers are generally a thing of the past. Everyone's circumstances are different and there is no "rule of thumb" about how much a seller will come down. In the end, there's one final rule that sums up all the others - It's only a buyer's market if you BUY !

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings.
Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

The Day the World Came to Murphy, NC - the Capture of Eric Rudolph

It was a quiet Saturday morning in Murphy, NC, the last day of May, 2003. As I drove through downtown Murphy, I flipped on the radio just in time to hear that Eric Rudolph, one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives, had just been apprehended in North Carolina.
"Wouldn't it be a kick," I thought, "if they found him somewhere near here?"
Within two hours (of course!) CNN, NBC and every other major news provider had vans with enormous satellite dishes parked in every available space around the courthouse. By Saturday evening, the old train depot had been commandeered as a makeshift location for press conferences. Reporters from every media from the New York Times to the BBC were swarming the streets like a Biblical plague of locusts.
It was a dream story. Jeff Postell, the rookie police officer living in a trailer with grandma, Eric Rudolph, the dangerous fugitive who eluded the country's top law enforcement for years, the bizarre midnight capture as he scavenged scraps of food from a dumpster behind the Save-a-Lot - all played out in a quiet mountain town where folks don't even lock their doors.
Suddenly, Murphy, North Carolina was caught in the merciless lens of a media microscope. A local businesswoman was working at The Daily Grind coffee shop at the time. Here's how she describes the events that followed.
"Our business was the only place in town back then that had Internet access. I had reporters from every major news group bringing in their stories for me to email. At first we capitalized on the situation, selling specialty drinks like "Captured Cappucino." Then we started taking the time to read what we were sending."
"They were portraying our town and our people as rabble-rousing backwoods folk who approved and applauded what Rudolph had done. I watched them interview scores of people who came into our shop. But they never quoted the well educated, rational citizens in print or on the air. Finally, we told all of them we refused to send out any more of their stories until they began airing the views of the majority of the locals and reporting fairly rather than focusing on a handful of radicals who would say anything just to get that 15 minutes of attention."
But there's an old saying that there's no such thing as negative publicity. The capture of Eric Rudolph that summer was followed not long after by the worst hurricane season in years along the Gulf coast of Florida. Scores of people seeking a safe haven who had heard of the mountain town of Murphy, North Carolina came here to see the area for themselves.
And what they found is what I found when I came here for the first time. A town where my daughter can walk from the movie theatre to the candy store all by herself. A town where people wave when you drive by - whether they know you or not. A place where the only sounds I hear from my porch on Sunday morning are the birds singing and the faint pealing of church bells.
Murphy, NC is two hours from everywhere once again - but for those of us who call it home, we wouldn't want it any other way.
Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings.
Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

Summer Mountain Nights

I’m especially glad to be 2 hours from everywhere on summer mountain nights in Murphy.

Last week I had to pick up family members at the Atlanta airport (which of course is 2 hours from here). It was at least 15 degrees hotter there and it seemed that tempers of the city drivers were rising as fast as the thermometer. What a relief to be back on my covered porch, feeling the evening breeze and listening to the music of the mountains at night.

Speaking of night music, we’ve just downloaded a YouTube video on our website http://www.countryhomesnc.com/ accompanied by an original song written just for us by my husband Frosty. It’s called Murphy Mountain Nights and the instrumental version you’re hearing is performed by Frosty and Tony Ford. Tony is a talented young local musician who won Star Search when he was just a kid. As a teen he performed all over the country, but now he’s come home to the mountains he loves. Tony has his own recording studio in Hiwassee, Georgia and is the proud first-time dad of 15 month old son Judah.

The photos in the slide show were all shot locally by family and friends and you may recognize some of the scenes. Those of us who have found a home here in the mountains discover sights like these around every bend in the road – and sometimes from our own front porch. Penny Johnson, a local artist, has included several of these photos in her series of watercolors on display at many Murphy businesses and restaurants. I walked into Macon Bank recently and saw the view from my breakfast area on their wall!

There seems to be something about these ancient hills that lights a creative spark. Maybe it’s the slower pace of life, the opportunity to finally pick up that guitar or paintbrush or camera that’s been in the closet for so long. Or maybe it’s the opportunity to finally create the YOU that you’ve always dreamed of becoming. Just listen…

Sweet music fills the night
Your secret dreams take flight
These ancient hills have power – on mountain nights.

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings.
Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

The Mountain Pond - A Tale of Love

Last night I got home late, weary from another stressful day. Every Realtor is essentially the owner of a small business - insert-your-name.com - and so far there's been no bail-out money set aside for us.

I was greeted by the soothing sound of a waterfall cascading over ancient stones, each one painstakingly chosen for its color and shape. The water pours endlessly into a new pond, which will be surrounded by some of the 16 TONS of rock my husband has been putting into place, stone by stone.

While I've been dealing with frustrated sellers and unrealistic buyers looking for "that deal of a lifetime," he's been spending hours in backbreaking labor to create for us a perfect little oasis of peace - his gift to me.

He put in the small pond when we built our mountain chalet 4 years ago. It began as a home for my beloved bronze fountain, the boy on a dolphin that I refused to leave behind when we left the Florida Keys for the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina.



Soon we brought home 7 tiny goldfish. Then came the surprises. We sat on the balcony above each day like the gods of Mount Olympus, sipping our morning coffee while life unfolded below. By the end of that summer, we had 19 fish and 3 large frogs that somehow made their way up the mountain from Lake Hiwassee down in the valley. The water plants sheltered tadpoles and snails and baby fish in a rainbow of colors.


Winters are mild here in the Southern mountains and we spent time outdoors nearly every day. On "date nights" we shared a bottle of wine on the balcony, listened to old rock and roll and admired our creation. It became our refuge in a world often filled with turmoil over the past few years.

But the tiny pond wasn't big enough for the koi we'd like to raise or even for the many offsping of our original colony of goldfish. So we dreamed of some day adding a small waterfall connecting to a much larger, deeper pond that would shelter koi through the colder months. And two weeks ago I came home from work to find a trackhoe in my back yard, carefully scooping out clumps of daylilies.

Last night the waterfall was up and running. Soon we'll be bringing home Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel to join our family. As I watched the full moon rise over the ridge, I realized I'm a very rich woman indeed.


Sweet music fills the night, my secret dreams take flight
These ancient hills have magic - on mountain night

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings. Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

It happened this morning...I was headed out to my car on a sunny but very chilly Friday when a flash of yellow caught my eye in the mostly brown winter landscape. A solitary daffodil bud is opening up, poking through a heap of dead leaves at the edge of the woods along my driveway.

It's from a clump of bulbs I rescued last spring, hastily transplanted in full bloom to save them from the backhoe about to bury them under a ton or more of gravel at a nearby construction site.

I wasn't sure whether the bulbs would survive. Did I get enough of the root ball? Would the new site be too dry and rocky? Only time would tell. But one thing I knew for sure - if I didn't take the time and plant the bulbs, they had no chance at all.

Spring comes early in the southern mountains of North Carolina, much earlier than in the Midwest where I grew up. But even here it's been an unusually severe winter...kind of like the bleak forecasts we've been hearing about the economic climate over the last few months.

However there's one thing I've learned over the years - no matter what you're facing, this too shall pass. Harsh winters yield to the warmth of spring. Tough times are a part of life. You do the best you can, keep planting those seeds of success. And little by little, as time goes on the signs of new growth will appear.

Today I saw my first daffodil...

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings. Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights

Murphy NC - Two Hours From Everywhere

Welcome to Murphy, North Carolina - we're two hours from everywhere! That's how we describe our corner of the beautiful Smokey Mountains. And we're not just measuring driving distance when we say that.

Yes, it's true that we're two hours from Atlanta, Chattanooga and Knoxville. We're two hours from Asheville, North Carolina. We're two hours from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, with Dollywood, dinner theatres and outlet malls aplenty.

In two hours, you can be at Hartsfield, the busiest airport in the country. Or at Hamilton Place, the largest mall in Tennessee. Or at the Biltmore Estate, the biggest privately owned home in the United States.

But those of us who have chosen to make our homes here, whether full time or only for those precious vacation days, look at those two hours a little differently. We're two hours from traffic jams and endless boulevards crammed with strip malls. We're two hours from lives filled with stress and days filled with mindless tasks.

In two hours you can be halfway downstream feeling the exhilaration of fighting white water rapids with a raft full of strangers. In two hours, they're not strangers anymore. You'll show the group photo to all your friends and talk about how Marilyn from New Jersey nearly went overboard on that last drop and you had to grab her jacket and hang on to her.

In two hours, you can be exploring a path made by the Ancient Ones through the silence of a 400 year old forest, the only piece of land east of the Mississippi that looks the way it did before the Pilgrims set foot on shore at Plymouth. You'll lock arms with your kids and still won't be able to circle the massive trunks.

In two hours, you can stain your fingers blue picking a pail half full of wild blackberries and come upon a doe with twin fawns or a bald eagle soaring silently over the ridge, heading for its nest.
I'll be filling this Murphy NC blog with comments on the changing real estate market, local news and events, stories of life in a small mountain town - maybe even some juicy gossip now and then! I hope it will give you a taste of what you'll find if you come here for a visit...or a lifetime.
Warm regards,
Kate

Looking for your dream getaway in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina? Visit the country homes and land website to see all the latest listings. Enjoy a preview of our scenic mountains in the YouTube video Murphy Mountain Nights