Roanoke/Salem, Blacksburg, Franklin County? (Richmond, Cave Spring: for sale, real estate, house)

[jaimiew]

My husband and I are recently married and looking to buy our first house. I have some family in Richmond and he loves hiking and fishing. He detests humidity and a flat landscape. We have been looking at real estate via the internet, which can be tricky. I have been following this forum for a few months but wanted to get more customized responses. Our budget is a max of $250k. Our must haves are a minimum of 1 acre, great mountain view, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Having a stream and/or walkable access to trails would be terriffic bonuses. We enjoy dining out, and as many women do, I enjoy shopping. I have heard their are 2 farmer's markets; I love to buy local. We are not big sports fans, rather we enjoy live music/entertainment. I am also a lover of the water, so under 45 minutes to SML would be ideal. As far as jobs, I am a real estate agent, he is a website developer. Neither of us have anything lined up yet. I have seen alot about local schools but, are there any groups or community activities for women with newborns to toddlers? My husband grew up in a college town, so is interested in Blacksburg. But, from what I've read there's not much going on there. Where exactly should we move? I'd like to thank you all in advance. I know you will be full of great advice. I am betting (& hoping) to at least getting a response from Sean!

[dsobotta]

Originally Posted by jaimiew

My husband and I are recently married and looking to buy our first house. I have some family in Richmond and he loves hiking and fishing. He detests humidity and a flat landscape. We have been looking at real estate via the internet, which can be tricky. I have been following this forum for a few months but wanted to get more customized responses. Our budget is a max of $250k. Our must haves are a minimum of 1 acre, great mountain view, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Having a stream and/or walkable access to trails would be terriffic bonuses. We enjoy dining out, and as many women do, I enjoy shopping. I have heard their are 2 farmer's markets; I love to buy local. We are not big sports fans, rather we enjoy live music/entertainment. I am also a lover of the water, so under 45 minutes to SML would be ideal. As far as jobs, I am a real estate agent, he is a website developer. Neither of us have anything lined up yet. I have seen alot about local schools but, are there any groups or community activities for women with newborns to toddlers? My husband grew up in a college town, so is interested in Blacksburg. But, from what I've read there's not much going on there. Where exactly should we move? I'd like to thank you all in advance. I know you will be full of great advice. I am betting (& hoping) to at least getting a response from Sean!

I'm sure you will hear from Sean, he has lived in Blacksburg and now lives south of Roaonke. You can always visit his blog.

We have a home in Roanoke, but live on the Carolina Coast where I am a Realtor®.

You won't have a flat landscape in the Roanoke area but the fishing is better on the coast. Blacksburg is considerably cooler than Roanoke, and the climate in Floyd is nice also.

We were cooler on the coast than Roanoke all summer. Of course we have plenty of humidity in August and September.

I have a lot of posts on Roanoke in my View from the Mountain Blog.

You can also catch some sunrises that I have taken over the years at my photo site.

One piece of advice. If you are going to live on a mountain, get an all wheel drive with a low range. It's not getting up that is a challenge, it's getting down.

You might also want to check out Fred First's blog Fragments from Floyd.

[Steven2149]

I would strongly consider Roanoke County. You are a very reasonable distance from all that Roanoke has to offer. You will find decent prices on real estate and should be able to meet your needs and stay within your price range. There, you will also find your better mountain views, especially in north or south roanoke county. You are looking down into a rather large valley in either of those areas. North County is much more rural, actually very, very rural and a bit further out, but the views are magnificent. South County, along us 221 offers some other very nice areas and is a bit (only a bit) more developed once you get further out of the Cave Spring area and begin going up the mountain. Also, Sugarloaf Mountain would be worth looking at. I could go on and on, but many of my posts offer my opinion of the area. A job as a real estate agent in Roanoke is doable, but will be difficult, as the economy isn't all that great. I've been an agent in Georgia for 3 years so know the ins and outs of starting up. I don't know much about web development jobs, therefore can't offer much opinion.

[dsobotta]

Originally Posted by Steven2149

I would strongly consider Roanoke County. You are a very reasonable distance from all that Roanoke has to offer. You will find decent prices on real estate and should be able to meet your needs and stay within your price range. There, you will also find your better mountain views, especially in north or south roanoke county. You are looking down into a rather large valley in either of those areas. North County is much more rural, actually very, very rural and a bit further out, but the views are magnificent. South County, along us 221 offers some other very nice areas and is a bit (only a bit) more developed once you get further out of the Cave Spring area and begin going up the mountain. Also, Sugarloaf Mountain would be worth looking at. I could go on and on, but many of my posts offer my opinion of the area. A job as a real estate agent in Roanoke is doable, but will be difficult, as the economy isn't all that great. I've been an agent in Georgia for 3 years so know the ins and outs of starting up. I don't know much about web development jobs, therefore can't offer much opinion.

I would look in Blacksburg for web development jobs. There are several small and some growing technology companies in the corporate research park.

[seanpecor]

Is he a web developer interested in developing his own clientele or would he rather work for a firm? If he would prefer the latter, I would say his choices are evenly split between Blacksburg and the Roanoke area. Blacksburg is much smaller but there are a number of small but growing I.T. firms there that balance it out with Roanoke. If he would prefer to develop his own clientele then the priority is situating you for the area you'll be serving as a realtor.

Roanoke County is a really good choice, but the sub-region with the largest opportunity for a young Realtor is Franklin County. It's the fastest growing county in the Roanoke metro area and the land and median house values are growing the fastest here. The baby boomers are rolling in with alot of cash and plenty of them know that FC has the lowest property tax rates in the region. Many also want that semi-rural semi-mountanous landscape which is becoming increasingly hard to find in the Roanoke Valley, unless as Steve mentions, you want to head down Route 221. The issue with Route 221 is the traffic. It's bad. It's a residential/commercial corridor so there is alot of stop and go during peak hours.

There are some good Realtors in FC but few _great_ ones so there is certainly a niche available for new talent. Most realtors I know in FC (and I know quite a few), the youngest of which is a lady in her middle thirties, are all doing very, very well. They seem to be taking advantage of the lack of knowledge concerning FC that is impeding Roanoke Valley realtors. There is definitely some Roanoke Valley snobbery among realtors who live West of the blue ridge (FC sits east of the range, while everything else in the Roanoke metro sits west). For example, some new friends of ours, were being shown around the entire area by a relocation specialist; the husband had just been recruited as the director of the medical group for the largest medical organization in the area and they were looking for an upscale horse friendly property. There were some certainly available in FC but their realtor really downed the FC high school, and really propped up the Botetourt County high school. In short the realtor completely flipping lied. Open up the report cards on both schools and FC exceeds BC's high school on nearly every rating. Quite a surprise given that, at least for the time being, the FC population is on average less affluent than BC's, making the academic accomplishments much more notable.

Blacksburg from a real estate perspective is a big question mark. The metro isn't very large and the growth target for the Blacksburg area are really controlled by the growth targest for Virginia Tech, which plans to only add a couple thousand more students by 2020. It's elevated by the economic growth but existing I.T. companies are already having trouble pulling new grads from Tech, so the growth prospects are not huge. The market is helped out by Tech grads and sports fans who want second/third/fourth homes close to the stadium. I know I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but Blacksburg is really where live music goes to die. We lived there for 10 months and it was really difficult to find shows worth attending there. We always had to travel to Roanoke. I remember one professionally produced play rolling through town during the whole time we were there. It's even tougher during the summer when the population of Blacksburg implodes and the economic draw for live acts shrinks considerably.

If your husband were of the entrepreneurial vein then I'd suggest he build his own clientele. There is _nobody_ local to FC except for Web Transitions and they aren't going to appeal to the Real Estate, Tourism or Industrial markets locally. Being a realtor you'd patch him into a large market of agents who don't have very effective web sites. It's a thought. I'm concerned that if your husband wants to work for a firm you'll be somewhat limited in your options on where to live?

Sean

[netyron]

we live in this subdivision about 20 minutes outside of roanoke,va
great rural community good neighbors , some lots available on the water or about one block from the water of smith mountain lake, some homes for sales also
we have a community center for functions and yearly have potlucks and gathering for the community and surrounding area

franklin county has lowest taxes in the state

lots of peace and quiet with mountain views, and lots of woods

you will love it here

not far from the city but a little bit of the country life as well

[SouthernMomto3]

netyron...How far is your subdivision to the main Carilion hospital?

[seanpecor]

Netyron, how hard were you hit by the 2008 Reassessment? My 128 acres with 4 barns and home went from $930K assessed in 2004 to $1.9M assessed in 2008. I'm not crying foul, the way I see it is the county is growing and the extra revenue will help fund ever more amenities for all of us... but unless they drop the rate from $0.53/$100 to mitigate the burden, they'll have 100% more cash in the kitty in 2008 which is too big a jump to be spent sensibly

Notice I'm not complaining too loudly. As an ex-Vermonter, I'm well aware that owning property assessed at $2M in Vermont would trigger $60,000 in property taxes - not $10,000 as it does down here. But going from a $6,000 to a $10,000 annual bill overnight still smarts!

Sean

[methridge]

Is Franklin County near enough if i were to work at Virginia Tech? There doesnt seem to be much in terms of nice real estate in Blacksburg so i am trying to figure out what areas are in good proximity to the university. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[SouthernMomto3]

I would think that is about one hour away but someone who's already there would know better.