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Hey all,
I've spent some time searching on these forums and have found some good info on housing and the various areas of Asheville. However, I wanted to ask a bit more specific than what I've found.
I am interviewing with a company in Arden next Tuesday and I would like to meet with a realtor to get an overview tour of some areas while I'm there.
A little background: My fiancee and I are 24 and 25, respectively, and currently live in the University area of Charlotte. She is an Accountant/Executive Assistant and I am a Mechanical Engineer. We've both grown up in suburban areas (mainly SW Cleveland) and are looking for a nice suburban area to start a family. We're used to having a lot of things to do (outdoors activities, parks, shopping, movies, etc) and numerous conveniences that are fairly close-by. We don't like how most of the communities in Charlotte are building houses on top of eachother when there's so much land around, so we'd like a neighborhood that provides some decent land space (we have a dog, so a larger backyard would be great for her).
For houses, we've been looking for something we can grow into. Around 2000+sq ft, with a 2+ car garage (I'm a car-nut), 3+ bedrooms, and that is less than ~25 years old. In the Charlotte area that means spending around $150-160k, and I'm finding that housing is about 5-10% more expensive around Asheville/Arden. We're used to 2-story homes, but it seems that most homes in our price range are ranches, at least in the short searches I've done via online realty sites.
I've been told that the South Asheville / Arden area would be appropriate for us, but I have yet to visit. We've only been to the Biltmore estate and close-surrounding area once. We have a friend that lives near Arden that we will likely visit after my interview if all goes well.
Are there any other suburban areas relatively close to Arden that I should check out while I'm in town? It sounds like traffic isn't bad, so a slightly longer drive doesn't bother me. Less than 20 minutes commute would be preferred.
Do any of you know a good realtor that I could contact before next tuesday to possibly show me some houses near Arden?
I want to avoid the pushy ones, so I wanted to ask around. Itd be nice to find someone that doesn't mind spending a bit of time with a potential customer.
I'm not going to recommend a real estate agent because I think that the one I used wouldn't be appropriate for a young buyer. He's not pushy at all, he's patient, and he does negotiate well, but I don't think that he would be appropriate for everyone.
I will suggest couple of areas in the general South Asheville area. First, you already mentioned Arden. I would suggest that you also consider Skyland and Fletcher. Skyland is adjacent to Arden, more or less north of it. Fletcher is more or less south of Arden with the Fletcher postal route including parts of Buncombe County and Henderson County. The actual Town of Fletcher being just over the county line into Henderson County.
You may also want to consider the Avery Creek area. It's on the other side of I26 from the general Biltmore Park development and shopping. A lot of it is ruralesque, but it also has some tracts in it. The issue that may be of concern to you is that some of the Avery Creek area will be in the flight path from the airport. It depends on where you are located, but some part of it will have airplanes taking off over it. Just take a look at it on a map and see how the property lays in comparison to the ariport runways.
On second thought you may also want to look in the Mills River area. The nothern part of it is just south of the airport, so some of it will have the same issue with flight paths as Avery Creek. However, other parts will be less affected by airplanes and the area will give you quick access to US280, Airport Road. It takes you quickly to Lowes, Target, Walmart and Hendersonville Road.
I do know of one cute little tract down there just past the Mills River Restaurant, that may meet your needs. I haven't kept up to date on the prices, but it's just past the restaurant intersection on the road to Hendersonville. It'll be on the left, across from a nursery, and has some cute homes on tract-sized lots.
Here's one last comment I have on the house you're seeking. You said you wanted "2000+sq ft, with a 2+ car garage, 3+ bedrooms, and that is less than ~25 years old" for around $150-160K." Holy Cow! At 160K for 2000 sq ft, you're talking $80 per square foot. I think that dog stopped barking a looooooooong time ago for anything decent that matches all that you're seeking. So, if you're asking me, I think you're going to have to reevaluate your price or requirements.
Maybe you might find some fixer-upper, but I think you're going to be challanged finding such an animal in the areas you're seeking, especially with your other qualifications like 2 car garage, 3+ bedrooms, close-in, land, etc. Your price-point may push you into much older homes, one car garages, out-dated kitchens, maintenance problems, trailers (oops, modular homes) or other such issues, if there's anything available at all.
You're also looking at the price range that's been moving in this market. Houses above 300K or so haven't been moving quickly. As the prices go up, the slower they move. However, anything under 200-250K has been active. Be sure to talk to your Realtor about this issue, but I think that your competition will be stiff.
I would suggest that your best bet to find something close to your price proint with close to the square footage you're seeking would be in the Town of Fletcher. There's some vinyl sided tracts of SFHs on tract lots, perhaps .15-.25 acre, that will bring you closest to meeting your standards. They're not too old, perhaps in the 6-8 year range or so, and they're not far off of the main street through town (US25 - Hendersonville Road) so you have quick and easy access to anywhere in southern Buncombe County or northern Hernderson County.
No matter what you decide to do, I certainly wish you the all the best in meeting your desires. Good luck!
Garth is right, you may not find anything in decent condition, or location, in the price range you stated. A 2,000 sf. home in Henderson County will be betwee $200K and $250K or more. The small "village" that Garth mentions in Mills River is a mixed bag in there. Some were good construction, others not so much. Even at that you are looking close to $250,000 in what is called Mills River Village, for that amount of sq. ftg.
I am sending you a DM for an excellent trustworthy Realtor here in town. (I am a retired Realtor here, and this is my 'backyard'.. I have no monetary or other interest in sending you a name. Just like to help the folks).
There are tons of choices down in that area but don't expect to walk into town and find a realtor just sitting on his/her hands waiting for a customer to walk in the door. Right now real estate sales here have been popping and keeping the good agents busy. A friend was out looking recently and had to really press the agent to clear his calender because he needs a house fast. So get online and pick houses in the area of interest and contact an agent ASAP. Remember, you are not committed to anything until/unless you sign a contract with the agent. Make sure that you are happy with the agent before doing so. They will usually ask you to sign a contract once you see a house you want to make an offer on, so watch out if they hit you up right away for an exclusive contract. We went through 2 agents before we found one we were happy with.
Now as for your price range, you should be able to narrow that down fast by doing targeted searches on the internet. The 2-3 big firms here have excellent search engines. Garth gave you some good ideas of where to focus your search and I agree that Fletcher sounds right up your alley. One thing to notice is that there really are 2 Fletchers--half in Buncombe County and the other half in Henderson County. You'll see a significant drop in prices once you cross the county line into Henderson County. Good luck and happy searching
Thanks to everyone for your input and suggestions. =)
I've been doing more searching and have realized what Garth and others have mentioned about price point. My range of $150-160 was what we had to spend for what we were looking for in north Charlotte, NC which is obviously a vastly different market. I guess I'll be looking at smaller sized homes so we can stay close to that price range.
I'll check out Fletcher, Skyland and Avery Creek. I had included Mills River in a few of my online searches and will continue to do so.
Thanks to everyone for your input and suggestions. =)
I've been doing more searching and have realized what Garth and others have mentioned about price point. My range of $150-160 was what we had to spend for what we were looking for in north Charlotte, NC which is obviously a vastly different market. I guess I'll be looking at smaller sized homes so we can stay close to that price range.
I'll check out Fletcher, Skyland and Avery Creek. I had included Mills River in a few of my online searches and will continue to do so.
Thanks again!
-Mike
Mike, those areas may also be out of your price range. Have a good reliable Realtor start sending you listings that match your criteria from the Henderson County MLS. It would be prudent to stay away from Buncombe County, home prices and taxes are higher in B/Cty, the closer you get to Asheville. You can live quite comfortably with a commute to the Asheville area, it's only 25 miles or so, easy driving from country to city. Did you get my DM?
there are so many foreclosures available, you should include them in your search. we bought a FC home and it was not more or less painful than buying a regular priced house off the market. and the value was unbeatable.
Mike, those areas may also be out of your price range. Have a good reliable Realtor start sending you listings that match your criteria from the Henderson County MLS. It would be prudent to stay away from Buncombe County, home prices and taxes are higher in B/Cty, the closer you get to Asheville. You can live quite comfortably with a commute to the Asheville area, it's only 25 miles or so, easy driving from country to city. Did you get my DM?
I did receive your DM. Thank you for the recommendation!
I've contacted one realtor so far and have requested them to start sending me some listings. I'll ask them to include Henderson county as well in the search. We'll see what they find.
Quote:
there are so many foreclosures available, you should include them in your search. we bought a FC home and it was not more or less painful than buying a regular priced house off the market. and the value was unbeatable.
We will be looking at some forclosure homes. There was at least one that I've found that sounded very promising.
An update on what has been happening. Its been an absolutely crazy week!
I went to my interview last Tuesday, which went very well. I was able to meet with a very nice realtor and view 4 homes (in Arden, Fletcher, Mountain Home, and Hendersonville). Of those 4, there was really only one that I'd strongly consider, which was in Mountain Home. I also drove through a few of the new home communities that have vinyl-sided SFH's on smaller lots, in Skyland and Fletcher.
On Thursday, I received the job offer (which was very good!) and was able to continue speaking with my realtor about some other possibilities. We looked at probably 50 homes online and discussed them in detail before narrowing the field down to a few that we'd like to look at. My fiancee and I went out to Asheville on Saturday night and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Westgate mall, West of Asheville. On sunday we viewed 8-9 housing possibilities all over Asheville, in Arden, Fletcher, Hendersonville, Mills River, Swannanoa, and Leicester. We were looking at condos, townhomes, and regular homes between 109k-165k.
The lower end of the spectrum were foreclosed townhomes/condos that were attractive because of the low mortgage payments that would allow us to save a lot of money for the first few years. We were looking at a wide range of home ages and types to try to get a good idea of what we really want. There were two options that were really appealing in Fletcher, and by the end of the day we determined that we would really prefer to be in a newer home in a SFH tract community, because that is what we're used to and the most comfortable with. We also determined that we really can't get much over 1400sqft at a rate of around $100-130/sqft for the type of homes we were looking at in our price range. I also kind of gave up on trying to get a 2-car garage which is really disappointing, but at least some of the 1-car garages are fairly wide to allow me to work on one car in the garage at a time.
We decided to stay another night because our schedules allowed for it. Today I met with the company for final discussions, and I accepted the position in Asheville which is really exciting! So I'll be starting in June and we are hoping to have the housing situation set by then. The company offers a great relocation package, so the move shouldn't be too stressful.
We also looked at 5 other homes in Fletcher, Hendersonville, and Etowah. By the end, we really decided that we like the area around Fletcher the best, as we kept coming back to that area and were using it for comparison everywhere else we visited. It's got some beautiful views, and has everything that we're used to having nearby. Its also reasonably close to my job and has the Airport shopping within 10-15 minutes or so. We're trying to find something in the Livingston Farms community, and have a few leads so far.
That being said, we're still open to suggestions of areas that we might have missed, but the extensive searching I've done via MLS, our realtor, and many many websites doesnt seem to be yielding many other options similar to the Livingston Farms community with our price range. I'd like it to be less than 25minutes from Arden if possible. Any suggestions?
I'm going to be researching school systems and other things in the Fletcher Area. Any comments about school systems or feedback on the area in general?
Thanks!
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