Insight requested into the housing market in Burnsville and surrounding area (Asheville: for sale, real estate market)

[ttrib]

I am looking to purchase property in Burnsville/Spruce Pine area. I have been looking for awhile and it seems that nothing is selling but the prices aren't going down either. There seem to be a lot of properties for sale. No information available on home sales or property values (Zillow doesn't cover this area). Tired of being "homeless" and would really like to buy a home but not sure how much property values are going to drop in this area. It appears that the retirees are not flooding in as they have in the past and there certainly aren't jobs in this area so it would SEEM that house prices would have to start going down. Sellers just seem to hang on for months....even years to their origonal asking price. I haven't made any offers either. Anyone have any insight into the housing market in the Burnsville/Spruce Pine area? Am I missing something here? Is there a website that tells you what has sold and at what price in this area? Grateful for anyone's input.

[roadpony]

You can always check with the Register of Deeds office for recent sales. Is there a board of realtors covering that area? If you have a real estate agent, he/she should be able to get you that information. All the more reason to use a buyer's agent to help you look and buy. And no, I am not in the real estate business.

[ttrib]

Thank you for your reply. I searched for Register of Deeds and have registered to get a log-in password with Parker-Lowe Assoc. which I guess has this information. It is free for the county you are a resident of, so I will try Mitchell County and see if the site even works before I shell out money to search Yancey County. I recall having once gone to the office in Bakersville (Mitchell County)and asking for home sales information and being told that I would need to provide the NAMES of the sellers in order to get any information (not helpful). As for the Yancey-Michell board of realtors, I do not see anything but MLS listings on their site. I guess I could ask my realtor although I hate to bother him with this since business is so bad that he has had to get another job......
Thanks again for your input.

[Tony1790]

Originally Posted by ttrib

I guess I could ask my realtor although I hate to bother him with this since business is so bad that he has had to get another job......

3 Things:

1. Let your realtor do the foot work, they can provide comps, what homes are listed at, what actually sold and for how much, all with a click of the mouse on the Realtor's MLS access, no guessing, hunting required. This is what you are paying your realtor for, technically the seller pays the commission, but who gives the seller the cash....yeah you

2. Fire your realtor, if he's working another job, then he's not a realtor, and if asking for info is bothersome, then he's not a realtor either.

3. Find some homes that you like and make an offer of what you are comfortable with, all they can say is no. If the house is $250k and all you want to pay is $200k, make the offer, they could get mad and say go away, but I'm guessing that they will be grateful for an offer and counter.....if they don't then they or their realtor is an idiot.

Lastly, are you sure about Burnsville, when gas prices go back up it sure will be expensive driving to Ashevile for the big stuff you can't find in Burnsville.

Tony

[ttrib]

Tony,
Thanks for your input. I guess I will just ask my realtor to get me the information about "comps". What I'd like to know is what HAS sold in the area and for how much.....close to asking or way less?.....I have no idea. When houses disappear off the MLS is it because they sold or is it that the listing expired and the owners gave up? There is so much less information on the internet about what is going on in the Yancey-Mitchell area than in areas like Asheville.
As for the distance to drive to Asheville for "stuff" and the cost of gas....you are right, it will get expensive when gas goes back up but I think that the difference in housing costs and real estate taxes more than makes up for it. Property gets even cheaper up north of Burnsville going toward TN but I am thinking that might just be too remote....
Thanks again for your suggestions and I will ask my realtor for the information.

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by ttrib

I am looking to purchase property in Burnsville/Spruce Pine area. I have been looking for awhile and it seems that nothing is selling but the prices aren't going down either. There seem to be a lot of properties for sale. No information available on home sales or property values (Zillow doesn't cover this area). Tired of being "homeless" and would really like to buy a home but not sure how much property values are going to drop in this area. It appears that the retirees are not flooding in as they have in the past and there certainly aren't jobs in this area so it would SEEM that house prices would have to start going down. Sellers just seem to hang on for months....even years to their origonal asking price. I haven't made any offers either. Anyone have any insight into the housing market in the Burnsville/Spruce Pine area? Am I missing something here? Is there a website that tells you what has sold and at what price in this area? Grateful for anyone's input.

Just wondering how you decided on that area in particular? I love the area too, but there are others you could check into. What's your price range?

[ttrib]

I fell in love with that area many years ago and always told myself that I would live there some day. SOME DAY is here! I initially fell in love with Little Switzerland. There are no views like those in LS (in my opinion). The general area is so beautiful. I could buy further away but closer to Asheville gets more expensive and further towards TN (like Green Mountain) gets pretty remote. So I guess you could say anywhere in the general area is where I'd like to end up. What I WANT is great mountain view, small house (1,000 sf or so), privacy and as much land as I can afford although number of acres is no guarantee of privacy, as I have learned. My price range would be up to around 250,000 or so depending on the amount of work the house needs. I don't need/want anything fancy...just liveable and I can work on it myself.

[NCBND]

It sounds like you've encountered the seller mindset that is unique to some of the more rural counties in WNC like McDowell, Mitchell, Yancey, etc. which is to set an unrealistically high asking price and then NEVER budge from it come what may. It used to agitate me when I was looking for property by Lake James a few years ago but it is so ubiquitous there that I've finally come to understand that it apparently some cultural thing that I don't understand. Folks there may or may not take a lower offer but they simply don't reduce asking prices like you'd see in other real estate markets. To me it sends the message "unmotivated seller" but I guess that it must work often enough to be perpetuated.

[ttrib]

Yes, it certainly does spell "unmotivated seller" when a property sits for months, years, at the same price. Interesting thing is that many of these are uninhabited and consequently losing value at the same time they are sitting around unsold just because of neglect.......
Is this a rural phenomenon.....or is it happening in Asheville as well?

[ttrib]

Let your realtor do the foot work, they can provide comps, what homes are listed at, what actually sold and for how much, all with a click of the mouse on the Realtor's MLS access, no guessing, hunting required. This is what you are paying your realtor for,

Thanks to those who suggested asking my realtor for the "comps"....He just sent them all to me and it is very interesting....some properties have sold for full price and some for a huge percentage less than asking! WOW
If anyone knows anything else about real estate market trends in this area, I'd appreciate whatever you have to say.
Thanks