Charlie Ragonesi Big Canoe Realestate's Blog: February 2012

For a couple of days this weekend we were in the Florida Panhandle. We were visiting son Joe who is in the Navy. He is soon to be shipped out west so we thought it would be a good time to visit. I love the North Georgia mountains and their beauty. However there is something to be said for the gulf as well. The picture below was taken at Fort Barracas. It over looks the gulf. The sail boat in the distance made good speed as it was a windy day. All in  all there is a lot of natural beauty in our country.

We enjoyed the trip and the change of scenery

The statistics for Jasper Georgia and Pickens county in our north Georgia mountains can be seen below.

There are some interesting lines. . Jasper in the mountains is at or above the average for the State of Georgia. Pickens county , where Jasper is, is way above. The difference her is Big Canoe. Big Canoe is an upscale community in Pickens county and accounts for the big difference. Now you can see at the start of the year so far all the lines are close together. This means that if you are buying in North Georgia Big Canoe is a GREAT value. Contact us at All mountain Realty. We are your North Georgia Mountains experts.

The trends for Big Canoe and the jasper area are as follows;

Average Listing Price:	$376,710	-0.06%
Average Listing Price/Sq Ft:	$129.00	0.05%
Total Listings:	766	2.61%
Total Listings Previous Months: August July	212 214	-0.01% -0.02%
The numbers reflect the whole Jasper area including Big Canoe. However for Big Canoe you can see listings are 212. That is a number lower than we have seen in over 1 year. What this means is the Big Canoe inventory as part of the whole Pickens county area is being reduced. Good news for buyers is that prices have been significantly reduced. This is due to a re-alignment of prices in Big Canoe to the total mountain market. Big Canoe is a great buy right now . The other think is broken out the Big Canoe Sort Sale and Foreclosure numbers are about 3 percent of our market. this indicates a strong community. NOW is the time to buy in Big Canoe. The folks at All Mountain Realty are your Big Canoe and North Georgia Mountains specialists.

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Many Home owner today look for places to store their important papers. Many home Owners wear a Belt. What I mean by that is they go out and buy a safe and use it to store papers in. They look at the safes rating and decide that it is fire proof and in case of a fire their important papers will be saved.  But they need to where suspenders too!

The suspenders in this case are making sue the safe is also WATER PROOF ! What do folks who fight fires use to put them out? That's right water. As a Volunteer here in the North Georgia Mountains I can tell you that some times the safe was saved but the contents looked like a big spit ball. So you have the belt, wear the suspenders too. If you are not sure about your fire proof safe being water proof use oven bags to store your things in. They should give yo the water proof protection as well as be heat resistant and not melt.

Thank you Jennifer Chiongbian for the idea for this post

We have a great New listin in Big Canoe. It is on Lake Petit at 1049 Thrasher way. It is on Lake Petit. It is 3 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths. It is a lovely mountain cabin. The pictues say it all . It is pricd at 449,000 !! When one considers lots on Lake petit sell in the 300,000's if you can find them and a smaller house sold 1 1/2 years ago at 699,000  this house is a great buy. MLS number is 4320992

From the deck you look out onto the 95 acre lake Petit

Looking Down from the loft you can see the wonderful mountain great room

There are decks and porches all around the home. If you are looking for water front property in a great home this is an excellent buy.

To sell more you can scan below

Folks looking to buy or sell in Big Canoe often have questions. In this series I will as a Realtor who works in Big Canoe as well as the North Georgia Mountains do my best to provide answers to the most asked questions.

Why are the association fees so high in Big Canoe ?

The Association fees in Big Canoe are approximately 225. 00 per month. The main reasons for these fees are simple:

 ROADS In a gated community in Georgia the community is responsible for the roads. In Big Canoe there are over 100 miles of mountain roads that need to be maintained. Drive any other mountain community and you will soon see why Big Canoe spends on Roads

SECURITY and FIRE PROTECTION In Big Canoe there is 24/7 EMT service as well as security and fire protection. I fact you will save close to 500 a year on your home owners insurance because of the great protective services in Big Canoe. When one considers this reduction against the cost it makes the fees in Big Canoe very reasonable.

Got a Big Canoe or North Georgia Mountain question visit us on line at www.allmountainrealty.com or email me at charlie@allmountainealty.com

3 days a week I go to a 7 am class in the fitness center in Big Canoe. In the winter it is dark on the way there. But coming back at 8 am it gets pretty crossing the dam over lake Petit and watching the day start.

The sun in ths pictue is just coming up over lake Petit. The lake is 95 acres and just clean and beautiful.

When one turns around you can see the sun reflecting on the mountains. Now it is winter here but can you see any homes? They are there. Big Canoe does a great job through architectural control of making sure homes blend in with nature. In this photo there are actually some 4 and 5 bedroom large homes. You do not see them easily.

If you look the other way you see Cox mountain in the distance. below is a ball field ? walking track. In addition the tennis cours are near by as well as the fitness center. Big Canoe is a place where you can enjoy nature and be active

In my opinion government is not this evil thing trying to run our lives. However they do stuff that sometimes has unintended consequences for our business.

1 The law was passed about appraisals. Seemed like a good thing. Make the process an arms length transaction so there would be no collusion between banks ,real estate folks, sellers , and appraisers. but there is that pesky unintended consequence. We now have appraisers that do not know the area and under appraise homes. As if we needed this added stone being thrown at our market

2 The President is putting forward a plan to allow current paying folks who are underwater to re-finance. This seems like a great thing. Hey the banks got bailed out by us . Why shouldn't they help? Especially since they are a LARGE reason for this mess to begin with. So as my wife and I are watching this on TV she says to me, "Aren't you glad we just finished our refi?' "Why?" I say. "Because the loan process will really slow down when the banks are swamped with all these refis". Unintended consequences.

I am thinking that "short" sales will become almost imposible. Foreclosures will get tough. So I have to ask where is our lobby NAR in this . Are they not effective ? Or are they not being listened too.? I know I never got a survey about political issues from NAR to comment on. Unintened consequences, even some of the best intentioned plans have them.

I will give you my all time favorite. I am sitting in a pub in England many years back with a solicitor friend. He says America was ahead of the UK when it came to seat belt laws. After a long time England finally adopted laws like the U.S.  I say, you know there are very few laws that are just good without folks getting punished or hurt. The seat belt law is one of them. He says you would think so. But now that the law has been in effect for a while we are having for the first time in this country a shortage of organ donors. True story , Unintended consequences. Be aware of them in your business too.