Charlie Ragonesi Big Canoe Realestate's Blog

For many of you you have seen on TV  the devastation that the ice storms this year caused. If you are in Big Canoe  near the top or on Monument Road in Pickens and Dawson County you have seen downed power lines and snapped trees. It almost looks like a tornado has gone through the area. This brinks me to the point of the post.

When you are choosing a location you do not have to live on the tip top of a mountain. I am at 2500 feet and have a great view as well as cool and wonderful summers. Last summer we ran our A/C for the total of a week. So when you are considering the mountains consider North Georgia and consider 1 ridge down from the top. On those windy or stormy winter days you will be glad you did. .Here is the view I am talking about.

I don't know about you but this kind of view and some shelter from high winds 600 feet above me keeps me very happy

If you are looking for a Mountain home or land now is the time to look. NOT because of the 8,000 credit. NOT because of the new 6500 existing home buyer credit. NOT because prices are very very good. NOT because interest rates are low.

NOW is the time to look because the leaves are off the trees! Now you will see your views that may have been hidden. Also you can get a really good look at the lay of the land. Also temperatures are wonderful for walking right now. So if you are looking in the North Georgia Mountains and think you need to be here in spring or summer. Not so. Now is the best time to look, especially if you are looking for land or views.

The North Georgia Mountains are pretty year round. This fall in the Big Canoe / Jasper area the rains came and washed away many of the leaves. But today in the sunshine as I was driving I managed to get these shots.

These pictures are from about 3000 feel up. The air was clear and the breeze was blowing. Temperature was in the 60's

It was pretty bright out but you get the idea. The North Georgia Mountains are Beautiful and a great place to live and raise a family. Contact us at All Mountain Realty . We would love to work with you.

North Georgia Real Estate continues to be some  what flat in sales and prices. I guess this is a good thing as prices are not going down. However recent events in the troubled Carpet industry have put pressure on prices and home sales are slow. North Georgia is home to the nations carpet industry in Dalton.

In addition Jasper which produces much of the Marble for our country is slow also as an industry. So we have 2 industries here that rely on housing in large part for their business.

On a positive note folks who can sell in other areas are moving to North Georgia due to price points and great quality of life.. There are new medical facilities opening here and folks are getting tax breaks who are retired.

Bottom line is North Georgia provides great value for your dollar. Visit is you might be surprised.

The North Georgia Mountains usually get busy in the summer. This is when we see many of the buyers. This summer started slow but picked up some as the summer went on.

We are seeing prices in places like Big Canoe adjust downward as the sales volume starts to pick up. In other areas we are seeing a lot of first time buyers come out. The traffic of second home buyers is slow.

Land sales are really really slow as it is tough to get financing and new home starts are sluggish.

So the net for our mountain market I think is 2009 will be a year the downward home sale slide has stopped. But I think prices will not increase uniformly or across the board.

My recommendation is gated community homes are a great bargain right now. They are also great places to live. So if you are thinking about the mountains this is a good time to buy.

This is the last part in the series. I hope you all enjoyed it. The last thing we have not covered is choosing a firm to associate with.

Like many other areas you have choices. But if you choose a big name make sure they are established in the mountains. If you are new to mountain real estate this is key. There are not a lot of us up here.So chances are the folks in your firm will know a lot about the counties and areas you want to deal with. In my county for example there are 20,000 people. I know the county exec. and folks that do planning. So if you are starting out location of the firm you are looking to join is more important than national recognition.

After a while you will get the hang of it and will probably be standing here,

or maybe here

or maybe even here

if you are a leaf peeper then maybe you will be standing here

But remember where ever you are in our beautiful North Georgia mountains stop and look at all the beauty. Don't be surprised if some one is looking back at you !

After the sale

You have a contract on a house and are going to a closing. What more is there to do ? There are a lot of things you should be doing. But since this is about the North Georgia Mountains we will limit those things to things that are unique to our area

1 Wild Life management. You decide to put out bird feeders and maybe a humming bird feeder or 2.  Then one morning you walk to your window and see a 300pound Bear munching away. I have seen them climb up deck polls, the metal ones, over 1 1/2 stories to get to a feeder. Now if you use the humming bird feeders that stick to windows, guess what a 300 pound bear will do to your windows when he leans on them to get to the feeder. Can you say , "Lucy I 'm home." If your buyers are coming from urban or beach areas they do need to be advised. I had a buyer  from West Palm who thought i was kidding till he walked out ion his deck one morning and saw a bear sleeping on his porch with his paws wrapped around a feeder.

2 Wild Life Management 2 Deer are beautifu,l but do not feed them. If you feed them from the ground you will be encouraging not so wanted things like mice who love deer feed too. Also deer ticks carries Lyme disease so you really do not want a herd in your yard awaiting breakfast. Talk to your buyers about this.

If both of the above discussions fail to convince your nature loving buyers from feeding the critters then tell them making these animals comfortable around people is a death sentence for them during hunting season.That is the simple brutal truth

3 Pet management. Tel your folks they are really going to have to take care of their pets especially dogs when the move to the mountains. There loving Beagle will take off after a deer if he is not used to seeing him. Or a mother doe  with a fawn will kick your pet to defend her baby leading to some hefty Vet Bills. I recommend all pet owners chip their dogs. In Georgia we scan for chips. Sometimes collars get broken off and as smart as the animal is it cannot say it's name. The second thing NOT to do is, if you have a big yard,  putting a dog on a long lead before you go to work. There are animals in the mountains that are bigger than your dog and if you are away you have just tied up a meal for them.

So know your buyer and advise them about wildlife and pets. By going this extra step you will have a new client for life.

In parts 1 and 2 we covered getting started and land sales. It is now time to move on to housing. In the mountains you will run into homes that are different from other areas.

1 Log Cabins. You will have buyers who want the cabin feeling and look at log homes. You are not an expert but it is good to know some things. The number one question is maintenance. I would suggest going to a log home show. Learn from all the builders there. So in the South for example ,white pine tends to hold up better to humidity and heat than other woods. Also there are different types of chinking now available. So I would suggest going to a show and when you develop your list of inspectors make sure you have some one on the list that is a log expert.

2 Mountain side homes. Many folks look at mountain side homes or ask about building them. The trick here is again to have a good inspector or a mountain builder. Concrete retaining walls and foundations are very very important here. So it is important again to have good mountains builders and an engineer or 2 in your address book.

3 Location. If you are looking at a home on a steep or non paved road you may have a tough time with insurance. There are some places fire trucks do not go. You can check with your local fire department for a specific home.

Again this all boils down to working with a mountain Realtor. So me , for example, if I wanted to buy on the coast  would find a local Realtor who could tell me about insurance, tides, etc. etc.

The mountains are great. But a lot of times they present challenges to folks who like to walk or want to get back into shape and walk. In Big Canoe we have over 100 miles of hiking trails. One such walk is McDaniel Meadows.

McDaniel Meadows is a wild flower meadow. It has been planted and trails that are gravel lined have been placed through it

Even in the dog days of Summer there are many flowers to see when walking Through the meadows

Many of the flowers are spent by this time . But this photo shows the paths and how good a walk it is for folks who need some flattish terrain to get back in shape on. It is green with trees on all sides

There are streams and bridges all along the walk. Oh yes there is even a big fenced in area which is a dog park. Plastic bags provided so please clean up after !!! For a full view of the area the photo below shows the map

Bottom line , If you love the mountains and love to walk consider the great community of Big Canoe. We have a lot to offer

About a week ago I posted photos of the all marble Tate house. There are many scenes in the mountains:

Grizzles country store and many like it are fixtures in our mountains. usually they open about now and carry fresh produce and ice tea. So you may be  headed to Amicoloa Falls , about 2 miles west of Grizzles, and one of the the longest falls East of the Mississippi. You could be headed east to Dahlonega about 10 miles from Grizzles, the site of the first Gold rush in the US in the 1820's. You could be hauling a horse trailer to ride in Blue Ridge park about 2 miles North orf Grizzles.  In any event whether it is grizzles or another store like it. Stop get an ice tea, get directions and a country smile. Family stores like this are part of the mountain heritage and make the mountains a special place for sights and the folks that live here