By Team Cleary
Water and trees are beautiful until they aren’t quite where they belong. If you are here seasonally, it’s worth emphasizing the importance of having someone check for potential problems, keep an eye on maintenance, and identify potential issues before becoming a bigger more complicated problem to resolve.
While wrapping up your stay, making plans to help ensure your home is buttoned up to avoid problems that can come up when it’s unoccupied and unattended can be invaluable. Aside from the basic desire to just come and enjoy your “happy place,” you really don’t want to walk in to find your primary bathroom shower door mysteriously shattered, your vehicle left in the garage has a dead battery, an uninvited guest has been camping out without your knowledge, or a broken water pipe has flooded your home. (These are all real examples of what some of our clients and neighbors have encountered recently). We’ve been there, as we used to visit in the summers and wouldn’t return until around Thanksgiving. Arriving after a long day of travelling you walk into your vacation home, excited yet with a touch of anxiety, not knowing what you’ll find. Pulling up to the property, you are relieved to see no trees fell over – surely your lovely neighbor would have given you a head’s up, but still the thought bounces around in your head. Then the anxiety starts again as you cross the threshold, and into each room to find, most of the time, everything looks good & just as you left it.
A small problem left undetected can become an enormous and costly one. Home watch service inspections in between visits can go a long way toward providing peace of mind and protecting your investment. Now is a good time to get a program in place before you go. We offer customized home watch services and can come to your home to work up a plan that makes sense for your needs and budget.
For those of you who are wondering what the outlook seems to be for real estate, we are seeing encouraging signs the local market here will continue to be in a good place. For the 28746 & 28720 zip codes regarding the single-family home & condo/townhouse categories over the last 90 days: 11 homes became Active; 7 went Under Contract; and 46 Closed. Inventory is still very limited, and we are seeing a consistent level of interest among buyers. In fact, some buyers have been waiting for the market to settle down a bit and are now stepping in for the first time. This is creating more balance for buyers and sellers. It’s a good time for those considering selling, while buyers are enjoying more options at a less frenzied pace.
Wes and Cathy Cleary are full-service Realtors® living in Lake Lure. They have invested, rented, bought, and sold real estate in Western North Carolina since 1997. Licensed in NC/SC with Team Cleary Real Estate, Inc. TeamClearyWNC@gmail.com; Wes 828-785-2115; 828-808-6790 Cathy; www.TeamCleary.com.
