Friday, November 2, 2018

Summer - Fall Newsletter 2018


Summer – Fall Newsletter, 2018


Following the wettest Spring on record… Now this… As if the heavens conspired against Golden Valley Sales it rained, it rained and rained and rained nearly every weekend. Weekends are important to us at McCall’s Real Estate, that’s when our buyers have time to come and see property, but most of them don’t want to get wet.  Only three properties sold between June 1 and August 31 in the four Fall Creek Developments and we represented the sellers in all three. There was one sale reported for Fox Gate and one in Cobblestone and that’s it for all the subdivisions in Bostic. It was, however, great for the flowers.
Newsletter link  Summer Newsletter
Local News
Pony Fun in the Sun:  Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) hosted a week of pony competitions the last week in June and ran the American Hobby Horse Finals. This is always such fun for the children and families, although it has nothing to do with this month’s edition I am posting for fun. Do take yourselves over there and enjoy the events.

Tent Worms: Mae Tietje, my neighbor, told me to put some gloves on, grab them in a bunch and drown them. I had a tub of water ready by the well when I donned gloves and headed for the first tent- web ball. It was not too high in the apple tree, I reached in and.... Nothing could have prepared me for having both hands suddenly full of those little "caterpillars" I'd played with since childhood. The ball in my hands was about the size of a grapefruit, a moving fruit, a writhing, squirming, ball of crawling critters with little hairy sticky legs. I ran. Ewww. I ran to the water and dropped the main mass, then started pulling them off my arms, ew, ew, ew... They swam to the sides and climbed out. I have since left them alone. I have not wanted to do that again. Once was enough.
Zillow News: If you're listed with McCall's you can see your listing on Zillow and see how your listing is preforming. Go to Zillow.com and type your address in the search window. It will open to your address page. At the top choose owner view, then scroll down and pick view metrics. Ta dah. You'll see how many people are looking at your listing online, but bear in mind this is for one MLS so that's just one side of your listing. Your listing will be in not one, but two MLSs.
Zillow is an all-inclusive real estate platform and companies can opt in or out. I don't know why you wouldn't want your listings on Zillow, but some companies do not. Zillow is permission-based advertising and uses our MLS data to present our listings to buyers. Buyers will see the listing with three or four agents to the right of it. These are agents who pay for advertising except for the Listing Agent who appears first in the lineup. Sometimes when a buyer clicks through to ask an agent to contact them they may get three calls from three agents. If you want me click my picture or better yet, reach out to me directly.
What's for sale in the neighborhood? Click on Subdivision Search, choose your neighborhood and you'll see all the available inventory that's in the Rutherford County MLS. Check out the competition anytime. FACTOID - Not every Realtor is in the local MLS. Some firms are solely in the Carolina's Regional MLS and some aren't in either the local or the regional MLS but belong to their own county's MLS. While listing with an out-of-area agent will put your listing out on the major platforms, it will not put you in the local websites. If it's not in the local MLS it's not on my website or on any local websites. My listings are on their (CRMLS) websites, but theirs are not on mine. Remember, Real Estate is still a hyper-local business. Other agents are my best customers.
Here are some of our listings.

Business News
McCall’s Real Estate is a member of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. We believe that supporting the local Chamber benefits the local economy. Chamber of Commerce They have some great links for area buyers.

New Listings
Sold
Reduced
Always Working for You
Our website McCallsRealEstate.com is available 24/7 and we have loads of information. Would you like to see what’s for sale in your Subdivision? Well you can have a look, under Search pick Subdivision pick YOUR subdivision and you’ll get every listing that’s available in the Rutherford County MLS. Under Featured Listings you can see our in-house listings and you can see our Sold Listings. If you look at the Blog you’ll find this newsletter and those that have gone before it, along with a few listings. In addition to this blog we run a Google Blogger at KDsFarm and we build landing pages for each of our listings on a platform called Real Bird. Besides using Real Bird slideshows for visual tours in the Rutherford County MLS, we subscribe to Paradym a Visual Tour Company and we place those tours in the Carolina’s Regional MLS. McCall’s Visual Tour Inventory List. To assist other agents, we build Dropbox Folders and maintain them with current information, so we can get our property information out with the click of a button. All of this and more to prove we really are Always Working for You.

Photograph magnetic words or scrabble words for each newsletter.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Spring Newsletter, 2018



Wettest May on Record
Hello,

Bostic, NC 2018 - Spring? What Spring? We went straight from winter to summer, didn't we? We’ve had a 90ยบ day already. It’s nuts. I'm about to run out of spring anyway, it's been pretty busy and it's the wettest May on record. The wettest. More about that later.

I'm going to back track for those of you who weren't with us for the last Newsletter. In our winter newsletter I told you about the new cell phone service and fixed internet WiFi with Carolina West Wireless and I mentioned that Northgate Resort was opening a new campground. Now This - Camp Golden Valley - Yogi Bear’s (Newest) Jellystone Park is taking reservations. Check it out Camp Golden Valley.
They're slated to open in August and it’s coming along very well. You may follow them on Instagram, Instagram JellyStone GoldenValley.

Will this hurt your sale or your purchase? It depends. Some buyers will want to shy away from the 600 acre camp, but others will want to be right over it. It might be fun to sit on the deck and watch people paddle around the 15-acre lake. It will be a big plus for some and a big minus for others. Will it cause property values to go up? We hope so, but it hasn't made a difference so far.

Local News
Horrible Weather  May 30th, 2018 Governor declares state of emergency in Western North Carolina. Heavy rains have created huge mudslides, devastating flooding and road closings. The real estate market practically shut down for ten days as the storm rolled across the county. Bostic fared very well with only a few downed trees. An area that usually averages 50 inches of rainfall each year, received nearly half that in two weeks. The Cherry Mountain Fire Department was quick to clear the roadways. Those volunteers are our heroes.
And now another mudslide has closed NC-9 near Bat Cave and Governor Roy Cooper has been out this weekend to see it in person.
The timing is awful for farmers, some of them have missed the spring planting and it has not been good for real estate either. But the sun was back this week, the phone is ringing and we're booking showings again.
  

The Lisa Letters: Several of my sellers have received a letter from Lisa Demyanovich. "I would like to purchase your land in Rutherford County NC as referenced in the enclosed Purchase Agreement.” she says, advising,"The source of your ownership record is from the Rutherford Assessor and this information is of public record and available to anyone who requests it." The letter continued and there was an attached Offer to Purchase. The offers were extremely low. My husband and I bought lot 3 in Golden Valley Estates in 2002 for $49,900. She offered us $12,500 for it. A second parcel we bought this year for $25,000 she offered $6,000. The offers were for pennies on the dollar and there were several contingencies - BUT this is legitimate. If you want to be released from your listing agreement so you can sell your land to Lisa, let me know and we'll work something out.

Zillow News: If you're listed with McCall's you can see your listing on Zillow and see how your listing is preforming. Go to Zillow.com and type your address in the search window. It will open to your address page. At the top choose owner view, then scroll down and pick view metrics. Ta dah. You'll see how many people are looking at your listing online, but bear in mind this is for one MLS so that's just one side of your listing. Your listing will be in not one, but two MLSs.
Zillow is an all inclusive real estate platform and companies can opt in or out. I don't know why you wouldn't want your listings on Zillow, but some companies do not. Zillow is permission based advertising and uses our MLS data to present our listings to buyers. Buyers will see the listing with three or four agents to the right of it. These are agents who pay for advertising with the exception of the Listing Agent who appears first in the line up. Sometimes when a buyer clicks through to ask an agent to contact them they may get three calls from three agents. If you want me click my picture or better yet, reach out to me directly.
What's for sale in the neighborhood? Click on Subdivision Search, choose your neighborhood and you'll see all the available inventory that's in the Rutherford County MLS. Check out the competition anytime. FACTOID - Not every Realtor is in the local MLS. Some firms are solely in the Carolina's Regional MLS and some aren't in either the local or the regional MLS, but belong to their own county's MLS. While listing with an out-of-area agent will put your listing out on the major platforms, it will not put you in the local websites. If it's not in the local MLS it's not on my website or on any local websites. My listings are on their (CRMLS) websites, but their's are not on mine. Remember, Real Estate is still a hyper-local business.Other agents are my best customers.
Here are some of our listings.

Business News
McCall’s Real Estate is a member of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. We believe that supporting the local Chamber benefits the local economy. Chamber of Commerce They have some great links for area buyers.

Always Working for You
Our website McCallsRealEstate.com is available 24/7 and we have loads of information. Would you like to see what’s for sale in your Subdivision? Well you can have a look, under Search pick Subdivision pick YOUR subdivision and you’ll get every listing that’s available in the Rutherford County MLS. Under Featured Listings you can see our in-house listings and you can see our Sold Listings. If you look at the Blog you’ll find this newsletter and those that have gone before it, along with a few listings. In addition to this blog we run a Google Blogger at KDsFarm and we build landing pages for each of our listings on a platform called Real Bird. Besides using Real Bird slideshows for visual tours in the Rutherford County MLS, we subscribe to Paradym a Visual Tour Company and we place those tours in the Carolina’s Regional MLS. McCall’s Visual Tour Inventory List. To assist other agents, we build Dropbox Folders and maintain them with current information, so we can get our property information out with the click of a button. All of this and more to prove we really are Always Working for You.





Luxury Log Home


Overview
Maps
Photos
Features
Neighborhood








$310,000
Single Family Home
Main Features
1 Bedroom
2 Full Bathrooms
Lot: 3.00 acre(s)
Year Built: 2008
MLS #: 45794, 33959
Location
205 Tahawus Drive
Bostic, NC 28018
USA

Karen D. McCall

Karen D. McCall

McCall's Real Estate
(828) 245-9003
kdmccall@gmail.com
http://www.McCallsRealEstate.com

       


Listed by: Karen D. McCall

Our recent listings

Subscribe to our listing feed

Nearby properties for sale



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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Winter Newsletter, 2018


McCall's Real Estate, Winter Newsletter, 2018
This fall, I changed phone companies and went with Carolina West Wireless (CWW). Sadly, as much as I wanted it to work, it didn’t. I live near the foot of Cherry Mountain on a knoll surrounded by trees. Knolls, trees, and being near the foot of a mountain are not conducive to good cell service. Back to Verizon we went with our CWW brand-new Samsung 8 phones and learned to our delight that Verizon could change out the sim card. We paid off CWW and we went back to Verizon. Our cell service is better than ever, owing, I hope to the new and better phones. We won’t know for sure until God puts the leaves back on the trees, but they work very well, now.  Kudos to CWW who made it easy to take our new phones and leave. Takeaway – If you can’t reach me on my cell, call the home office 828 245-9003.
Good News: Northgate Resort’s Camp Golden Valley is coming along nicely. Their webpage is live! They’re putting all sorts of good information online CampGoldenValley.com. They have a Facebook Page, too: Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resort Golden Valley, NC.  This is going to bring more family fun and recreation to the area. Camp Golden Valley is located on the site of the former Girl Scout Camp. There’s about 600 acres. Unless you buy a property very close by, like on The Summit Parkway or Coady Ridge, you probably won’t even know they’re there.
Carolina West Wireless has some good news. Please know, CWW works great on the Golden Valley side of the valley, I live on the Sunshine side of the valley in a very real dead zone.  And now – drum roll please…. CWW is offering WIFI internet, which is fantastic if you can get it. They are up and running! Hurrah! You can contact CWW to get a router of your own. Buzz Kill - there are data caps.
Recently we heard that the Tryon International Equestrian Center is expanding its repertoire with the WEG (World Equestrian Event) by adding Western events. There will be a reining horse program in May. This will draw top contenders from around the US and the world. TIEC is known for delivering huge prizes and this is a world event. For more information see: Carolina Classic Derby and Team USA Reining. They anticipate 500,000 attendees!
New Business:
McCall’s Real Estate is a member of 2 MLSs. We belong to Rutherford County’s MLS (RCMLS) and NC Mountains MLS. (NCMMLS). In our fall newsletter we announced that NCMMLS was merging with Carolinas Regional MLS (CRMLS). That has taken place and, as we expected, has caused some trouble. The merger disrupted the data feed from one of our two Visual Tour Companies. We build landing pages on our listings with a real estate partner, who hosts slideshow visual tours, it’s called Real Bird . These go up manually, and in the order listings are received. Joey usually puts these up. Since we build these manually, we aren’t relying on a data feed.
Our Visual Tour provider, however, imports listings from NCMMLS, now CRMMLS and phooey. The links didn’t make the exchange. Thanks to a fantastic customer service rep named Bryan, we got the tours back up and running, the back links will have to be cut and pasted manually, and there will be a little nursing to do down the line, but the tours were saved. Yeah – shout out for Bryan – he saved the day.
I guess that was a little bit of bad news, but the good news is we are now CRMLS! Instead of having a few thousand agents we now have 12,000 plus agents. The Regional MLS is prepared to swallow the Catawba Valley MLS next. That’s going to bring in even more agents and Hickory! Sellers rejoice, our frontline workforce just got larger. That said, I’m going to keep my listings in Rutherford County, too. I was the first agent in my area to name myself hyper-local and draw a circle around a territory. I have perfected a system and work well with agents from outside of our area, but no one can sell more real estate in an area than a working agent who knows and serves the area. I’m convinced of that. These other agents are becoming my best customers. We built information packages to share with out of area agents and make sure they have what they need to show and write contracts on our listings. Now, that CRMLS is taking over more and more MLSs we’ll be set to book showings with them Just like the Charlotte agent who sold our 185 Mountain Lookout Drive in December. They can book online, and the follow-up will be online. That’s a very good thing. And not to brag, but the Charlotte/Lake Noman agents were so pleased with the way we worked with them they sent us a thank you note. I collect thank you notes and I’m especially proud of that one.
More new business: I learned today that, right now, Zillow is not sending listing reports to sellers. In answer to my query I received this email: My name is John with Zillow Group's Agent Care team. Thank you for reaching out regarding the listing reports! Our developers have removed the listing report feature from the site last week. They are currently working on a revamped version of these reports and have decided to take down the existing feature in the meantime. Unfortunately, they have not yet announced an estimated time for the new version to be released, but I know it has been made a high priority task. You are still able to keep an eye on the traffic on your listings by viewing the view/save metrics in the owner dashboard of each of your listings.
So, Zillow’s not sending reports, Trulia quit sending reports after they merged with Zillow, and Realtor.com is not sending reports. While I like to keep our sellers in the loop, our vendors are not offering anything that will help me do that.
In other news: The real estate business is good here, better than it’s been in years. We are walking a fine line between how much it costs to build a home and how much to buy an existing home. Construction costs have fallen, but we have lost many of our contractors, and the ones who are working are working as fast as they can. I anticipate a rise in prices, which will make our existing homes more appealing, however, they may be raising the interest rate again, so it remains to be seen.
Conclusion: No matter what you predict, no matter where you think the market will go, there can always be something like a rate increase that changes the market.
Always Working for You
Our website McCallsRealEstate.com is available 24/7 and we have loads of information there. Would you like to see what’s for sale in your Subdivision? Well you can have a look, under Search pick Subdivision pick YOUR subdivision and you’ll get every listing that’s available in the Rutherford County MLS. Under Featured Listings you can see our in-house listings and you can see our Sold Listings. If you look at the Blog you’ll find this newsletter and those that have gone before it, along with a few listings. In addition to this blog we run a Google Blogger at KDsFarm and we build landing pages for each of our listings on a platform called Real Bird. Besides using Real Bird slideshows for visual tours in the Rutherford County MLS, we subscribe to Paradym a Visual Tour Company and we place those tours in the Carolina’s Regional MLS. McCall’s Visual Tour Inventory List. To assist other agents we build Dropbox Folders and maintain them with current information so we can get our property information out with the click of a button. All of this and more to prove we really are Always Working  for You.







Thursday, May 10, 2018

322 Gunns Road, Ellenboro, NC 28040 - Horse Property

Country at its Best!


Overview
Maps
Photos
Features









Contact us for pricing
Single Family Home
Main Features
4 Bedrooms
3 Full Bathrooms
1 Half Bathroom
Lot: 10.82 acre(s)
Year Built: 2006
MLS #: 45689
Location
322 Gunns Road
Ellenboro, NC 28040
USA

Karen D. McCall

Karen D. McCall

McCall's Real Estate
(828) 245-9003
kdmccall@gmail.com
http://www.McCallsRealEstate.com

       


Listed by: Karen D. McCall

Our recent listings
Subscribe to our listing feed

Nearby properties for sale



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Monday, March 19, 2018

Broker's Open Houses - Wednesday March 21, 2018

Broker's Open Houses - Wednesday March 21, 2018
11:30 - 2:30
Lunch and Dessert, and 2 Gift Cards



Yellowtop Mountain Estates is about 15 miles from Walmart in Forest City. It's not that far and it's a lovely drive from town. About 1/2 Mile before you get to Yellowtop, outside of the gated community you'll find Austin Acres. Please join Jody Key for lunch at 232 Austin Acres







Jody says, "I’m having BBQue chicken, baked beans, corn on cob, potato salad, and rolls."












Next ease on over to Yellowtop the gate code will be , go through the gate and visit 509 Brighton Drive, some of you have tried to show it and have been told it is rented. This is on the rental circuit with Golden Valley Getaways and is frequently booked. Leave your card for a chance for the gift card drawing.







Back track to 788 Arbra Mountain Way and turn right to David Brown's listing. Leave your card for a chance to win a $25.00 gift card.





Back track again, this time to Big Rock Road, to a left turn onto Side Drive for the house at the end of the road 233 Side Drive - leave your card for Karen's $25.00 gift card drawing.





Back to a left turn onto Big Rock Road and stay straight as it turns into Saranac and hang right when Saranac hangs right then stay straight on Saratoga. Desert will be served at 133 Saratoga Dr

Karen is serving, lemon squares, buttery bars and brownie bites.