The Bostic Log - Cabins and Homes

The Bostic Log – Mountain Cabins and Homes

(A Series on Mountain Living in Bostic, NC)

By McCall’s Real Estate

Over the next few months, McCall’s Real Estate will offer a series of short articles on Mountain living in Bostic, North Carolina. These articles will address real estate issues like buying and selling mountain homes and land, decorating and maintaining log homes, and the dream of owning a cabin verses the reality of living in one, to name a few. Join us often. It will be like a chat by a fire in an open hearth; warm, engaging, and always inviting you to stay awhile.

3.    How to Care for a Cabin

If you’ve chosen to move to Bostic, NC, and have built or bought a log cabin/home in Yellowtop Mountain Estates, Golden Valley Estates, The Summit, or South Mountain Peaks, you’re enjoying a beautiful mountain summer. You’re probably spending your free time picnicking, hiking, golfing, boating or simply porch sitting with a view. The last thing on your mind is log home maintenance. And it should be. Summer time is play time ‘round here. However, you can’t put it off forever. That maintenance list you made will start calling by summer’s end. You don’t have a list? You may borrow mine.

 

Log Cabin/Home Maintenance List

·        Perform maintenance checks in the spring and fall. In the spring, look for winter damage from snow, freezing, chimney use, etc. and ready the home for summer temperatures and UV exposure. In the fall, look for summer damage from hard rains, high temperatures, and insects, wasps, carpenter bees, etc. and ready the home for winter temperatures.

·         Helpful tools for a maintenance check: Make a rough sketch of the exterior walls labeled North, South, East, West, garage with space to note maintenance needs on each side. Buy blue painter’s tape to mark locations needing maintenance. Use a digital camera or phone camera to take pictures of areas in question.

·         Check to see if the stain is still working. Spot-check by spraying a little bit of water on the logs — if it beads up, you know the finish is still good. If not, it’s time to apply a new coat. A pigmented coat of water repellent stain will last longer than clear. Remember, exterior walls weather unevenly, depending on exposure to sunlight and water. All things being equal, the North and East sides of the cabin require the least maintenance.

·         Watch for cracks. Cracks allow water into the wood and the wood will eventually rot. Fix cracks by filling them to absorption with stain and caulk.

·         Check your window and door weather stripping to make sure it’s in good shape.

·         Inspect your roof. Check the flashing in valleys, around the chimney and areas enclosing plumbing vents to ensure a tight seal against water.

·         Seal exposed timbers. The ends of exposed timbers are susceptible to rot. Check and reseal these every year. Pay special attention to log ends on the underside of eaves that are flush with or extend past the overhang.

·         Clean gutters

·         Trim vegetation away from walls to help keep the logs dry.

·         Pest infestations should be investigated and addressed before it becomes a problem.

Cleaning exterior walls is important to appearance. It gets rid of grime and pollen and helps prevent growth of mold and algae. Also, it’s easier to spot problem areas if the exterior walls are clean. Before washing, inspect the caulking. Re-apply where it is cracked or broken away from the logs. It is important to do this first so that when you wash you aren't forcing water into the joints of your logs

When you clean the exterior walls, do it in ways that cause the least harm to the finish.

·         Use mild cleaners as strong cleaners may damage the finish. Try the solution in an inconspicuous area first to ensure it will not cause damage. A liquid log cleaner like X-180 (oxalic acid) or Log Wash works well. These cleaners are specifically for logs and the PH of the cleaners are very close to the PH of the wood in order to work effectively without damaging it.

·         Do not use Bleach or Ammonia based products because they:

o    Destroy lignin in the wood.

o    Can permanently remove color.

o    May make the finish look spotty after washing.

o    May cause streaks to develop on the surface of your wood.

·      Always use a mist setting on water nozzles, not a forceful jet – do not pressure wash your cabin unless it is for the purpose of removing all mildew, dirt, pollen and other contaminants prior to reapplying sealants, stain, etc. If you use a high pressure washer on your logs, you run the risk of tearing up the surface by splitting the wood fibers and leaving it with a "fuzzy" appearance. 

·         Always use soft bristled brushes and non-abrasive pads for cleaning.

This is the process for cleaning your log cabin:

1. Work an area small enough so that the cleaning solution is on the logs for no more than 

10-15 minutes.

2. Wet the wall with spray from your hose.

3. Apply the cleaning solution with a sprayer, starting at the bottom of the wall and working your way up.

4. Gently scrub the wall with your brush.

5. Thoroughly rinse the cleaner from the top down. This helps prevent blotches and drip marks.

Log cabin/home maintenance does not have to take a lot of time. If your home is designed properly, you will save a lot of work. Large overhangs, porches, proper landscaping, and tall foundations will prevent maintenance nightmares. A log home is not a conventional home and will require non-conventional maintenance, but you can design and plan for this. The most important thing is to clean. Keep dust, pollen and mold off your logs. If you are consistent you can stay on top maintenance and you’ll prevent small issues from becoming costly replacement problems later on.

Below is a shining example of a beautifully maintained log home – and it’s for sale!

Hunter's Haven

Overview Maps Photos Features Neighborhood

$239,900 Single Family Home Main Features 3 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms Interior: 2,010 sqft Lot: 2.94 acre(s) Location 762 Valleyview Drive Bostic, NC 28018 USA

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Karen D. McCall McCall's Real Estate (828) 245-9003 kdmccall@gmail.com http://www.KDMcCall.com         Listed by: Karen McCall

Our recent listings A True Sanctuary Morning Glory Nurture your Spirit in this Rustic Retreat Where Vintage meets Value Expansive View and Lovely Sunsets Subscribe to our listing feed

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Below is a shining example of a beautifully maintained log home – and it’s for sale!

What Can I Offer Sellers?

In the REAL Talk Real Estate Experts Digest a REALTOR named Joe says he's looking for something he can offer sellers so they'll fill out his Capture Form then he can follow up and get the listing. Following are my comments.

Joe,
Do you have a listing presentation? What do you offer that other agent's don't? For instance, I'm putting together an expired letter, it'll read something like this:

Dear Mr and Mrs Seller,

Your property with XYZ Company recently expired. This is a really tough market. Do you think it would have made a difference if your property had been marketed? Really, seriously and deliberately marketed with:

• Visual Tour hosted on YouTube
• Syndicated Online Exposure (3,000 plus feeds)
• Hyper-Local Print Marketing (with the Real Estate Book and Homes and Land)
• National Franchise = National Exposure on Specialty Websites
• Local, Regional, and National Website distribution
• Franchise advertising in 60 magazines and 100 newspapers to drive on and offline buyer leads
• Personalized URL with QR Codes 

This, in addition to what nearly every REALTOR offers: local MLS listing with an IDX feed and a yard sign, online photo hosting and syndication to Zillow, REALTOR.com, Trulia...

You can build a capture form around nearly any criteria. Who in your market do you want to list? Are you looking for any seller or a specific group of sellers? What would be an item of value to them? Information? Service? A Guarantee? Home Warranty? Answer these questions and you'll be well on your way to targeting your market and creating a capture form that will attract the clients you want to work with.

I rarely use lead capture and I do NOT use Lead Capture on the website I maintain for my buyers. I hate to be captured and I'm not going to do any capturing. Internet shoppers want to find what they're looking for. Toward that end I push my listings as far as possible, with as much power as UnitedCountry.com and their publications can put behind me and with as much power as I can get from my own syndicates. I PUSH listings, via several vehicles I manage. It's called funnel marketing, I don't have time to go after people. I am using search engines to drive traffic to my listings. People come to me. I field phone calls from self-qualified customers instead of running down targeted market leads. I help people, instead of convincing them. What I do involves no coersion, it involves overcoming no objections, it involves cooperating with and helping people to get what they want. It involves bringing together two halves of a real estate transaction with skill and finesse. It involves negotiation skills, tactical skills, human relations skills, and technical skills. If you acquire these skills, you'll be plenty busy without capturing leads.

May 2012 - Newsletter For Sellers

I’ve set all of the sellers I work with up with List Hub and you should begin hearing from them the first of every month. I expect to get online viewings if we’re not getting showings. I’ve been working this area for about 10 years and we have always had Internet interest. Sometimes a picture might need to be changed – when you go online to look at property and you keep seeing the same ole - same ole - it's boring, you've seen it, it's market stale – a listing that people aren’t looking at. I don’t care how old your pictures are if you’re getting clicks! Sometimes people WANT to see a spring time picture in the dead of winter or a fall picture in the summer. The point is to get your listing in front of as many eyeballs as possible. And clicks are eyeballs, click throughs are looking for more information.

As you know, price ALWAYS sells so the one way you can guarantee a sale is to reduce your price by $10K every month until you have multiple offers. That’s how the foreclosures sell. The asset management firms reduce, reduce, reduce, and reduce until they have bidding wars. Trust me, it’s effective, it works every time. For those of you who can not or do not want to go there, let’s hang in. I am building inventory and hope when things begin to turn around that I have to hire assistants.

It’s a lot easier to do the newsletters since I left Constant Contact. Although it was a super program, it wasn’t as easy as typing a note. If you want to see what I’ve been up to with bells and whistles visit me online at my real estate blog from there you can go to my website and over to Golden Valley. I’ve been using some of Home and Land’s visual tours to supplement my YouTube tours – they’re online at my United Country Real Estate Website, I look a little smug, in that picture, I was probably trying not to laugh. Listings are in order by price, wait for yours to flash by and click on it, or use the scroll key to fast forward and click on it.

I held a Broker’s open house this week at Smokey’s Den and served lunch. We had made to order deli sandwiches, with pickles, chips and called drinks. I fixed sandwiches in the kitchen while the Broker’s toured the house. Luckily I think this is great fun! I’m fortunate, you see. I love taking pictures of houses, I still haven’t opened a door and not been curious to see what lay behind it. I love houses, I love land, I do not, however, love chiggers and I’m getting over being slam eat-up with ‘em. I picked them up setting signs and checking lots. Consequently, I’ve contacted a landscaping firm to see about getting some of your lots cut. The grass is growing and it’s high, too high in some cases to drive into. So, I went around with a maintenance sheet and have made a list of lots to revisit with my local landscape guy, Clayton Self. We’re going to see what it’s going to take to clean up your road frontage (and maybe more). I’ll be in touch if your lot needs work and I hope I have a price for you. Several of you have already had your lots cleaned up, thank you! It’s hard to show property when potential buyers are scared to walk on the lot.

I choose Clayton because he lives in the area and has been in the business for years. He’s good, he can readily follow up with his crew, their work is excellent, he has experience, equipment, and last but certainly not least insurance. The same may be said of Brad Ford at BRS Landscaping, Brad's firm handles a lot of Fall Creek's Developments and he's good, too. Located between Rutherfordton and Lake Lure, BRS has a lovely roadside location, and a public storefront is in the works.

The Zillow reports came in, as did Trulia, and List Hub, and they’re all screwy, mostly on account of all of the account maintenance I’ve been doing. Your property is online, the reports I’ve signed you up for will arrive automatically.