Bele Chere

It wouldn’t be a true Asheville summer without the late July madness we call Bele Chere. Derived from an ancient Scottish dialect, Bele Chere means ”beautiful living”. Being the largest free street festival in the southeast, some locals may question this definition.

Every summer (always the last weekend in July) the downtown area of Asheville shuts it’s doors to vehicles and welcomes festivarians from around the world. The duration of the festival last for three days. Bele Chere began in 1979 in hopes of revitalizing the then depressed downtown scene. Over the last three decades both the city and the festival have made leaps and bounds to become the culturally superfluous entities that we see today. Recent estimates by the City of Asheville state that over 375,000 people attend the festival over the three day period. As one might assume with this many people, Bele Chere can get a bit crowded. The layout of the many stages works well to keep the crowd separated around the area. Over the last couple of years, Bele Chere has began to bring in some really “huge” acts that require one to purchase a ticket. This year’s ticketed events included reggae legends, The Wailers, and country music star, Travis Tritt.

As mentioned earlier, most of the locals head for the hills or go out of town on the weekend of Bele Chere. The idea of having this size crowd in the usually quaint downtown area can be a turnoff for many residents. I have personally found myself out of town the last few years during this time (it just so happens that this festival usually occurs at the same time as Rockygrass in Lions, CO). This year I attended two out of the three days and had a blast. Understand that I am well seasoned to festivals and big crowds typically do not bother me as long as the bathroom and beverage lines aren’t rediculous. I feel as if the City of Asheville did a great overall job in putting this on, keeping it under control, and bringing in a diversity of good music.

Our beautiful architecture presently commingling

For more info on Bele Chere, visit their website at www.belecherefestival.com

and when you’re done, check out my site for information on Asheville Real Estate

www.brianbeasley.net

Adios

Shindig on The Green

Hot diggity dog! Summer time in Asheville has officially arrived and that means fun for the whole family at Shindig on the Green. For those of you that are wondering what the hell I’m talking about, it’s a weekly mountain music gathering that occurs during the summertime in downtown Asheville. The former location was at Pack Square which I liked more than the current location. Over the past 2 years, the City has turned Pack Square into a construction zone and prevented social gatherings in this particular area. I can’t complain too much about this because it should turn out to look really nice. You can check out the plans at http://www.packsquarepark.org/ 

There are plans to include a permanent stage for Shindig performances.

Shindig has survived the last few years thanks to the temporary location at Martin Luther King Jr Park, which is essentially a baseball field. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it has grown on me. They set the stage up in right field for the sound system performances and have a dance stage beside that for the cloggers. The audience brings in their chairs and blankets for sitting in the outfield. You will find some vending located in center field and then my favorite part in left field, the jam circles.

Please take note: Asheville and Western NC are steeped in rich mountain musical heritage. I have been playing bluegrass music for about 9 years and have been involved in the musical scene in various different areas. The only thing that compares to Asheville from a bluegrass standpoint is Nashville. Most of the pickers there are either starving to death or have sold their soul to a record label. Don’t get me wrong, that’s where you go after you get your PhD in picking. I am definitely not discrediting any of the wonderful players who are enjoying successful careers without selling out. The point of this story is that Asheville contains many “no name” musical geniuses that pop out of the wood work at such venues as Shindig on the Green (there are also many terrible musicians that come out too). That’s all part of the fun.

A big thanks to the Folk Heritage Committee for it’s continued pursuit to keep mountain music and its many traditions alive. Check out their website for more information on Shindig and also on the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival. http://www.folkheritage.org/

Don’t forget to check out my site for Asheville real estate info www.brianbeasley.net

me and some of my pickin' buddies

NC Mountain Sports Festival

Dormant……….That’s the only way to describe my recent blogging habits. Fortunately I have pulled together my self discipline and have come back for more. The good news is that I have been extremely busy. Yes that’s right, a busy real estate broker in 2008. Only in Asheville, NC.

On my last post I spoke of taming by inner real estate beast and chatting more on the subject of Asheville and its endless entertainment possibilities. Here’s the latest:

NC Mountain Sports Festival. From the weekend paddler to the hardcore uni-cyclist, the NC Mountain Sports Festival has something for everyone. This gathering of outdoor sports enthusiast occurs each year at Carrier Park, which is located along the French Broad River in West Asheville. Event categories include adventure racing, paddling, cycling (two wheel and one wheel), running, climbing, ultimate/disc golf, skateboarding, ball sports, and kids activities. To top it all off they have live music and food/beverage vending. As mentioned earlier my recreation time has been limited recently therefore I only attended one day this year. My personal enjoyment is always through music although I do enjoy watching all of the crazy sports as well. Unfortunately my thirst for mountain biking is lived vicariously through the courage of others after suffering a severe shoulder injury a few years back in Fort Collins, Co (for those of you that have ridden the down hills at the Horse Tooth Reservoir, you know what I’m talkin’ bout). As for music, I got to catch Woody Wood with Hollywood Red and then The Laura Reed Band. They were both great. Woody Wood is a local favorite and is destined to be a star. Aside from this rock band, he has deep roots in Bluegrass and Blues music and utilizes this knowledge in his original writing. As for Laura Reed, I was once again impressed. I caught her set at AmJam a few weekends ago that was really good too.

The message for the day is:  Go check out the NC Mountain Sports Festival next year. It’s a good time. You can check out their website at www.mountainsportsfestival.com and don’t forget to check out my site at www.brianbeasley.net for local info and real estate listings.

 

Asheville Music Jamboree

I have began a blog transformation, or shall I say, redirection of my input. Please note that I am a real estate broker and that my primary purpose of this blog has been to inform the public as to the real estate market in Asheville. After much consideration, I have came to the conclusion that this blog will be better suited for Asheville information in general. I am therefore throwing in my towel as a local once a week and treating myself as an Asheville tourist. I hope that the insights from my experience can help you to better understand the unique culture that we have here in Asheville. Please feel free to contact me regarding any real estate questions that you might have. You can also visit my website for lots of other Asheville information. www.brianbeasley.net

This weeks topic: The Asheville Music Jamboree, aka, AmJAM

I have been hearing a lot of good things about this festival and have missed it the last few years. Having been an avid supporter of the music scene for many years, I thought I would take the weekend off and see what it’s all about.

The venue is very nice. For those that do not live around here and absorb the mountains on a daily basis, it would be considered extraordinary. Being in the real estate business, I had heard about this property before. As many of you know, large land tracts around Asheville are now almost extinct with the surge in development over the past 10 years. This particular piece of property, referred to as “Deerfields” has remained unspoiled. They have 940 acres of mountain wilderness that contains several ponds for swimming (very refreshing when it gets hot), primitive camping, several cabins, and RV camping. They have added a main stage for musical performances which seems to be much nicer than many other outdoor venues I have attended. My fiance and I camped in an apple orchard, directly beside the smaller pond. This was a great spot. We could hear all of the music clearly from the tent which was a plus except for the 5:00 am drum circle alarm clock. The parking is a mile or so outside of the stage area. They run shuttle buses for people and follow them with a Uhaul for all camping supplies. That worked out good. My overall experience with the Deerfields venue was superb and I give it two thumbs up. Check out there site: www.deerfields.com

The festival organization was an overall good experience as well. The ticket prices were hefty and I even complained at first. After the weekend was over, I felt as if I had gotten my money’s worth. This feeling was a combination of the musical enjoyment and the ability to bring in your own cooler. Almost every outdoor festival venue that I have ever been to will not let you bring your own beverages through the gate. They would rather sell you a $5 beer or a $3 bottle of water. At this festival, you could come and go as you pleased and they did not sell alcohol. I’m sure that this ability to save money counteracts the ticket pricing. The line up for this year was good. I enjoyed seeing Larry and Jenny Keel with the Acoustic Syndicate brothers under the name “Keel and McMurray Farms”. It was a lot of fun as well as Burning Spear, Gov’t Mule, and many others. I give the overall music experience two thumps up although next year I would like to see more acoustic/bluegrass acts. Hey, it is Western NC.

You can check out the AmJam site at www.amjam.net or link to their page via my site: www.brianbeasley.net

 

Fractional Ownership in Asheville

I have been conducting more research on fractional ownerships over the past few months. This is a relatively common form of ownership in many resort areas and is currently non-existent in the Asheville market. John (my boss) and I found ourselves asking the question, why? Over the past decade the Asheville market has moved into a resort and second home market. It has always been a popular vacation area. After doing some reading I have concluded that Asheville is ready for fractional ownership and I am looking forward to being the pioneer.

What is fractional ownership? “Simply stated, fractional ownership is the opportunity for buyers to own, by deed, and responsible for, the exact amount of time they would like to spend in their second home. Each owner gets an equal amount of time at the residence and they all share the carrying costs.” (Sherman D. Potvin; Fractionalize to Maximize). The most important aspect in my opinion is having a solid property management company. They will in turn implement a use plan which outlines which weeks and/or months each owner will have.

Why buy a fractional? Well there are many reasons. I think the best answer is that it allows someone to own an upscale property, through an undivided interest, and not break the bank while doing so. Many busy people who purchase vacation or second homes may only use the property 2-4 weeks out of the year. The remainder of the time the property is sitting vacant and the owner is still paying for it. The idea of owning the unit/home with other partners eliminates that stress and keeps money in your pocket.

For example, we are currently looking in to the possibility of fractionalizing some condominiums behind our office in Biltmore Village. These are extremely nice units that range from $535k-$850k. One idea is that we would offer 1/12th ownerships for around $90,000. For those that are only going to use the unit for vacation purposes a few times a year, this works great. They have someone looking over the property when they are gone and they only spent 90k for the use of unit with market value of over 800k. Did I mention that these are appreciating assets? Check out the condos that I’m referring to at http://www.biltmorevillagecondos.com/.

Please email me with any questions that you might have in regards to fractionals.

Until next time… check out my site www.brianbeasley.net

Golfing in Asheville…Something for Everyone

It’s been almost a week since I last blogged. This morning the withdrawals set in and I’ve been feeling the need to run my mouth via the keyboard. I thought we could take a break from the numbers and stress of the “doom and gloom” economy and talk about one of the greatest sports of all time, golf.

Golf.. A simple four letter word that evokes emotion all across the board. For some, it’s a serious passion and for others just a way to hide from their spouse for the day. It can be a sport of focus and determination or an excuse to go drink beer and smoke cigars all day. A wonderful game for skilled sports fanatics and an even better one for the guy who could care less about the Super Bowl or World Series.

I grew up playing sports (baseball, basketball, and football) and dabbled in golf throughout high school. The idea of hitting the course disappeared during my college days when it was replaced with high speed, single track mountain biking and working out on the climbing wall at my friend Spencer’s. After a few years in the real estate business I quickly learned that golf would once again become part of my life (I’m also getting married soon.. refer back to paragraph 2…..hah). After some convincing from friends, I dusted off my 12 year old clubs, grossly over-sized bag, and shoes (that still fit!) and headed for the driving range. I quickly discovered that golf is not like riding a bike and wanted to tell the others at the driving range to put on their helmets. After a few whacks I was convinced that I was ready to get back in the game. To make a long story short, I wasn’t. After a few months of shanking balls, I have finally started hitting decently again. I’m sorry for carrying this on to far because the purpose to this was to inform you on golf in Asheville. Here’s the scoop.

Asheville’s golf scene has something for everybody. I personally have been hiding at the hillbilly courses until my game gets better. For those of you that need clarification, a cow pasture converted to golf course where hunting boots have replaced golf shoes and manure piles have replaced sand traps. If you like what your hearing, go try Iron Tree Golf Course located off of the Hot Springs exit on I-40 in the Iron Duff area of Haywood Co. It’s about 25 min from my house in Asheville. It has spectacular mountain views but would not suit the golf connoisseur. For those folks, I would recommend the Jack Nicklaus Course at Walnut Cove (need to be a member, call me if you are interested), the Grove Park Inn course, Reems Creek Golf Club, High Vista, and Champion Hills. An avid local could give you a better story on these but they are top notch on my list. For those that are looking for a mediocre public course, we have several of those. Broadmoor Links which is by the airport, Asheville Municipal which is in East Asheville, and the Holiday Inn Sunspree Course which is in West Asheville would all qualify under this category. My ultimate conclusion:

We have golf for everybody.

If you are interested in some of the gated golf course communities in the Asheville area, check out my website for listings that I have or call me directly with questions.

www.brianbeasley.net

828-285-2116

What’s Selling in Asheville?

I’m sure that many of you outside investors, local builders, and real estate agents (that are looking for a place to make money), are wondering about what’s selling in Asheville. Let’s take a look at today’s hot sheet on the regional MLS.

New listings= 148

Expired listings= 60

Pending listings= 55

Sold= 46

Price Change= 146

It doesn’t take an economics professor nor a mathematician to decipher this data. Unfortunately, this info with more expired listings than sales is becoming a common problem. Take note that the price changes clocked in at 146 today. Oh yeah, price reductions. Well that’s where we are headed (for those of us that understand how to sell real estate). The funny thing about Asheville over the last year’s real estate “crisis” is that even as the number of units sold decreases, the prices have held strong. Don’t get me wrong, I switched from Business School my second year at Auburn but it still looks like the law of supply and demand has left the building.

The good news is that we still have a market here in Asheville. We have enjoyed steady growth as opposed to major spikes followed by heavy declines. Over the last couple of years the builders have been working heavily in the 400k-600k market. Now they are looking into the “affordable housing” realm as the latter has become stagnant. Of the 46 that were posted today as “sold” (which means closed), 36 were under the 300k mark. Most of the builders that I work with are looking to switch gears and take advantage of this market. My concern is that, it too, will become flooded. From a local economic and developmental impact standpoint, that’s ok with me. Asheville HAS become a destination and resort area. We need to make sure that we are not finding ourselves in the same boat with many other resort areas that have nearly abolished affordable housing. The bottom line is that the rich need the poor to keep the services flowing and the poor need a place to live too. It’s when we lose that sector of our housing market that we lose our economic growth.

So go ahead, build cheap, just be ready to sell 10 homes to make the same amount of $$ that you were making on 1 million dollar deal. I’ll be ready to sell them for you.

Later     beas24@charter.net

100% Financing gets Tougher

I remember when I purchased my last home. 100% financing, no doc loan, seller payed my closing costs, and I even talked the appraiser into cutting me a deal on POC charges. Did I mention, no PMI?That was the beauty of 2006. The last time that I checked, it’s now 2008, and the tables have turned. The terms for getting 100% financing in today’s market are quickly moving from tough to nearly impossible. Unfortunately for us, the loan that I described above doesn’t even exist anymore. For many people, especially first time buyers, this is sometimes the only way for them to purchase. Closing costs add up quick when financing a property and this often times will wipe the buyer out while trying to maintain the required reserves.

I’m currently working a deal with 100% financing and assisting the buyer as a sub agent of the seller. After discussion with the buyers lender, we were off to a good start. This is an “as-is” sale and the buyer opted not to do any inspections. Everything looks straight forward, right? After the appraisal was done I received a call from the lender who explained to me that the appraiser had noted a foundation issue on his appraisal. This was a first for me. You will encounter this type of “appraisal inspection” with FHA and VA loans, although not as common with a traditional loan. To make a long story short, we have went from contractors, to engineers, and back to contractors, only for the bank to tell us to get everything fixed. Why is this? The answer is 100% financing. The bank is simply covering themselves due to the lack of faith in the buyer being able to financially fix a problem in the future. See that’s the thing….they view all of the 100% deals as being extremely high risk. This may not always be the case. I have known many savvy people, including myself in the above mentioned scenario, that purchase this way only to keep their hard earned money in their pocket. That way, when the foundation caves in, you have the dough to fix it. I remember a market when you could borrow someone else’s money while keeping yours in the bank, only to turn around and make more money off of the borrowed money. Hmmmm……sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s one of the main reasons the economy is in turmoil. Yes, speculation can lead to inflation. Combine this with most people living off credit cards and you get a nation that is living off of borrowed money. Maybe we need the banks to get tougher on us. What do you think? Will it help us start spending our money instead of someone else’s?

Is anyone out there?

 

Owner Financing. Get Ready, Here it Comes

With the turbulence of the national economy and the sinking lending industry, home buyers and agents need to prepare themselves for what’s to come. To be brutally honest, I was playing with GI Joes and toy cars when we last encountered this type of stagflation. I’m always talking to my clients as if I was a working professional in the late 70′s and early 80′s. The truth is that my boss/mentor has filled my head with an incredible amount of knowledge regarding this troubled economic era. This being his 35th year in the real estate business, he’s seen and lived through a lot. Needless to say, when he talks, I listen.

My comment to the consumers would be to “get it why the gettin’ is good”. The incomparable amount of money that the government has dumped into the market combined with low interest rates and good prices makes this the best time to purchase. You want to know what’s going to happen to all of you that are sitting on your couch in your leased home waiting for the prices and interest rates to drop even further? Well, I will tell you. You better have a fat bank account, stellar credit, and a pile of assets if you plan on financing anything in the upcoming market. It’s my opinion that in the immediate future, we are heading into a time with low prices and low rates with a lack of qualification by most buyers. The banks are getting increasingly stringent with their guidelines. Believe me, I see it on every financed deal that I work now. This time will then be followed up by increasing interest rates. What happens then? The working class people can’t afford to buy a home. For someone that has no flexibility in their monthly payments, a 2 to 3 percent increase in their rate will knock them out of buying anything at all.

What’s the solution? Owner financing to the rescue. I know that all of you sellers have probably moved on to another site while all of you buyers are finding something to take notes on. Well, it’s true. Providing the fact that the seller is willing to finance, this can be a valuable tool to buy real estate in a market with increased financing problems. I just got through with an owner financing deal that closed yesterday. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the most fun that I’ve had recently but it worked out. If you have any questions about owner financing or would like to hear about some of the potential pit falls as a buyer or seller, contact me at beas24@charter.net

Until next time………….

Asheville NC, not just for Floridians any more.

Asheville has always been a destination area. Evident as far back as Mr. Vanderbilt’s days, people have flocked to the Appalachian Mnts. for many different reasons. Some of the current attractions one might note include the Biltmore House, Grove Park Inn, downtown night life, music, endless outdoor activities, fine dining, art galleries, and other various shopping. Even looking back to one hundred years ago people would often come to this area for it’s healing purposes. A myth then was the mountain air was good for lung ailments such as TB. Over the last 5-10 years we have had a steady surge in the real estate market here. Although prices have risen, we have not had an over bearing “spike” like many other markets have endured. Our market has enjoyed 6%-10% averages of the last decade with certain localized sectors soaring above that. This steady, somewhat slower growth, has proven Asheville to be more resistant to the national real estate crisis. The idea of investing in a more stable market has attracted buyers from all around the world. From a national standpoint, we are seeing the most buyers coming from Florida, California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and even Colorado. My personal experience has been more so with Fl, NY, and NJ. A combination of high taxes, high insurance (if you can get it in FL), potential climatic catastrophe, and extreme hot/cold weather has pushed many people out of this environment and into our more stable one. From a geologic perspective, our mountains are old. This stability gives us decreased chances in a catastrophic earthquake. We are far enough in from the coast where we only get kick off rains from hurricanes, and it’s hard for a tornado to form in the mountains. All of these factors combine for a pretty safe place to live. As a real estate agent, I welcome any and all business, no matter where you are from. I grew up in the South and enjoy sharing my southern hospitality whenever possible. This actually brings up a very interesting point. What happens when you mix good ol’ fashion local mountain folk with big city transplants? I have heard mixed reviews on this. I would be curious to hear if any of you have had one of these experiences.