Happy Mother's Day to all my friends and families who are mothers.  Wishing you a quite and peaceful day!! 

You must create a plan, if you want to have an easy home purchase.  Just looking at houses will not get you a home.  You need to know where you are going and how to get there.

You first must decide when you want to purchase. You can look at homes, go to open houses, look at the websites, and look and look.  Once you make a decision to buy you must decide what your time frame will be. Do you want to buy before school starts? Before Memorial day so you can use the lake all summer? Before the 4th of July, so you can use the lake and get a good deal? 

Then you must talk with a loan officer, you do not want to look at homes you cannot afford.  You also do not want to have to move again in 18...

 Fiddler's Cove Fisherman, Bill Warther, Guest Poster.

As you can see the fish are biting at Fiddler’s Cove Lake.  Kraig (my son) and I drug a few out of this hole last August. We caught & released.  You can tell it pays to release because this one was 19". A buck without eggs but I returned him. He happens to be #13 for the year for black bass. I caught three fish on the first 3 casts of the year:  2 small bass and a blue gill that was 11.25' long 9.5" wide and 1.25 thick. She was full of eggs and as bright orange as I have ever seen a blue gill. I checked her nose and tongue and she was a true blue gill. Not a shell cracker. What a brood fish !!!! The other 12 bass I caught were 16” or...

I had a closing on Thursday that should have been sweet and easy insead  I had to fight over every detail of the closing.

We wrote the first offer for the house on December 22nd.  Our offer was based on a drive by appraisal by a local appraiser.  They countered full price with no concessions.  We decided to let them cool off a bit and wrote our next offer on the 22nd of January.  They did not have any showings or offers during this time.

We offered full asking price asking for closing costs.  Typical on this price house in this area...did we get it?? NO!! their agent came back with 3 options.  All much lower than the asking price, she did not think it would appraise (?) ! Are you kiddin...

Just got back from the Live South Show in Falls Church VA.  This was a great show of gated communities in the South.  The exhibitors showed how different the tax base is and how the cost of living in the South is much less than having the same size home & property in the north.

There was one community in Florida just outside Orlando that was all solar.  I was amazed to think no more power bill, lower taxes & insurance and a cheaper heating bill.

I visited booths from: Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Beach area of South Carolina, Montana, West Virginia and Delaware.  I know I missed a couple of them, but really enjoyed meeting reps from other areas and seeing what they had to offer....

Helen Ga Arts & Crafts Show

Lake Cheohee, Tamassee SC

 

279 Lake Cheohee Road, Tamassee SC

Cute Cabin with 100 feet on  the lake.  This 2 bedrooms 1 bath cottage is offered with appliances.  Gas fireplace for the cold days. Heat Pump for all others.  Just 45 minutes from Highlands NC and less than 2 hours from Atlanta, Ga this is a great get away.

View Chattooga Lake in a larger map

Chattooga Lake properties for sale 2/24/12

681 Chattooga Lake Road is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on 2 lots with a pier

675 Chattooga Lake Road is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage on the point lot with work shop and level lot

000 Nature Lane is a building lot that is approved for a 2 bedroom house.  

000 Chattooga Lake Road is a 7 acres with 2 streams, national forest boundary and a lot on the lake.

See these and all our listings at www.coolmountainescapes.com

Gwen Fowler Real Estate, Inc

864-638-3599

Winter is a great time to look at lake property. Lake houses in the winter are cold and view is not so good or is it?  In the winter when the lakes are drawn down so that you can build a sea wall, dock or do your general lake access clean up.   You can see how deep the water is and whether you are on a channel or a cove.  You can fix up your fish bed, clean up and spread out some sand along the shore and you can build the dock you have always wanted.  Winter allows you to see what you are getting without having to imagine what you are seeing through the water.

There are 3 things you need to do every time the water is drawn down at the lake:

1) check the supports of your dock, make sure ...

You still have one week to appeal this years tax re-assessment.  If you think the value is too high.  Appeal the value, it will be easier now than in future years.

You do not have to have an appraisal showing the value you want you just have to show what properties in your area are selling for and why yours should be less.

Do it today, but if you miss the dead line then do it between January 1 and January 30th of next year.

We all have to pay taxes and I have yet to find a fair tax, so make sure yours is not out of line with what your neighbors are paying. Your research should be from 2009 and 2010.  You cannot use sales in 2011, unless you wait and appeal in January then you can use t...

Rates and Products30 year fixed Conforming                                                                                                  3.99% 20 year fixed Conforming                                                                                                  3.875% 15 year fixed Conforming                                                                                                  3.375% 10 year fixed Conforming                                                                                                  3.25% 5/1  ARM                                                                                                                               3.0% 7/1 ARM                  ...

10 Reasons to buy 280 Colony Lane: A unique country home

1.       4 bedrooms: split bedroom plan, private master bedroom and 3 bedrooms on the opposite side of the house.  Room to grow

2.       3 acres with a creek, hardwoods and space for privacy. County Road access.  Country setting, no close neighbors.

3.       2 bathrooms, the master shower was custom built for two. Ceramic tile and a unique design. 

4.        Less than 5 miles to Keowee Elementary, Walhalla Middle and Walhalla High School.

5.       Eat in kitchen, with room for a computer and piano. The formal dining room that will seat 6.

6.       Decks and a pool.  Entertain at home or enjoy a cool dip in the pool after a lon...

Mountain Rest, SC Active Listing for 9-13-2011

There are currently 37 active listings in Mountain Rest, South Carolina. Currently, the listings range in price from $13,750 to $595,000 and the homes range from approximately 500 square feet to 3500 square feet.  Mountain Rest also includes many properties, which join Oconee State Park or Sumter National Forest.

These listings encompass all areas and styles within the Mountain Rest area.  Mountain Rest features mobile homes, acreage tracts and single-family detached homes.  These properties include everything from homes with smaller lots to large acreage tracts providing for a wide range of lifestyles.

We have 2 new listings this week in ...

We received our tax assessment notices in the mail yesterday.  Oconee County has just finished a year long process of re-assessing properties in the county. State law requires this to be completed every five years to make sure the values of the properties are current.  This also gets new construction and renovations on the books and also finds the construction that has been done without a permit.

This year the notices look like this: 

 

This notice is for your primary residence.  You know this because it is multiplied by 4%.  This amount will then be reduced by your homestead value if you are disabled or over 65 years old. 

The county web site has been set up to tell you what the tax ...

Just listed in time for Labor Day!!  2 bedrooms, 1 bath cottage on 2 very level lots. Close to the picnic area and with views of the lake and dam. This cottage is perfect as the family get away.  Shop out back lets you catch up on the fun projects.  Leisure living at best. Priced at $220,000.

           

These lots are pending to close by Christmas.  We have other lots at Lake Cherokee!!

 

Lots 19 & 20 Evergreen Ridge with 200 feet on the lake.  These lots will have to have a house with daylight basement.  Cherokee Lake requires homes of 1000 square feet so you can build as small or large as you want to.  The location will put you less than an hour to Clemson University, Highlands and Cashiers NC.  2 hours to Greenville or Atlanta.  Great location!!!

Cherokee Lake is a private 222 acre lake with a no boat motor limit and no jet skis.  Great for swimming, fishing or skiing.  This is a family lake and a great place to start family traditions.  Many of the properties are in the 3rd genera...

When you are selling you need to remove the Tchotchke (CHOCH-kee) before the buyers arrive. Did you miss that word in English 101, ok the trinkets, baubles, do dads and distractions.  Buyers need to be able to focus on your house, not your stuff.  

Remove anything you will not use in the next month.  Less is more.  Do you really need 30 pairs of shoes and winter sweaters when the outside temps are in the 90’s?  Remove the Tchotchke. Baby and kids pictures, put them away too.  You want the buyers to focus on the house not you    and your awards or kids.  They may know you or not.  No pictures no distractions. Remove the Tchotchke. Make the yard and front door appealing.  You want them...

School starts this week, August 18th.  A Thursday, not a Monday or Friday, but a Thursday.  I was told it was so that the students who have A-B schedules could at least meet the teachers and get their schedules straight.  They can then start the week ready to go. 

 The school calendar can be found at:  http://www.oconee.k12.sc.us/files/filesystem/2011-2012%20Calendar.pdf

The ledger at the bottom explains the red and yellow days, but it took me a little longer to realize that the gray days are holidays. 

Our county has made the school schedule and most anything else about the school system easily available on their web site, http://www.oconee.k12.sc.us/

School Districts can be found in...