Boone is great for efficient transportation!

Ditch the Dry West, Head to Nature's Bounty in NC Mountains

With extreme drought conditions out West, it's the perfect time to relocate to the beautiful North Carolina Mountains where natural water is plentiful .

Check out these incredible River Properties in the NC High Country. Each with river access, or just a stroll away from rushing Mountain streams and tranquil flowing tributaries. 

Live Off the Grid in the NC Mountains!

Living Off the Grid has countless benefits not only to you and your wallet, but to your community and environment as well. Here are some of the greatest reasons to go green when it comes to choosing your next home.

• Reduced energy costs: When you live off the grid, your electricity bills will go away or become very small! In fact, in some cases the electric company may even cut you a check (Wow).
• Less risk of weather-related power loss: When weather turns funky - you may still have power. During a big storm that knocks down poles, it's not Bob on the gird who'll have power. It will be the folks relying on alternative energy that have their lights still on and hot water cranking.
• Increased environmental knowledge: You will get a whole new education. Managing alternative energy systems, living more simply, and learning the best ways to conserve offer a hands on education that you can't get entirely from books. Many off grid home dwellers do come to think of off grid as a lifestyle choice instead of simply viewing it as the way their home is designed.
• Diminished carbon footprint: You'll be lowering your carbon footprint when you live off the grid. See how much with a carbon footprint calculator.

See the full article here, Top 6 Benefits of Living Off the Grid.

 This incredible custom home is available now in Sugar Grove, NC  - only 15 minutes from Boone and Appalachian State University. The property is already equipped with solar panels, organic gardens, and over 12 acres to enjoy the bounties of nature. 

Take this once in a lifetime opportunity to live off the grid at your own Mountain sustainable oasis. 

A High Country Summer

It's right around the corner, the time we have all been waiting for.

Summer in the High Country reminds us why we endure the freezing temperatures and suffer through the intense winter winds. The High Country offers an enormous variety of summer fun - from waterfall hikes, golfing, horseback riding and everything in between.

Get out there this summer and enjoy this beautiful place we call home!

picture: http://waterfallshiker.com/2012/08/05/trash-can-falls/

Get your feet wet: http://www.exploreboone.com/outdoors/water-activities/

picture:http://traveltips.usatoday.com/trails-near-boone-north-carolina-103793.html

Take a Stroll: http://www.exploreboone.com/outdoors/hiking/

http://www.rockdimensions.com

Climb a Mountain: http://www.exploreboone.com/outdoors/climbing-bouldering/

Why do some homes sell so much faster?

Call Liz Riddick today for a professional to employ these strategies and so much more to sell your home quickly!

info-graphic courtesy of: http://stagingandredesign.com/2012/what-makes-a-home-sell-faster-its-not-just-home-staging/

The Time to Sell is Now (and other helpful Real Estate tips)

TIME reports: "The housing market, a reliable bellwether of the economy, seems to be bouncing back.

Many of the nation’s largest home builders surprised analysts by reporting a profit in the quarter that just ended. Home sales continue to rise nationwide, compared with 2011, and home prices also are up. Prices rose 4.6% in August compared with a year ago — the largest year-over-year increase in more than six years.

All of this good news has been widely reported, so many Americans are thinking more about wading back into the real estate market, both as buyers and as sellers. But how many people know there are best times to buy and sell houses?

Here are some timing tips from real estate agents that can save home buyers and sellers a lot of money:

The best month to make an offer on a house is January. Fewer buyers are willing to house-hunt during cold, nasty weather, so there’s less competition and few, if any, bidding wars. Sellers also tend to be more motivated than they will be in the spring, when there are more buyers. Why? They may have just received their credit card bills that reflect Christmas spending and may be feeling financially insecure. And their decision to try to sell their houses in the winter means they’re willing to risk listing during a time of the year when properties tend not show particularly well.

The best day of the month to make an offer on a house is the first Tuesday. Why early in the month? Because the homeowner just wrote a mortgage check for a house he no longer wants – or needs to sell — and he doesn’t want to write another one. Why Tuesday? Because by Tuesday he’s starting to worry that he won’t get any offers from house hunters who saw the house the weekend before.

The best time of the year to sell a house is the spring. Buyers come out of the woodwork during the spring, and with tax refund checks in the bank, spring buyers more often pay full price. In fact, sales peak in the spring, helping to explain why about 60% of those who move do so in the summer. Tip within a tip: Don’t price your house with a zero at the end. Studies show that people perceive a precise price, such as $282,284, as lower than rounded ones, such as $280,000, even when the rounded prices are actually lower. Real-life sales show that one zero at the end of an asking price lowers the final sale price by .72% and two zeros lower it by .73%. That may not sound like much, but it can add up to thousands of dollars.

The best day of the week to list your house for sale is Thursday. This is more true during a sellers market, but if you list your house for sale on a Thursday, it will be available right away for weekend showings and by Saturday — the most important day of the real-estate week — your house will have shown only two days. That’s important because the fewer days on market, the better chance the home will attract a full-price offer. Even if your house doesn’t sell by the next Saturday, it will still show only nine days on market, benefiting from the psychological advantage of a single-digit number."

Read the full article at: http://business.time.com/2012/10/10/the-best-time-to-buy-or-sell-a-house/

Check out these beautiful properties available now in the High Country:

Call the Riddick Realty Team today to schedule a showing or sell your home! 

828-719-0120

lizriddick@gmail.com

Housing Market predicted to Bloom this Spring!

Joshua Brown recently reported for Fortune.com that the housing market would see a strong uptick in the coming months. Brown analyzes 10 reasons for this likely incline in housing sales.

"A few reasons:

1. Everyone sees that the zero interest rate party is coming to an end. If you’ve been waiting to borrow, it’s getting close to “now or never” time. Fear of missing out (what the kids call “FOMO”) is as powerful a motivator as anything.

2. Demand is pent-up, and pent-up things eventually get un-pent, sometimes all at once. The number of people between ages 35 and 39 is critical to household formation, and we are currently seeing an uptick in this demographic category, back to prior peaks.

3. The notion that millennials want to stay home forever is not accurate. They’re ready to bust out, and rental prices are comparably high in several key regions.

4. Employment among college-educated people (read: potential home buyers) is as tight as a drum.

5. In January, average hourly earnings jumped 0.5% for all American workers. This is just one month’s worth of data, of course, but it is significantly above trend (average hourly earnings have grown at an annual average of just 2% in the post-crisis recovery period). When people get one-time tax cuts or bonuses, they save them. When people get raises, however, they buy stuff and improve their standard of living."

Read the full article at http://fortune.com/2015/02/27/10-reasons-the-housing-market-could-go-ballistic-this-spring/

Beat the rush and find or list your home today with Liz Riddick Real Estate.

Call our team at 828-719-0120 or email us at lizriddick.com