Beautiful Wilkes County NC Timber Frame Home and Mountain Property.

MLS Number: 51166, List Price: $898,500

2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, 2 half baths, 2 car attached garage, full basement, and a barn on 5 acres of land.

These terms are used to describe thousands of homes and yet some things just can’t be described, they have to be experienced. This is one of those homes that really has to be seen to be appreciated.

This majestic Timber Frame home of the Bob Timberlake genre is not just another house, it provides a feeling of home that is not about walls and floors and windows and doors. It creates a feeling of the flow between your outdoor and your indoor environment that is seamless. Everywhere you look there is a view. Everything you touch feels natural and beautiful in a way that cannot be described, only owned.

Contact Elizabeth Carter, 336.973.5594 or Greg Stikeleather, Broker, 704.880.5247 or email eacarter@charter.net

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Wind turbines have been popularized by those who lived outside the range of local utility lines. And, residential windmills have been used by those who wanted to live completely off the grid. With reductions in their size and cost, along with improvements in their efficiency, recently engineered installations are allowing suburban homeowners to install them in growing numbers. With concerns over rising energy costs and global warming driving the demand, energy from the wind is all in vogue. (more…)

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For some ten years now, the Internet has been a huge resource for new and pre-owned home buyers. With increased use of broadband services, more recent websites allow house hunters to screen prospective neighbors, evaluate school districts and see how members of the community rate a street’s Internet connectivity and cellphone service. With “opt-in” email reminders, Internet users can receive alerts when houses list for sale or when a registered sex offender moves to the area.

Using services from sites like trulia.com, Internet users can enter a city, town or ZIP Code and see a listing of every home for sale, sortable by price, address, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, broker or type of home. Searches can be by location, size and property type.The site’s home-comparison features allow prospective buyers to locate that dream home by a seemingly endless combination of search criteria. (more…)

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It’s always a good idea to hire someone to inspect the home during the buying process. Across the United States, those independent contractors call themselves “home inspectors” and are almost licensed on a state-by-state basis. Home inspectors sometimes prefer to work alone. However, if asked, the inspector should allow the prospective homeowner to observe the actual inspection process. After all, a consultant cannot consult when no one is there to listen. And mailing a report after the inspection does not provide adequate explanation of inspection findings.

Although buyers have the right to insist on their own presence at the inspection, they cannot forbid sellers from remaining in their own home when the inspection is taking place. Some sellers willingly leave for a few hours; some remain home without involving themselves in the inspection; and still others become actively involved in the process, engaging the buyers in lengthy conversations or shadowing the inspector every step of the way. (more…)

Those neighborhoods of high density homes are marketed as an affordable way to own a single-family home. Many new and young, first-time buyers love the freedom from yard work and the sense of old-fashioned community. However, there are potential risks to buying into some of these communities. The most dangerous of which is the chance that a fire could spread within an instant from one home to the next. Research done by the National Fire Protection Association in 2004 sheds some light on the issue. The lab tested how quickly fire spread between two mocked-up exterior walls six feet apart, typical of developments where three-foot setbacks from property lines are required. In the government test, it took three minutes and 42 seconds from the fire’s start for flames to break out a window. Then, in just 80 seconds more, flames leaped across the six-foot divide and ignited the neighboring building. (more…)

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In an ideal home the utility room, also by some called the laundry or mud room is a place for the washer and dryer, a place for wet and dirty clothes, a convenient place for muddy boots and chore jackets and a catch-all for other objectionable objects. Most of us have such a place in our home. Many of us wish that this multipurpose room could do even more with more efficiency. Here are a number of suggestions that allow this room to function even better. (more…)

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The decline in property values, homeowners relocating after bankruptcy, and dwindling revenues from investment portfolios are causing local governments major headaches. It’s easy for a typical consumer to understand the revenue angle directly attributable to the first two, but what many fail to realize is how poor investment decisions from local officials can affect the services taxpayers receive for their tax dollars.

Nearly every state runs some kind of government investment pool offering city, county and state governments a seemingly reliable place to park their cash. Government officials say these funds are attractive because they offer better yields and lower fees than the typical bank account. Many of these funds are invested in subprime-related securities.

The consequences of a government fund losing money can have a direct impact on local counties, towns or schools. Over time, a municipality might have to raise taxes or cut spending if it loses access to some of its cash. Governments inability to withdraw funds from a Local Government Investment Pool can even cause a school district to bounce checks to its vendors in order to pay its teachers.

Finance experts say the situation is nearing epidemic proportions as the subprime mess gets worse.

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