That’s right – it was front page news today in The Cherokee Scout.  The Cherokee Indian Tribe has 793+/- acres secured to potentially grow their casino business from the Cherokee to Murphy (the land is actually in Marble, which is between Murphy and Andrews NC). The growth of this enterprise will be a huge influx of capital and jobs to Cherokee County and give our beautiful mountain area another attraction for folks to come and enjoy. The opportunities to be created here are amazing!

How will this affect real estate values? Right now it’s not even happened yet, so the effect won’t be immediate. There likely will be some “land grabbers” who will purchase land around the future casino site as an investment. As the casino is built and future development, restaurants, etc. are built up, surrounding land values will most likely increase. If you’re searching for an investment opportunity, you have the highest opporunity for reward early in the development.

Looking to capitalize and buy land around the future site? Email us or call today to secure the best buys and investments early in the project!

The Poltrock Team – REMAX Mountain Properties – www.MyMurphy.com – Call Toll Free TODAY at 1866-Murphy-NC or 1-866-687-7496 – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Skype: johnpoltrock

Being a Realtor, I get to see the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. There’s nothing uglier right now than foreclosures. They’re a hot topic among buyers and faux pas amongst owners – and rightfully so. No matter who you are or your situation – a vacation home, a primary home, a speculative investment – I wouldn’t wish a foreclosure on anyone.

It seems the hot topic amongst politicians and the media right now is health care reform . In college, I studied the work of a man named Abraham Maslow who developed a “hierarchy of needs.” Summarizing it, the need for shelter is far more important than the need for security in health care. It seems that we would do a better job of addressing one of the most important aspects of people’s lives.

There are so many opportunities our government and financial institutions should be pursuing to help families in this predicament. Here are a few things our representatives should be actively pursuing:

• IRS Forgiveness – when a struggling family has a short sale on their home or investment (sell it for less than the bank is owed), do not make the forgiven debt income on their tax return to be turned in to the IRS. If you can’t pay your home mortgage, you won’t be able to pay the coming IRS bill. It’s more of an incentive to go into foreclosure than to have IRS problems. Who would you rather have chasing you? A bank or the IRS? It shouldn’t be this way.
• Make secondary market mortgages more flexible – loans that are at community banks and owned by community banks are having much more success in getting modifications to help families. Where the major problem is loans that are sold in the secondary mortgage market (most are) are totally inflexible. 3 months late? Foreclosure. Simple. Stupid. Many families want to keep their home and if they are legitimately striving to pay and/or find jobs and have the prospect of it, they shouldn’t be kicked out. Take the payments they miss or payments they can’t make and put it on the back of the loan. The bank or investor makes more money and families get to keep their home. It’s not rocket science, but rarely can it happen because mortgages are not flexible or take too long to change. It will take a literal act of congress to make the change.
• Time – banks are getting all this money and turning around to use the government loaned money to buy up other banks. So we, the taxpayers, who need help are financing things that do not directly help us. What will help people in foreclosure the most is simply time. People should be able to let their bank know as soon as they see trouble on the horizon and get a modification or other idea that will make the difference between owning their home or losing it. Many banks are trying to do loan modifications, but not fast enough. It can take 30 days for a decision maker at the bank to even look at a loan modification or offer to purchase a short sale! Not only that, they many times claim you must be 2 months or more late before they’ll help. This is not acceptable.

There are so many things our nation’s leaders can do to help us, and it’s important to realize there is no black and white answer for any of it. I’m also not promoting that people who are not paying their mortgage, or intend to, should be able to stay in their home. That’s not right – when you commit to pay back money you borrow to your momma or to a bank, you should make every attempt to do it. What I am promoting is to help people who are in a bad situation and need help. Just throwing TARP money at it will not fix the problem – it will take dedication and work.

In the more than 40 transactions I’ve closed this year, I’m quite thankful to say only a few of them were foreclosures or about to be. Behind every one of them there was a story – a family, and a set of circumstances that no one should have to bear. If our leaders are looking to change our nation one family at a time, here would be a great place to start. Ask your representatives what they’re doing to help – because if they’re doing nothing, they’re not doing a good job.

If you’re in a foreclosure situation or feel one is coming for you, give us or your Realtor a call. Sometimes you feel shamed and embarrassed. It’s tough, but you shouldn’t be. Tackle the situation head on and contact a professional who may be able to help.

Written by: John Poltrock of The POLTROCK TEAM at RE/MAX. You can contact him at JohnP@remax.net or toll free 1-866-687-7496

Facing Foreclosure or feel like it’s coming? Contact Us today!

            Perhaps Mr. Warren Buffett said it best when he said “Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” We could even look to Mr. Shelby Collum Davis for some insight when he said, “You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time.”

            Many legendary investment strategists are excellent at working through trying times like we are now facing in our country. Call me an optimist, blind, a fool, or anything for that matter, and no matter what you might think of my visions, I believe that we live in the greatest country the world has ever seen and that we will come out on the other end very prosperous as we have time and time again.

            There are many opportunities to come out of the recession very well! As of this writing, there are 809 homes and 2,308 tracts of land available for sale and some of them are just that – they are really on sale. Now is the time when you can buy a rental property and actually come out ahead. There are tracts of land where you can buy them and just sit on them like you would a CD, stock, or bond – the only difference is its real. You can have a garden, go check on it, and its still there. Land has a remarkable historical track record of appreciation and its something you can use and enjoy in the mean time.

            Take the time to go on our website at www.MyMurphy.com and shop what’s available out there. Look for land, look for houses, and really shop. If you have money to invest and you want to find out what’s a “real buy,” call or email and let us take the time do to the research for you and send you a few proposals. There are some great choices out there and if you have cash and/or great credit, you can really leverage yourself in negotiations and save even more.

            Now is absolutely not the time to run scared. Now is the time to be aggressive. If you have cash to invest, and many of you do, why aren’t you investing it? You can buy an investment property while folks are practically giving things away. Everyone around us is scared, and if you follow Mr. Buffett, who obviously has done very well for himself, now is the time to be greedy. Now is the time to buy. Whose advice would you rather take – Mr. Buffett or your broke brother-in-law?

Written by John Poltrock for The Cherokee Scout, Murphy NC’s primary newspaper (to be published in the March 4, 2009 edition) – Call Toll Free 877-837-3002 – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – The POLTROCK TEAM – Murphy’s #1 Real Estate Team

Fixer Upper Home for Sale in Murphy NC

Here’s a true find in the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina! It seems like every other person I speak with is looking for a fixer-upper house as a real estate investment - well, look no further!! This 2 bedroom, 1 bath fixer upper is full of history, and best of all, it has 9.66+/- acres of land! Holy CANOLI!

The Home for Sale

This home has a lot of history and is an old homestead for the Radford family, which is an old family name here. The home may or may not be repaired and used for anything. It’s a neat peice of history!

The Land for Sale

The real value in the property resides on the 9.66+/- acres for sale. The land has an old road cut in on it that can easily be cleaned up for use. Just in strolling down the road, I found two very good building spots and many other spots that work, too. It’s right on a paved road, so the access is excellent. It’s in the Hanging Dog Community of Murphy, NC, so there’s a large amount of US Forest Service Land nearby and is not far from Lake Hiwassee access.

Click Here for Additional Photographs of this Real Estate for Sale and Current Price

Frequently Asked Questions about this Real Estate

1. What kind of shape is the home in? It certainly needs a lot of work. In speaking with the owner, I got the impression that it was what I call a “burner-downer.” I was really surprised and impressed when I went through the first time! It really does have potential to be fixed up.
2. What kind of water source does it have? One of the advantages is it has a relatively new well system for the water supply that I believe could supply both the current home and if more houses were built on the property, it could supply several of them as well.
3. What’s going on with the bathroom? When the house was originally built, indoor bathrooms were not commonplace. Eventually, a bathroom was added in the most conventient spot – the back porch. It was enclosed as you would expect, but the porch was not built on the same foundation as the rest of the home. Because of that and years later, the porch posts have begun to deteriorate and the bathroom has begun to fall away from the house.
4. Has the acreage been recently surveyed? Yup!

Call The POLTROCK TEAM TODAY about this one! Toll Free 866-687-7496 or Email at JohnPoltrock@gmail.com - www.MyMurphy.com

            Have you ever bet your life’s savings on the craps table? How about taking a weekend to Vegas with everything you’ve worked for? Would you ever bet everything on one spin of the wheel?  Although Ashley Revell sold everything he owned, traveled to Las Vegas and bet it all on one spin of the roulette wheel, it’s simply not a smart idea. (See below for Ashley’s Vegas Adventure)

            Right now, the stock market looks like a good investment – yet you simply don’t know. This year alone, the Dow has lost 5,228.04 points, or an astonishing 37.1%.  This past Friday it dropped a whopping 1.41% in one day! So I pose my question again – have you ever bet your life’s savings on roll of the dice?

            This past week, a couple who are very good clients of ours wanted to make a pretty sizeable investment – and it accounted for a very large portion of their savings. Where did they put their money? Real Estate. What did they buy? Land. Why did they buy it? Because it was a smart, safe bet. We found two tracts of land that works perfectly for them and are very likely to provide a safe, reliable place to put their money.

            In watching properties on the market, the best properties are getting snatched up at record rates. We sold one of the properties as an investment to the couple above 84% faster than the market average! Why? Because it was a phenomenal opportunity that simply doesn’t stay on the market and you have to act fast for opportunities like it.

            How many times have you heard people, friends and families say, “When this election gets out of the way, things will really turn around.” Mentality of the people you know and of the nation makes a tremendous amount of difference as to when fortunes are made. The election is less than a month away. Would you like to be ahead of the curve and buy an investment while the market is at the bottom or buy when prices are on the way up?

           If you want to find the best real estate investments, call us or your Realtor today before the election and market upswing.  Find out what properties are available, look at them, size them up, and decide what’s best for you. Don’t see what you want? Ask to be set up on automatic notification so you can be alerted as soon as a property hits the market before anyone else has time to find out about it. We would be happy to do this for you for free of charge and start getting your investment portfolio where it should be – well diversified and profitable!

Written by John Poltrock, Contributing Writer for The Cherokee Scout. Be in “the know” by visiting The Cherokee Scout’s Website to have their paper delivered to your door.

Now is without a doubt a great time to invest in mountain real estate in Murphy, North Carolina. Start searching and see what real estate is for sale now in Murphy NC or sign up to get automatic updates of properties for sale in Murphy NC. See what’s out there, make the leap, and know that America has a positive outlook that’s brought to realization only one person at a time.

John Poltrock, Certified Residential Specialist – RE/MAX of Murphy, North Carolina – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call us toll free at 1-866-Murphy-NC or 1-866-687-7496 and get The POLTROCK TEAM today!

Underground utilities are an advantage for property owners and investors. In fact, you can readily distinguish if they’re available by searching for the infamous “green box” for power. When you see a tract of land or a home for sale advertised as having Underground Utilities, they usually also have underground telephone cable as well.

 One immediate advantages is the aesthetics. Unsightly power lines can ruin an otherwise phenomenal mountain view. It makes living in your community simply cleaner. Underground hides in the landscape rather than overwhelming it with poles and power lines littering the land.

Safety is another concern. Trees tend to blow over at some point in a storm, and if power lines are protected underground, the line won’t be knocked down creating a “live wire” and causing a power outage further down the grid. An invisible consideration is that power lines create electromagnetic radiation. It is widely believed that power lines can cause cancer from the invisible “field” they cause around them. Generally, this is a concern with larger distribution lines. By burying them in the ground, professionals in the field seem to agree the soil protects you from higher exposure.

From a purely financial aspect, it adds value to your property. I just performed a quick search of land sales in the past 6 months between one and three acres to see what the differences were in value. Here’s what I found:

• With Underground Utilities – 51 real estate transactions with an average dollar value of $67,901
• Without Underground Utilities - 37 real estate transactions with an average dollar value of $35,414

Does that mean my property is worth $32,487 more with underground utilities? No, it does not. This search doesn’t factor out certain features or characteristics that could skew the outcome of it. However, there is a direct correlation in having underground utilities and having a higher property value.

Your power company will be the one to install underground utilities should you decide you would like them. Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMC) and Murphy Power Board are two of our major power companies, and whichever is your power company would be responsible for installing it for you.

To make a long article short, underground utilities are certainly a worthy investment in your property. If you’re searching to buy a property, it is certainly worth considering regardless of whether you’re looking at it from an aesthetic, safety, or financial standpoint.

John and Jessica Poltrock – RE/MAX Mountain Properties – The POLTROCK TEAM -  Helping you make the wisest investment decision! – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call Toll-Free (877) 837-3002 and demand The POLTROCK TEAM!

It’s funny I just finished writing an article about foreclosures just earlier today, and wham! A great one hits my desk!

If you’re seriously interested in this great home, be sure to download the information sheets below, and then call me at toll free (877) 837-3002 and ask for John.

It’s a HUGE opportunity for someone looking to have a mountain home or for an investment to finish and resell! Basics are its a 2 bedroom, 2 bath chalet home with a full basement on +/- 1.04 acres located in the Ranger area of Murphy, NC. I’ll tell you all the details of what remains to be done to it and we’ll go from there!

I’ll can only share pricing information on the phone, so again, call me toll free at my office or direct at (828) 557-2270.

If you want to receive news and more investment opportunities like this, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our blog by clicking here. We’re looking forward to helping you make a great investment in the mountains of Murphy NC!

This home is no longer available. Please check out our website for all the active homes and land for sale.

John and Jessica Poltrock – The POLTROCK TEAM at REMAX of Murphy NC – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – Call Toll Free (877) 837-3002 and demand the POLTROCK TEAM!

I’ve been working with a couple today who first called me on Lake Homes and Lots then did a total switch up on me. We ended up looking at homes with a great mountain view, and they now have two choices they really like. One in Hibberts Mountain and the other in Indian Rock Springs.

Anyway, I digress before I even get started. In speaking with them, it brought me to a great point which I have been relaying to my customers for some time. There are three types of properties in Murphy that have an exceptional appreciation rate and do well historically. The three types are: 1) Lakefront 2) Mountain View 3) Water front – i.e. creek, branch, and river frontage.

Lakefront - As with many markets all over the U.S., it’s a great investment and property you can enjoy simply by being on the water. Here in our area, there’s several differently lakes to enjoy. Lake Hiwassee (you’ll see some misspellings, Hiawassee is a common one), Appalachia, Lake Chatuge, Blue Ridge, Nottley, Nantahala, and Santeelah are some of the the lakes people enjoy here in the North Carolina Mountains. I’ll go more in depth on some of these in a later blog.

Mountain View – Just like the quality of anything you can buy, mountain views vary. You could have a little glimpse of a mountain or one where someone else’s trees could grow and block your view. The best views are generally considered multiple layers of mountains where you control the views - in other words, you can cut trees or whatever is in your way because you own the property in front of you where the trees could grow up. Close up mountains are also great, depending on the ridge line and other factors.

Water Front – Think varying ranges of moving water here. A "branch" is the smallest, usually considered to be 4-6 inches at most. Over 4-6" would be considered a creek and can get several feet wide. Rivers are, well, rivers. In Murphy, we have three main rivers: Hiwassee, Nottley, and Valley. All of which are beautiful and quite clean and clear water.

These are great investments for the long term and in some cases, the short term. It’s quite common to see double digit returns on these properties (annually). If you love the water or mountain views, fear not! Your purchase today can lead to a lifetime of enjoyment, or at the least, a better return on your money than you can find in any CD.

John Poltrock, CRS – Call Toll Free 1-866-687-7496 to make your real estate investments – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – The POLTROCK TEAM at RE/MAX Mountain Properties in Murphy, NC