Jasper, GA

For those who live in or plan to travel to North Georgia in April, plan to attend Jasper ArtFest in Jasper, Georgia on April 21-22.

This is a juried art show and sale, and also features performing arts, Art of the Auto (antique cars and trucks), childrens art activities, the Kudzu Kreation, mountain craft demonstrations, and the Optimist Club Flapjack Run (5K) for charity, and great food.

There is no admission charge. Go to www.JasperArtFest.org for more information.

The statistics for Jasper Georgia and Pickens county in our north Georgia mountains can be seen below.

There are some interesting lines. . Jasper in the mountains is at or above the average for the State of Georgia. Pickens county , where Jasper is, is way above. The difference her is Big Canoe. Big Canoe is an upscale community in Pickens county and accounts for the big difference. Now you can see at the start of the year so far all the lines are close together. This means that if you are buying in North Georgia Big Canoe is a GREAT value. Contact us at All mountain Realty. We are your North Georgia Mountains experts.

Folks looking to buy or sell in Big Canoe often have questions. In this series I will as a Realtor who works in Big Canoe as well as the North Georgia Mountains do my best to provide answers to the most asked questions.

Why are the association fees so high in Big Canoe ?

The Association fees in Big Canoe are approximately 225. 00 per month. The main reasons for these fees are simple:

ROADS In a gated community in Georgia the community is responsible for the roads. In Big Canoe there are over 100 miles of mountain roads that need to be maintained. Drive any other mountain community and you will soon see why Big Canoe spends on Roads

SECURITY and FIRE PROTECTION In Big Canoe there is 24/7 EMT service as well as security and fire protection. I fact you will save close to 500 a year on your home owners insurance because of the great protective services in Big Canoe. When one considers this reduction against the cost it makes the fees in Big Canoe very reasonable.

Got a Big Canoe or North Georgia Mountain question visit us on line at www.allmountainrealty.com or email me at charlie@allmountainealty.com

Jasper Georgia is a great place to live and work. There are many homes for sale. However in the case below I think the tree house home of this lovely couple is not for sale.

This photo was taken by wife Sally while moving through the Jasper area. In our North Georgia mountains we have so many wonderful natural sights and sounds. Some times if you just stop for a moment and look around you will be treated to some of our wonderful Natural sights.

If you are looking for homes for sale in Jasper do not despair . Even though this one is taken the folks at All Mountain Realty are your Jasper home experts.

In a Real Estate Transaction there is a buyer, a seller , a buyers agent, a sellers agent, and a Lender. now there does not have to be all these folks but more often than not they are all there. There are also "minor players" like the inspector. They are minor players but can kill a deal.

So all the players march along on the trail to the closing. The agents keep the clients informed and make sure we are all in step with dates and times and things to be done. The clients nervous to the end rely, hopefully, on their agents and generally are in step with the process as they want it to happen.

Then we get to the lender. The lender wants it to happen too but is very often not in step. The lender asks for tons of paper work, and then comes back and asks for more. The lender seems to miss the dates in the contract when the appraisal needs to be done by, as well as the loan commitment given. A "good" lender will actually come to you and say they need an extension.

The lender today is out of step with the transaction in my opinion. Now before you all jump on me I would say that this happen 50 percent of the time. So we do work with good lenders who come through. But here is the point. Until Lenders get back to loaning where they were pre bubble we will never see a housing rebound. When we bought our first house in NYC it took 60 days to close. When we moved to Georgia the lenders laughed that it took so long in New York. Well guess what ? Georgia is now 45-60 days even for loans that are 100 percent no problem.

So what is needed is we all need to get in step. The market was out of step when any one with or without a pulse could get a loan. But now we have moved too far the other way.