West Virginia

Since July 4^th real estate for me has been somewhat of a whirlwind. Here's a summation of the whirlwind.....

On Saturday, July 4^th, I wrote a contract for a sweet 65 year old lady. She wanted to buy this mini farm in Crawley, WV, that I have listed. I informed her that there would be a lot of maintenance for this property, and may be too much for her to handle. But, she said the Lord would be helping her. The contract was contingent on her selling her South Carolina property.

BTW, like most sweet old ladies....she will talk your ear off..and she did....It took three hours to write this contract......

Well, needless to say, I was really concerned about this contract, and her living by herself out in the country, and trying to maintain the property.

Sunday - My sweet little lady called Sunday evening and said that her son called and "raked her over the coals" for writing a contract for property that she would never be able to maintain. Halleluiah, someone got through to her.

Since the sellers had not signed the contract, I said "not to worry we will tear up the contract and she would get her deposit returned." I am SO GLAD her son talked to her and she got her senses back...so to speak.

My next step was to find a SC Realtor and give s/he a referral. So, of course, I login to Active Rain. I found Maria and Jim Hart. I've talked to both of them and they seem really nice and I know they will try and get a good price for my sweet little lady's property.

Monday morning after talking with the sellers, on the above property, they decide to take the property off the market. In the eight months it has been on the market, the property was shown six times, and only one contract (by my sweert little lady) which was never seen by the sellers. The sellers are planning to move to South Carolina in four years. They hope property values will rise in the next four years....but who has a crystal ball !!!

Monday afternoon, I got a contract on another listing. The buyers are approved by a local bank, and it is a great contract. So this week is starting off better than I thought for a Monday morning.

Tuesday morning, I was at the doctor's office and received a call from a lady interested in one of my listings. I asked if I could call her back and got her name and phone number. She asked what time would I be calling back and I said sometime late in the evening. Later that evening, I checked my messages and the lady had called and said "thanks for calling me back, I will find another Realtor tomorrow to help me." Well, needless to say, I called her back and got her answer machine. I politely said, "Mary, I received your voice mail, and apologize for not calling you back until now. I was at the doctor's office, and had some other tests to be done today. I understand if you wish to call another Realtor to assist you in a real estate transaction. I wish you the best of luck."

Within a minute I get a call from her saying "It seems we both have had a bad day, may I call you tomorrow to discuss my real estate needs." "Of course, I said...we will talk tomorrow."

This has been the beginning of my week...somewhat of a whirwind for me. It seems to be calming down..... for now......

NOTE: this was to me a whirlwind, especially since I am recovering from congestive heart failure and just getting back into the game.

A while back I posted a blog about a house that was foreclosed on and the previous homeowners had completely dismantled it. The house was basically in good shape except the owners took everything that was attached to the house with them(interior doors, lighting, kitchen cabinets, electrical breakers, outlets, switches, etc..) you get the idea. Today I showed a house that was a foreclosure and although the previous homeowners had left everthing attached, It was the dirtiest worst cared for I have probably ever shown. Take a look at the pictures below. Enjoy

I dont know what these red stains are but I know they arent coming out!

!

Can you guess where the bed was?

Some interesting wall art but I dont know if it will help the resale.

More wall art, and of course there is the mystery stain that is splashed across the wall.

There were more photos but I think you get the idea!

Aaron Poling

Long & Foster

www.aaronpoling.com

www.aaronpolingsblog.com

West Virginia's largest Independence Day celebration was held in Alderson, WV. This was the 48th annual Alderson 4th of July celebration. There were many events as the celebration started on July 2 and concluded on July 6. During this long weekend, everyone enjoyed music, contests, food vendors, arts & crafts, parades and, of course, fireworks.

The parade started at 10:30 am., on July 4th. It was a great time for all. This year, Coldwell Banker Stuart and Watts had a float in the parade. Below are some photos of this event.

Coldwell Banker Stuart and Watts Real Estate
Providing a superior level of informed, professional real estate services to buyers and sellers in the greater Lewisburg area.

At Coldwell Banker Stuart and Watts ................. we never stop moving.

______________________________________________

Rebecca Gaujot, REALTOR® | 304-520-2133
Coldwell Banker | Stuart & Watts Real Estate
LewisburgWV and GreenbrierCounty RealEstate
Your Connection to West Virginia Mountain Splendor Blog

I am hearing more and more the discussion of Bing making a dent into the world of Google. Now being a big Google user myself, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. I am a big maps guy, love them, always have. I can honestly say that Bing maps are far superior to Google. Especially in a more rural area like Martinsburg. I read a interview that was giving by the CEO of Google that said that he was not worried about Bing, stating that Microsoft has tried to bring something new out every year to try and compete with them, to no av-ale. But if I where Google I would not count out the boys from the Pacific Northwest just yet. Even with Google and to a lesser extend Yahoo, dominating the search market, Bing is now a player in this game. It will be interested to see how this goes.

My husband informed me about an article that was written about our small, historic town, Lewisburg, WV. So I searched the Washington Post and found the article, "Lewisburg, WV Offers Rich History and Small Town Treasures"....

By John M. Thompson
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, June 22, 2009; 4:00 PM

The last time I was in Lewisburg, W.Va., was about seven years ago; we stopped at the Wal-Mart off the interstate to get rain boots for the kids. Then somewhere along the way I heard that Lewisburg is one of those small American towns that have kept their early-20th-century charm while spiffing up enough to give 21st-century visitors a reason to stop over for a night or two. In other words, the town has become an attraction in itself.

Where to Go, What to Do in Lewisburg, W.Va.

Tucked in the rugged heart of the Allegheny Mountains, anomalous little Lewisburg is a town of fewer than 4,000 souls, where artists, retirees and shopkeepers live in Colonial and Federal buildings on neat, shady streets. Summer visitors browse herbal remedies and local crafts in boutiques. And instead of closing down at dusk, the town stays lively with fine restaurants and performance venues. I found all this out at the visitor center, where I also picked up a walking-tour map of about 70 historic sites and buildings dating as far back as 1770.

I drove in on Jefferson Street, the north-south corridor, which locals think has heavy traffic, but the fact is you can jaywalk with ease just about anywhere, not that such law-breaking is recommended, of course. I parked on Church Street and walked past the African American cemetery. Here lies Dick Pointer, defender of nearby Fort Donnally during a Shawnee attack in 1778. Granted freedom in 1801, he petitioned for a pension but was denied. I learned more about his story a block away at the North House Museum, an 1820 building that serves as headquarters for Greenbrier County's historical society. Linda Babcock showed me the hulking 50-pound gun with which Pointer saved the town. Since he received no pension, grateful townsfolk pitched in to buy him a house; he later drank himself to death.

North House was built as a home by a wealthy lawyer and later converted into a hotel. In another room, Babcock pointed out the balcony from which guests watched the Battle of Lewisburg on May 23, 1862. The short but bloody skirmish resulted in a Union victory over an untested Confederate force. In a clearing on a hill just to the south, a cross-shaped mass grave holds the remains of 95 unidentified Confederate soldiers. When asked if the county sided with the South during the war, Babcock hesitated, then admitted that it's a complicated question.

Remember that West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1863, and the Southern cause had never been particularly popular in the mountains. But for most of the war, Lewisburg was a Confederate outpost, the seat of a county that attracted slave-owning planters to its mineral springs. Babcock told me that not one vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln in the county; on the other hand, lots of freed slaves lived here. Elsewhere around town you find portraits of Lee and other Confederate heroes, as well as black history memorials, and you get the feeling that modern Lewisburg shrewdly straddles the historical battle line.

The Old Stone Presbyterian Church, dating from 1796, served as a hospital during the Civil War. Today you can go in and enjoy its unadorned, white-walled sanctuary, should you need even more peace than that afforded by strolling the sidewalks. The adjacent churchyard occupies prime real estate, the dead getting the best location in town. I tried to complete the walking tour, but there were too many houses, and all the friendly benches around town made diligence seem pointless.

I headed up Washington Street, the main thoroughfare, past late-19th-century commercial buildings with decorative cornices. Just beyond the restaurants and galleries of downtown, the white-columned but unprepossessing General Lewis Inn welcomes visitors with an ample front porch. It was a little early for lunch, so I sat in a rocking chair until I began to feel like a patient at a fancy sanatorium.

When lunchtime arrived I went over to a place that a guidebook described as a pre-Depression-era meat market and lunch place, where farmers and businessmen sit together at folding tables. It was gone, replaced a few years back by the Stardust Cafe, which was serving panini and pasta -- a fine-looking place, but not what I had a taste for.

There had to be some country cooking somewhere in town, though when I entered the Stonehouse General Store I had given up the search. The store purveyed wines and local pickles, honey and jelly. In the back, a half-door gave onto a kitchen; you could order whatever takeout lunch they were serving that day. Something about the place and the women who worked there -- the hairstyles and country voices -- gave me the feeling that this was the real thing. The cook told me that, in fact, she had modeled her "lunches to go" after the old Clingman's Market I had been in search of. I thanked the ladies at Stonehouse and went out with my carryout container.

The spreading lawn outside the old Carnegie Hall had a number of picnic tables, shaded by big maples. In 1902 industrialist Andrew Carnegie put up the money for the stately Greek Revival performance hall; it has hosted the likes of Isaac Stern and Wynton Marsalis. I sat at one of the tables with a lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, macaroni with sweetened tomatoes (a local recipe) and a buttermilk biscuit -- definitely the real deal.

"If you stay here for a while," Babcock had told me, "you'll see what a unique, vibrant place this is." A local in a bookshop confided that she loves the town and "we don't want too many people to find out about it." Yet another said that the best thing about Lewisburg is that "you know everybody. And that's good and bad." The only thing another townswoman misses is a shopping mall (the nearest one is an hour away). But as an outsider, I have to think that Lewisburg is better off just the way it is.

If you are thinking of moving here, call me and I'll be happy to show you Lewisburg.......our hidden treasure.

Rebecca Gaujot, REALTOR® | 304-520-2133
Coldwell Banker | Stuart & Watts Real Estate
Thinking of buying or selling a house, call me...Your WV Real Estate Connection for Lewisburg, WV/Greenbrier County

LewisburgWV and GreenbrierCounty RealEstate
Your Connection to West Virginia Mountain Splendor Blog