Wednesday, April 23, 2008

North Georgia Living at It's Best.

On a recent mailing I did I had the fortunate opportunity for one of my college buddies to give me a call regarding my letter.  As luck would have it, his sister is the president of a small chain of banks in the North Georgia mountains.  He was able to connect me with her and she in turn had a customer who had been considering listing some land she had inherited.  

I received the prospect's contact information and proceeded to call her. We'll call her Cindy for the sake of this blog entry.  After chatting with Cindy for a while about her land in Mineral Bluff Georgia it was apparent that Cindy was the quintessential charming Southern girl. I pride myself on my Southern roots as well so we had an instant level of comfort conversing by phone.

It was settled.  I would load up the 4-wheeler and make the 90 minute drive from Atlanta to see her land.  I drove I-575 up the Appalachian Parkway through Ellijay and into Blue Ridge.  It occurred to me driving through Ellijay how much it had changed in just the last five years.  Along the parkway there's plenty of the same chain stores and restaurants that you would find anywhere else in America.  Of course Wal-Mart had rolled into town and set up shop probably selling the same mountain apples at half the cost of the family owned local orchards they were now trying to put out of business.  There's a Ruby Tuesday and all the likely franchise siblings that generally follow suit in a booming area.

My point is that Ellijay didn't quite feel like mountain living anymore.  Certainly it didn't have that feel that it had when we used to bring the kids up in the Fall to buy apples.  Today I can pick up those apples in Ellijay at half the price along with the dryer sheets I forgot to buy.  Then I can have a plate of over tenderized baby back ribs at Chili's.  Not exactly worth the drive to Ellijay anymore now is it?  I really felt a sense of betrayal after driving for an hour.

Onward I pressed to my appointment in Mineral Bluff which I had never heard of and considered it probably a listing appointment marginally worth follow through with.  I mean, who the heck in their right mind would even come to Mineral Bluff to look at 55 Acres of mountain land, 30 Acres of Toccoa River pasture or a single mountain top lot?  That said, I was still anxious to get a new listing as I always am no matter how bleak the scenario might look.

I met this listing client at the riverside park of Horseshoe Bend along the Toccoa River.  As we chatted my attention was claimed by the train coming down alongside the river opposite of our meeting spot.  The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway was on it's way into McCaysville less than a mile away.  Riders would enjoy a two hour stop for shopping, dining and enjoying mountain culture.  The sights and sounds of the Toccoa River were calming and for no other reason than coming to get the listing I was enjoying the Toccoa River scenery.

After having the client orient me to the area and show me the boundaries of her mountain land  land I explored the areas via 4 wheeler and documented all that I could of this Toccoa River scenery with my digital camera.  All I could see were green pastures, hills waiting to come alive in the Spring warmth and plentiful water sources in the form of Wolf Creek.  Wolf Creek splits one of the properties of pasture land.  This is the 30 acres of mountain valley pasture.

To the North of our location and also the North side of River Road was another huge 55 Acre tract of mountain land.  I could imagine building a house totally secluded by trees and wildlife on what is known by the locals as Chamber's Mountain.  What a rare opportunity to own such a large tract of mountain land in proximity to the Toccoa River.  

Atop of Toccoa Ridge which overlooks Horseshoe Bend Park as well as the Toccoa River the client owns an intimate enclave of ten mountain lots ready for construction.  My mind began to imagine a cool fall evening enjoying the sounds of the Toccoa River from my mountain home deck.  In the distance I can also hear the musicians who gather every Thursday evening in the park for "Pickn' in the Park".  A celebration of local music and musicians. During the day I would be able to hear the clickty clack and whistle of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway as it made it's way into McCaysville.

I spent most of the day exploring these three mountain properties and immediately fell in love with them.  I thought to myself, this is REAL mountain living.  No Wal-Marts, just the small IGA foodstore in McCaysville.  No Chili's, just the quaint corner mexican restaurant on main street.  Which has pretty good taquitos by the way and plenty of genuine people to enjoy meeting.  That thought about the people circled me back to my college buddy's sister who was so willing to help me make the connection for this listing appointment.  People caring about people and people willing to help people.

When it comes time for me to retire or make a major location change you can bet I'll consider Mineral Bluff or McCaysville as a new place to live.  If that time were today I would snatch up one of these listings and either build a small ranch on the pasture land, a secluded mountain retreat on the 55 acres or maybe I'll build a mountain top retreat upon Toccoa Ridge.

In short, it was a day well spent in McCaysville and it made me forget all of what I had seen in commercialized Ellijay.  I realized the REAL mountain living was still possible and mountain land in North Georgia wasn't limited to the options in the tourist brochures.

If you would like to have a showing of these pieces of property please contact me.  I'll load up the four wheelers gladly and we'll spend the day exploring all that Mineral Bluff and McCaysville has to offer.








No comments: