roanoke: A Cautionary Tale for Real Estate Buyers and Agents - 03/03/12 11:34 AM
My view of the real estate world comes both from having been an active agent until December 2011 and from being the current seller of a home.  My wife and I also bought a new vacation home in the summer of 2006.
A little over a year and a half ago we decided to put the home where we raised our children on the market.  It is a home that we have taken great pride in owning for the last twenty three years since we moved in as the first owners in 1989.  Before a "for sale" sign went up in … (2 comments)

roanoke: Looking for something more than just a house - 08/11/10 04:51 PM
It helps to think back to your own experiences when trying to help others find that right spot to live.
We have been through a number of significant moves in our lives. The ones that I remember the most were when we went from Halifax, NS to Columbia, Maryland and from Columbia to Roanoke, Va.
Our moves were focused around our three children.  We left Canada so our children could spend more time with their grandparents, and so they would have a better chance at finding good jobs.  We could have gone to Toronto or Alberta for the jobs, but the … (0 comments)

roanoke: One man's cottage is another's castle - 09/19/07 03:38 PM
This weekend we were in the mega-growth area of Huntersville, Cornelius, and Mooresville which is just north of Charlotte, NC.
We were visiting our youngest daughter who is graduating from UNC-Charlotte this winter.
The Lake Norman area was the one of the places that got us to thinking about moving back to North Carolina.
My wife and I were both born in North Carolina and both lived near Mount Airy, NC until we went off to college.
By the late eighties we had managed to work our back down from Canada to Roanoke, VA where we still have our main home.
Our visits to the Lake … (1 comments)

roanoke: Learning about an area with pictures and local words - 06/24/07 12:22 AM
As people begin to depend more and more on the Internet to narrow down where they want to live and visit, pictures become more and more important.
The Roanoke Times, the local paper of Roanoke,Virginia, has what they call a local Blog Roll of people who write about the area.  Their list of local Roanoke area bloggers is a good way to get a snap shot of the area.
While there are bloggers that are focused on an issue or a particular aspect of modern life, there are people who blog about a particular area.
Besides my View from the Mountain in the list … (0 comments)

roanoke: Making the mountains or coast decision - 04/07/07 02:58 PM
My wife and I are both native North Carolinians.  We both spent much of our early years in the Mount Airy, NC area.  The Blue Ridge Mountains were just a few miles away.  A trip up to the Parkway was a normal thing to do on a hot summer day.  The temperature was often ten to fifteen degrees cooler.  Taking a picnic up to the Parkway was a great summer activity.  Then there was the trip to Mount Mitchell with it spruce forests which were like another world.
Living on the side of the mountain was a dream for many of us … (0 comments)