Sometimes it takes forty years to come to your senses. It was about that long ago when I first drove through one of the dune access road onto the beach and headed down to the Point at Emerald Isle. Things have changed massively since those days. If I had only known what I know now, I probably would never have gone back to the mountains. It was with great pleasure that my wife and I moved to the shores of the White Oak River near Cape Carteret last September. It was the culmination of three summers of looking for the best place along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts to put down some new roots.
We ended up in Bluewater Cove, a wonderful community with a pool, access to the White Oak and some lots actually on the water like ours. Bluewater Cove was actually designed and created by Bluewater Builders who also built our home. Appropriately we actually bought our home through a Bluewater GMAC Real Estate agent. She had managed to show us far more homes that were in our price range than we had seen in the previous two summers. Not only that, but some of the homes, like ours ,were new construction and not ones needing an immediate $50,000 investment.
I had actually enjoyed searching for the right home so much that in the summer of 2006, I began taking classes to get my real estate license. After the very pleasant buying experience that I had with Bluewater GMAC Real Estate, I approached them in the winter of 2006 as I was finishing the requirements for my brokers licenses. In January of 2007, I joined Bluewater GMAC Real Estate and am now working my way up the steep slope of the changing real estate world. Fortunately twenty years working at Apple computer has prepared me well for an industry that is transitioning to a web driven world.
It's pretty clear that the Internet is now a big part of the real estate world. It also clear that making connections through the Internet will be even more important for real estate success, not only for agents, but also for buyers and sellers. My last year's experience was at company which marketed email services. We only sold through the web so I come to the real estate world well versed in the Internet.
In fact I already have several presences on the web which receive thousands of visitors each week. It has taken a couple of years and a lot of writing to get those sites to that level of traffic, but it is nice to able to give my clients a quick boost in visibility that goes around the world.
Beyond that Internet head start, it is really nice to be selling homes in an area where you have made a conscious decision to live yourself. There are some reasons why we are here in the Cape Carteret, Cedar Point, Emerald Isle and Swansboro area. The scenery is spectacular and the sunset are sometimes beyond belief like the one at the end of the post. It was taken this Saturday evening. I took the picture from the dock at the Emerald Woods Park on Emerald. I was shooting the photo across Bogue Sound.
I sometimes have a hard time even deciding where to take my sunset pictures. There are other reasons we came here. One of them is that property taxes are a fraction of what they are in Roanoke, Virginia.
It is also possible in this part of Carteret County to still find affordable homes on or near the water. We did that with our home on the White Oak and to make it even better, we are only ten minutes from the Emerald Isle beaches. It is a wonderful combination. Beaches for relaxing and enjoying the sun. Lot of sound and river for chasing fish.
Also this is a year around community unlike many on the coast, this area doesn't shutter itself during the winter. Here on the mainland, the restaurants pretty well keep the same schedules as they do in the summer. In fact the availability of services all year was a big part of our decision as was the the moderate climate, the wonderful fishing, and plentiful opportunities for recreation.
I have already written much about the area in my other web worlds, some of which are listed to the right, but I will also be providing more information here on a regular basis. I love the area and welcome the opportunity to convince people that this is the best place on earth and one of the best kept secrets in America.
To see some of the wonderful accessible trails that we have in the area, drop by my Accessible Trails Website.
To take a virtual tour of one of the homes we have listed in Bluewater Cove, please visit my 126 White Heron Lane Site.
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