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Boone is a town located in Watauga County,North Carolina. It is nestled right in the middle of the Appalachian Mountain range in western NC and in 2010 the population was reported to be 17,122. If you have lived all your life in a big city and come to visit Boone, you will be impressed with how little it has changed over the years. It is the home of one of the most respected universities in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University, but still maintains the charm of the old towns of the past.
It's history dates back to the Revolutionary War, when Daniel Boone helped the settlers trying to get away from the control of the English soldiers. The town is named for Daniel Boone who once lived in this general area. For the past 60 years Boone has been the home of the second oldest outdoor drama in the country, Horn In The West. Every summer a group of very dedicated actors come together to reenact the days of the Revolutionary War and how Daniel Boone interacted with the settlers of this region. The theatre is located right in the middle of Boone next to the Daniel Boone Native Gardens.
Many of Boone's residents only live here in the summer months and some visit in the winter to ski at Appalachian Ski Mountain, Sugar Mountain or Beech Mountain. And there are those like me who once visited each year for a weeks vacation and decided to move here permanently.
Just like every other area in the country, the Boone real estate market has suffered also. Home values have fallen and many homes have gone into foreclosure, but with a little luck most experts feel we have reached the bottom for the most part and home values are stabilizing in this area. The advantage in Boone has a great deal to do with the presence of the university and the ongoing need for student and faculty housing.
Back in 2008 when people started looking for a home to buy, they may have gone to a local Realtor or just looked in the newspaper first. But today according to the National Association of Realtors, more than 78% of new home buyers were starting their search for a new home on line. They did not go down to their local real estate office or ask their friends if they knew someone in the business, they just started looking on the web.
In Boone NC most real estate searches start at Realtor.com because it is probably the largest real estate web site and it is the official site of the National Association of Realtors. By putting in a little information like the price you want to pay, you can quickly find all the local homes available in Boone based on your needs in just a few seconds.
The results will show you pictures of the homes in the area, plus you can see on a map exactly where they are located. Unfortunately the site will not be able to show you homes for sale by owners or those that have been foreclosed on and now owned by the banks. You probably want to check with several real estate websites in your search like Realty Trac, Zillow and Trulia. While all the sites will have similar results, you might discover an exception that might have been missed otherwise.
Last and by far not least, you want to find a Boone real estate agent that will do a local search for you. Realtors in Boone NC would be a good start if you are looking for Carolina mountain homes. As a Realtor he or she can do a local MLS real estate search based on your specific requirements. Say you want to be as close as possible to the place you will be working at. If you can find a suitable home just five miles closer than the others, it might reduce your monthly mileage by about 200 miles per month or for about a $50/mo. savings in gas.
Also your Realtor can search for homes by square footage, bedrooms, baths, approx.land size, year built and school district. The search can also include interior and exterior condition of the house, style of house, type of roof, type of heating and cooling system, well or city water supply, sewer or septic, garage, fireplace, appliances, long range views or creek/stream,etc.
In addition to looking for houses, your Realtor can do a website search for homes recently sold in the Boone area including foreclosed houses for sale. By analyzing homes that sold recently your Realtor can estimate a more accurate idea of the true price a house should be selling for and advise you if the sellers are asking too much. They may also have information on people selling real estate by owner. Many times sellers of For Sale By Owner properties are willing to pay the buying side of the real estate transaction even though they will not pay the selling side to be listed on the MLS.
But, before you spend a lot of time searching for that perfect home, it is strongly suggested that you discuss the financing with the lender you intend to get your loan through. By doing this you will know exactly how much house you can qualify for and can focus on only the homes that fall into that price range. Also, by getting pre-approved you will not have that feeling of uncertainty of getting approved once you find that perfect house. Nothing could be worse than finding your dream home and losing it to someone else because your lender wanted more information about your income, etc. and the seller sells it to someone else. Remember if you were a seller and knew how difficult it was finding a buyer for your house, you would want to be sure the person trying to buy your house had been approved before accepting that offer.
