With only 4 days left to work before vacation, I’m already in vacation mode. I’m a little sad that we’re not heading back to the mountains, but Canada will be exciting too, right? Still, when we left North Carolina in January, we were betting that we’d be back there this summer. I realize the summer has just started, but I don’t think we’ll be heading back…maybe in the fall.

Speaking of North Carolina, Jim is pretty confident that his company will be expanding there soon, and he raised the idea of buying property closer to Charlotte with me. Hmm..what about my mountain acreage? Aha…the man has a plan. Buy property in Charlotte, take an earlier, working retirement, and then move to the middle of nowhere. He’s always thinking, that one!

I know a teeny bit about the Charlotte real estate market from my many hours spent watching HGTV. Homes seem to be a lot more reasonably priced there, as compared to my area of Florida. But of course, it’s all relative, right? Regardless of how great the market is, or how bad it could get, you still need a Realtor with an edge. McGary and Associates has an interesting take on what makes their brokerage unique from others in the Charlotte market:

“Most of the homes we help people buy are never listed in MLS, on the Internet, or are advertised for sale at all.”

That’s HUGE for homebuyers! I’ve seen houses quietly change hands plenty of times, and always wondered how people found out about those properties and snapped them up before everyone else knew - that’s how! And while the site isn’t very slick, or fancy, it gets the job done. You can search for a home, get more information about the company, read frequently asked questions, and if I were a serious buyer, I could even request information via email on the listings I liked the best. All of this from one site that has agents working a 40 mile radius around Charlotte, NC. (I took a look at the acreage listings…6, 7, even 10 acres for under $50,000? It’s amazing what a deal it is compared to our overpriced swamp land here in Florida!)