Searching For Land - Gentle Slope, Creekside?

When I viewed Gilmer and Fannin County Ga real estate listings in early 2006 there were no shortage of pictures on the web and the terminology sounded attractive. For instance gentle slope seemed to be the buzzword in this mountainous area, and/or 200 feet of creek side property. Sounds nice doesn't it? It is until the properties are actually visited. I sure wasn't interested in the gentle slope seen below.

PIC COMING SOON

Nor was I interested in this creek side piece that should have been listed as a small branch instead of winding creek side acreage. Sure once a nice rainfall hits it may begin to look like a creek but I was looking for real creek side property.

PIC COMING SOON

Here's one in Cherry Log just a few minutes north of Ellijay and South of Blue Ridge off highway 515. Six acres were listed as 191K with a small creek running into a man made retaining pond. One side of the property included a small open storage shed. The views from atop were wonderful and there was a nicely cleared area suitable for a cabin at a later date. Not only that, a flat area above could provide room for another structure with the best views.

This piece was my first choice until one day I walked into Jim Stovers office. We had been searching the MLS listings for two days and hadn't come up with much that I was looking for.

It was obvious the larger tract of land was out of the question. 10-20 acres unless you wanted to live 10-15 miles outside of town downwind from nasty smelling chicken farms. Some properties had limitations as well because of marsh lands. And those gentle slopes were more of a mountain climbers paradise.

Jim suggests, "let's try this a different way..." So he begins looking for properties about 10% more than I was willing to pay and came across what appeared to be an overlooked tract about ten miles east of Ellijay off Highway 52; an area the locals call heaven. Creekside with a cabin on a little over four acres. It was listed in the 225K range. I wasn't really looking for a cabin but thought why not at least look at it. I still had a larger piece in my mind.

Climbing bumpy gravel roads into this secluded area I came to the conclusion some probably just said "forget it" before looking at the land. At first glance I was impressed with the overall lay of the land where the cabin was situated. The cabin itself needed work, but that didn't set me back. It had one key ingredient, a nice running creek only 60 feet from the back porch.

Next: Which one to choose?