Among the twenty best places to live in North Carolina, two are suburbs of Asheville in Henderson County. Flat Rock and Laurel Park were both selected to be among the top 20 picked.

In fact, Laurel Park was recently featured in a series of videos, Live the Life You Choose, produced by Beverly-Hanks & Associates to showcase what it is like living in a Historical Neighborhood in Western North Carolina. To view the video CLICK HERE.

To read more about why Laurel Park and Flat Rock were selected by Yahoo as one of the top places to live in North Carolina, CLICK HERE.

If you would like personal assistance investigating all of the historic homes available for sale in the Western North Carolina region be sure to call Beverly-Hanks & Associates.

MSN Money.com’s powerful chart demonstrates what a fantastic return investment real estate has been from January 2000 through November 2011.

What is investment real estate?

According to Investopedia.com, it is “real estate that generates income or is otherwise intended for investment purposes rather than as a primary residence.”

If you’ve been wondering how to begin investing in rental property but just don’t know what you don’t know, a free seminar is being offered at the

Beverly-Hanks Hendersonville office.

Making the Most of Your Money: The ABC’s of Investing in Rental Property

A local CPA, attorney, property manager, mortgage broker, residential and commercial real estate agent will provide timely information and answers to your questions.

There is no charge and registration is required, so register soon!  Space is limited to 30 participants. You may register online here or by calling Lynn Huffman at (828) 243-2010.

Beverly-Hanks & Associates

Friday, February 24th, 2012
At The Biltmore DoubleTree Hotel,
Asheville, North Carolina

Over 19 educational sessions on progressive design, real estate, home building, regional economics and sustainable land development.

The closing session will be a:

“Regional Residential & Commercial Real Estate Overview” presented by Neal Hanks.

There will be opportunities to network, establish business contacts, and to reunite with friends. Look to the ALDC for pertinent news, relevant discourse, and timely education.

For more information visit the SELREC website.

Beverly-Hanks & Associates has arranged for (8) agents to earn entry into the conference free of charge in return for working as a volunteer during the event. For more information, please contact Rod Johnston at siteworks@earthlink.net or  (828) 702-2007.

The winners of the 15 Top Health Systems award outperformed their peers in a number of ways. They:

• Saved more lives and caused fewer patient complications
• Followed industry-recommended standards of care more closely
• Made fewer patient safety errors
• Released patients half a day sooner
• Scored better on overall patient satisfaction

To learn more about how and why Mission Health Systems was picked as a Top 100 Hospital, Click Here.

To learn more about Mission Health Systems, health care, and all of the other items that make quality of living in Western North Carolina so wonderful do not hesitate to contact us. Each of our communities whether it be Asheville, Hendersonville, or Waynesville having something special to offer you.

A recent article from CNNMoney described this initiative between several federal agencies. In addition to getting the properties off the federal government’s books, the hope is that it would economically stabilize those neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates.

There are no details yet on how this would work, but stay alert; this could be a great opportunity for acquiring investment real estate.

Read the full article “Turning Foreclosures into Rentals.”

County information is good. Your neighborhood’s information is better. For professional insight and thorough analysis of a specific property or neighborhood, call your Beverly-Hanks agent.

To subscribe to our Quarterly Real Estate Market Report detailing the vital signs of Western North Carolina’s real estate markets, CLICK HERE

This year, we’ve covered the ups and downs, tips and tricks, insider secrets and need-to-knows of real estate this year for buyers, sellers, owners and renters - now it’s time to highlight the best. The year’s most-read stories carry valuable real estate insights (with a healthy dose of realism) into 2012.

Just in case you missed any of these on the first go-round, here are the 10 most popular stories on the AskTara blog from 2011.

1. 6 Things that Turn Buyers Off
2. 4 Buyer Incentives that Sell Homes
3. 5 Things Home Buyers Do that Turn Sellers Off
4. Top 5 Hidden Costs of Owning and Renting a Home
5. Top 3 Deal Killers and How to Avoid Them
6. 4 Tricks and Traps Foreclosure Buyers Need to Know
7. 10 Open House Do’s and Don’ts
8. 4 Insider Secrets for Avoiding Surprises at Closing
9. 6 Reasons to Google Your Address
10. 5 Inexpensive Ways to Add Luxury to Your Home

Well it looks like the winner of this year’s Holiday Decorating Contest is 11 Buena Vista. It goes to show some simple white lights and a wreath on a door can really set the holiday mood. It was great to get this tradition kicked off this year and can’t wait for next year. MERRY CHRISTMAS

Photography For Real Estate

Tips and Techniques for Real Estate Photography

Heath Cowart who works in Western North Carolina sent me this example of a life style video project that he recently did for Beverly Hanks and Associates, a large broker in his area. Notice that the Beverly Hanks website from page has a 3:50 clip from Heath’s complete 16 min live style video.

Heath points out that this broker is actually helping their agents create and script videos. Heath says:

“This brokerage has in house script support that is helping brokers break out of the virtual tour mindset and embrace more of a real estate commercial style video. I have actually had several meetings and lots of discussions with their marketing dept on how to create a system that brokers can use to create great scripts and ideas. Once the agent creates a script using our system it goes back to the marketing dept for refinement then to me so we can set up a date. This saves me time and keeps the quality high. The brokerage splits the cost of the video with the broker.”

I think wider acceptance of video by brokers is inevitable. Anyone trained in marketing will recognize the strengths and importance of professional video ads. I believe if you just get your  top quality video work out there so it is seen the marketing savvy people in large brokerages will recognize the benefits and be your biggest advocate.

We are thrilled to be identified as an innovative real estate broker utilizing all of the marketing tools available to market our seller’s properties to the greater Asheville, Hendersonville, and Waynesville regions. Watch for even more video marketing initiatives in 2012.