Speaker 1: 0:00

The George Real Estate Group radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450 and streaming online at WHKPcom. And streaming online at whkpcom Each Friday morning at 845,. The George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. Hometown Hero Show Jimmy Buffett on Real Country and Margarita Bill brings us to 845 on Friday morning and that is always our chance to gather with the crew from the George Real Estate Group and salute our Hometown Hero series and talk about things going on in our community. Ari Munoz is here from the George Real Estate Group and representing NOAA, who's out doing other things today, I guess like recuperating from a recent operation, but he's doing fine. We usually gather here with NOAA every Friday morning, but Ari can aptly update us on the real estate market here in Henderson County.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Yeah, it's an honor to be here instead of Noah. We're all keeping him in his thoughts. We know he's recovering well. I am going to take him some ice cream in a little bit here after this. Good, good, good, but yeah. So it is an honor for us to sponsor the Hometown Hero segment, because it's so easy to get bogged down with. We hear negative stuff on the news every day, all the time, and we know that there's good stuff happening. We see it all the time in our community. We see heroes that are doing the right thing for our community, left and right. It's important to highlight that we know that energy can be contagious and we like to think of ourselves as an agent of positive change and positive influence, and that's why this is so near and dear to our hearts.

Speaker 2: 2:06

But so real estate, right. In a summary, the market is still moving. It has not slowed down. I'm biased, like Noah would say right, like. This is a really desirable place to be. I myself moved here from Albuquerque, new Mexico, and I understand why people want to be in our community. Year to date, we've sold more homes than we had sold last year. At this point, the market has not slowed down. Prices are still holding where we would expect them to be. The average days on market of a home is now 60 days. It is taking a little bit longer for somebody's homes to go under contract, but if things are priced right, if it's a unicorn, if it's something that you know is highly sought after, those things still go in a day or two.

Speaker 2: 2:53

Maybe you know within the hour, but one thing we love doing is serving our community. We offer market intelligence. We work with buyers, sellers, court-ordered sales intelligence. We work with buyers, sellers, court-ordered sales. If you're in distress and you're dealing with a reclosure scenario, or if you're a buyer that feels like you haven't had a fair chance up until this point, well, come see us. We can help you out. We can get you set up for success. We'll help you find a home, or we'll help you sell your home and get you what you're hoping to net out of it.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Okay, Harry, get us in touch with the George Real Estate Group.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Okay, harry, get us in touch with the George Real Estate Group. Yeah, you can find us at. We're located by the. Let's see the address 2720 Greenville Highway, right next to the Wrinkled Egg, the Flat Rock Bakery, hubba Lou, hubba, hubba Barbecue, all those things that, as Noah would like to say, are dangerously delicious, and I eat too many of those chocolate croissants. So come hang out with us. We'll buy you a cup of coffee, we'll buy you a croissant.

Speaker 1: 3:53

We'll be happy to sit down and visit with you. All right, ari. Thank you so much. Josh English is here. He's the president of the board of directors of the North Carolina Apple Festival. And, josh, I know your to-do list is picking up this time of the year and I sure appreciate you taking time to join us. How are you?

Speaker 4: 4:08

Yeah, good morning, Randy. It's awesome to be here again and to talk everything. Apple Festival that's coming up here a little less than a week or so, but yeah, that to-do list is getting quite large.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Looking forward to it and you're no stranger, you kind of got the to-do list from last year. Yes, sir, yeah, you Looking forward to it and you're no stranger, you kind of got the to-do list from last year. Yes, sir.

Speaker 4: 4:27

Yeah, I've been involved with the Apple Festival for countless years, but I've been the president the last couple years, and so I won't say I'm a veteran quite yet, because something new happens all the time. But, yeah, feeling great and we're going to put on another great festival, this year.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Yeah, it's the 79th year, man. Yep, 79 years. This town has gone a little. Uh. It gets a little crazy around this time of the year, doesn't it?

Speaker 4: 4:51

it's an energy level in the air, it really is it does, and you know these, uh, last couple weeks leading up to it, um, that energy just builds, builds, builds. Um, lots of new stuff, uh, the, the old stuff that you can count on will be there and uh, yeah, just the, just the energy is great and we're looking forward to next weekend.

Speaker 1: 5:09

We talked to one of the apple growers yesterday, Kenny Barnwell, and he says there's plenty of apples. He said there's plenty of apples. There are apples everywhere.

Speaker 4: 5:20

Yeah, that was a concern, you know, obviously, with what we went through after the Apple Festival last year. You know that was a concern for our market and the community. But we've We've rebounded well and all the growers are excited. We've got a new grower that's going to be downtown with us this year. But, yeah, there's apples, plenty of apples, like you mentioned, and apple everything. Ice cream, slushies are my favorite, but pies, donuts, if you can make it with an apple, it'll be downtown next weekend.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Harry, what do the kids like?

Speaker 2: 5:55

uh, the best, and treats, so they will always go for the slushies every time that is their all-time favorite. I am partial to those as well, though I when they're not looking. I sneak away and I get a couple of those for myself too well I think I told randy last year it's.

Speaker 4: 6:11

I guess I'm a kid at heart, because the slushy is my favorite as well and I may or may not go to every slushy stand there is just to you know, make sure I remember which one is my favorite.

Speaker 1: 6:24

You bet, you bet. It's important to be an expert right.

Speaker 4: 6:27

Exactly. No calories that we can't, they don't count.

Speaker 1: 6:33

You grew up here and I remember you saying that.

Speaker 4: 6:37

You yourself as a kid yeah, yeah, born and raised um here in henderson county, so you know, for a local um, you know.

Speaker 4: 6:44

I think this festival is a source of pride, you know it is yeah, you know something that we can be um, very prideful, um, and having here it's the state's north car Carolina Apple Festival, and so I think that's pride itself and we're an industry leader when it comes to the Apple market in the country, and so being able to display that and take some pride in it as a local is a phenomenal thing. And then anybody visiting here we get to put on a great show and a great festival for them. So, yeah, very prideful there. And you know, I know a lot of our locals come every year to it. But you know, and now, as my daughter has turned 18 this year, but I remember riding the little strawberry ride, you know when I was a kid.

Speaker 4: 7:31

Now that's one of her favorite rides oh man, she still does it as an 18-year-old, so Cool, Very, very, very cool.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Well, take us through the weekend. We start a week from today. Probably along about this time, don't we in front of the historic courthouse with the opening ceremony?

Speaker 4: 7:48

Yes, we'll set up Thursday night so everybody can expect Main Street to kind of slow down a little bit Thursday afternoon. But Friday morning the festival will be open by 10 AM and then we're doing opening ceremonies at 10 30 Friday morning out front of the courthouse. Um, and then, yeah we'll, we'll go strong Friday, saturday, sunday, um, and then cap off our weekend with the King Apple festival parade.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Yeah, I wanted to ask you who's the grand marshal yeah, we're very prideful for that as well.

Speaker 4: 8:19

Um, john and uh, pat shepherd oh, come on.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Yeah, I mean, everybody knows, oh man knows those two guys um that's fantastic yeah, and so we're.

Speaker 4: 8:28

We're very lucky to have them. They have served on our board for, uh, at least 50 years um we're counting. This year's their 50th year, but it's probably been a little bit longer than that. That's incredible. And so we were honored to ask them, and they were honored to accept and be our Grand Marshals, and then they're there all weekend.

Speaker 4: 8:48

They're there all weekend every year, yeah, working. You'll find them at the entertainment stage. Pat and her business with the dance studio. They'll have her kids out there performing and it'll be a great source of entertainment.

Speaker 1: 9:00

That is just the best news in the world. You always pull out a rabbit out of a hat for the Grand Marshal and the Shepherds. Couldn't be any better. When I first the very first Apple Festival I ever came to, I met Pat and John Shep and john shepherd.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Yeah, and been there ever since. So there's a, there's some parking changes and and rules and some uh bargains and where to park and and earlier, uh yesterday, I think, our own tippy cresswell had a conversation with brandy heatherly, who is Hendersonville Communications, and we're going to play that little clip for us.

Speaker 5: 9:42

Yes, tippi. So get ready, hendersonville, the North Carolina Apple Festival, is back. From Friday, august 29th through Labor Day, september 1st, downtown will come alive with delicious food, live entertainment and the beloved King Apple Parade on Monday at 2.30 pm. Main Street will close to traffic starting Thursday afternoon to make room for all this fun. So event parking is available in City Lots and the Fifth Avenue parking deck, which will charge a $10 flat rate fee during the Apple Fest. City Hall's law at 166th Avenue East will be reserved for handicap parking on Labor Day weekend and all parking details can be found at hblncgov slash parking. So, last but not least, for those safety and comfort of pets, non-service animals are discouraged at the Apple Festival. Festival attendees should leave pets comfortably at home. Come celebrate the season, savor the apples and enjoy one of Hendersonville's favorite traditions. Full schedules and parade info can be found at ncapplefestivalorg and all other Apple Festival updates and holiday closure info can be found at hendersonvillencgov.

Speaker 1: 11:02

That's hendersonvillencgov and the ncappvilleNCgov. That's HendersonvilleNCgov and the NCAppleFestivalorg. Yeah, so everything is right there that you could every question you have Just bring some comfortable shoes and enjoy a really nice three-day festival in downtown Hendersonville the 79th annual North Carolina Apple Festival. Josh, what's it like to put on a big festival? There's so many volunteers, I'm sure.

Speaker 4: 11:31

Yeah, our board is all volunteer and so you know a lot of volunteers, you know, go into putting this festival on a lot of time, energy, um into it. So you know great partnership with, uh, of course, the city, um first responders, um in our county and uh, it's just a great partnership. Everybody works really well together um to put this festival on and um, and I would highlight the, the website. If anybody hasn't gone out to our apple festival website again, it's ncapplefestivalorg. We have completely renovated that website and something that I've been really working and striving and begging and pleading for for years is a map, and we have a map this year so you can go out to the website, click on that map and it'll give you where our growers are, where some vendors and things like that are. That's something that a lot of our visitors, when coming to the festival, they want to know where things are Bathrooms, that type of thing. So we're really excited to have an official map out there on our website that people can leverage as well.

Speaker 1: 12:39

Fantastic. Our WHKP Peaks Magazine Apple Festival Guide is on the streets too, at over 70 different merchants around town, including here at Broadcast House. You can pick up a free copy of that Apple Festival Guide too. So, yeah, we go all out around here about this time of the year for the North Carolina Apple Festival and, just peeking ahead, it looks like fall weather is going to come in here next week.

Speaker 4: 13:09

Yeah, so far it looks great. You know a little bit, maybe cooler weather and none of the wet stuff. We don't want to say that out loud too much because we want to have some great weather that weekend, which we know we will. But yeah, we're looking forward to that.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Josh, thank you so much for coming in to visit with us. I know you're very, very busy and we're here all weekend if you need us to and make any announcements and so forth, and we're just tickled to death. To welcome Apple Festival time to Hendersonville.

Speaker 4: 13:38

Well, thank you again. Appreciate you all having us this morning.

Speaker 1: 13:49

Ari, we've got about a minute left for you to wrap us up in the real estate world with george real estate group, and we salute and tip our hats to the george real estate group for sponsoring our hometown hero series every friday morning at this time. If there's a hometown hero that you think we need to salute, let us know, and you can do that at the george real estate group also correct.

Speaker 2: 14:03

We are located at 2720 greenville highway, right next to the wrinkled egg flat rock bakery, habaloo haba haba barbecue. Come by, we'd love to visit with you. Whether you're buying, selling or just curious about what the market looks like, we will give you all the market intelligence and strategy that you are looking to gain there's a lot of visitors to our area this weekend.

Speaker 1: 14:25

I'm sure that you guys will probably get one of those people who got hooked on our place while they're here visiting the Apple Festival and say I want to move there, I want to buy a house there, I want to move there.

Speaker 2: 14:37

Well, I'll be roaming downtown the festival this whole weekend, so I'll be available. You'll see me. All right that?

Speaker 1: 14:44

sounds great, guys. Thank you both for showing up this morning and thank you for showing up for hendersonville, because that's what we do here in western north carolina.

Speaker 3: 14:53

Thank you for joining us each friday morning for the george real estate group, hometown heroes salute maybe the house feels a little too big these days, the stairs a little steeper, the pace of feels a little too big these days, the stairs a little steeper, the pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go. It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to right-size, simplify or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group Local, trusted, proven. Call us today, 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygregcom, because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.

Speaker 1: 15:58

The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, north Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygregcom. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-393-0134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, flat Rock, north Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 10.05 am on WHKP 107.7 FM and 14.50 am, or stream online at WHKPcom or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8.45.