Hometown Heroes And Local Storytelling

Ten years on the radio doesn’t happen by accident, it happens when a show becomes part of the community’s weekly rhythm. We’re celebrating a decade of the George Real Estate Group on WHKP, and we’re pairing that milestone with what we love most: putting real people and real service in the spotlight through the Hometown Hero Award.

First, we share a clear-eyed Henderson County real estate market update, including recent sales momentum, current inventory, and why supply and demand still drive so many outcomes even when interest rates and everyday costs feel heavy. If you’re thinking about buying, selling, relocating to Western North Carolina, or making a move with an investment property, inherited land, commercial real estate, or a 1031 exchange, this segment gives you grounded context for smarter decisions.

Then we welcome Michael Sundberg of Hendo Today, a local content creator who’s built a meaningful platform by focusing on community-first storytelling. We talk about how his work grew out of supporting the Bounty of Bethlehem, how he approaches nonprofit video and the “hero’s journey,” and what he’s learned about social media marketing, especially the importance of hooking viewers in the first 3 to 6 seconds. Michael also gives us a preview of his upcoming Ecusta Trail documentary, digging into the history, the people who made it happen, and why the trail has become a true Hendersonville gathering place.

If this conversation sparks an idea, do us a favor: subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with a friend who loves Henderson County, and leave a quick review so more locals can find these stories.

Transcript

Ten Years On WHKP

SPEAKER_04 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 WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 8.45, 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. It's 844, and it's Friday morning, and that means that we are going to be talking to our George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero this morning. And we're also going to be talking to Noah George.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Good morning, Noah. Good morning, and uh so grateful to be here. Absolutely one of the highlights of my week. Every Friday morning, uh Randy, you and I have been hosting the Hometown Hero series uh for years now.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

We really have.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

And uh it's it's fantastic to uh just shine a light on some incredible uh work being done in the community, and uh just grateful to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Well, uh each of us has got a few more gray hairs than when we started this family. But we've been through COVID and we've been

Henderson County Market Snapshot

SPEAKER_04 1:31

through Helene and we've been through lots of situations and uh and talked to a lot of great people during that time, haven't we?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Truly, and uh you're right. I mean, and and there's so much that goes on in this community and life, and everybody's got you know has their challenges, and there's but the generosity and how we see people show up and and show up for our community and want to make a difference in our community, and that's where I mean, you know, we're a real estate company and we love serving our community, and we love it's uh truly an honor to sponsor the Hometown Hero Series.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

Well, we so glad you do because we run into so many wonderful people, and this morning is no exception. Uh Michael Sundberg from Hendo Today is here, and we're gonna chat with Michael about his uh venture as a as a content creator, and but first we're gonna check in with you about how the real estate market flows.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Well, the market in Henderson County r continues to be strong. We've had about a hundred more single-family homes sold in the last 12 months versus the previous 12 months, which is a testament to our community, the the quality of life. People want to be here, they want to enjoy it. That you know, all that our community represents, and and and people are moving here. I talk to people almost every single day uh that are considering moving here to the area. Yeah, you do, don't which is amazing. Our prices are holding, by the way. The average single-family home price in Henderson Counties at 542 and change. Uh, there's been uh some we're averaging about 138 homes a month selling. And currently, as of this morning, only 621 active homes in the market. So homes are still moving. We know because life happens, real estate happens. It doesn't matter the interest rate, you know, it doesn't matter the economy, the you know, the gas prices, the grocery prices. I mean, I'm not making light of the challenges that our community faces. And there's obviously a lot of discussion about affordable housing versus attainable housing. And yet, uh right now it's just supply and demand. And so Henderson County, uh, you know, the market's still moving. We're helping people every single day, whether it's their personal home, their investment properties, we're specializing in 1031 exchanges or commercial property, you know, whatever it might be. And we have an incredible agent, agents, group of agents, 20 plus agents at our group, uh which I'm so thankful for, plus our staff. And if we can help our clients help anybody in in any way, uh your personal home or your investment properties or land you've inherited, whatever it might be, you can call us directly at 828-3930134. Find us online at realastatebygreg.com. We also podcast all of our radio shows, which uh we're so thankful for. We for all the uh subscribers. If you're listening to this now, be sure to subscribe uh to our podcasts. And then uh by the way, follow us on Facebook and social media for uh we have some open houses uh this weekend. You can find that information as well. And uh your office is located in Flat Rock, although you guys work all around the Carolinas, all over Western North Carolina and the upstate. Yes, I joke it's a dangerous location for an office next to the Flat Rock Bakery, Hubba Hubba Barbecue, Campfire Grill, the Wrinkled Egg, all our friends there on Rainbow Row.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

Well, uh join me, Noah, in welcoming Michael Sunberg from Hendo Today.

Meet Hendo Today’s Michael Sundberg

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Good morning, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Good morning, Randy. Good morning, Noah.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

How in the world are you this morning, Michael? I'm glad to be here today. It's good to have you. It really is. Noah, you discovered this uh please introduce us to Xavier.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Xavier on our team, uh one of our incredible new agents on our team that's uh making uh an incredible difference. Uh very I mean he just joined us, and we're so grateful for the introductions and the relationships he has in the community. And and uh but Xavier, you uh were really the the introduction uh to Michael and and maybe share about y'all's relationship and also just your and then again the difference Michael's making.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

I'm a local guy. Uh one thank you, Noah, for just a great mentor so far. Um Michael Sumberg and I met over a decade ago because our we we shared the interest in the community and the media and through Instagram when it kind of was just becoming huge. I reached out to him and we did some events for the community together, and I was his camera guy or his interviewee interviewer, he would say he was an interviewee, and we just talked to so many people and make all these videos, and you know, we just became best friends. I there's guys my age that I don't hang out with as much as him because of the things we have in common. So I'm glad that you guys you know, you see what I see, and uh we all are you know gro growing relationships.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

And Michael, uh and and again, Xavier made the introduction. Michael, you've had an extraordinary uh path forward in in social media and also what you're doing in the community. Can you tell us about what Hendo Today is all about? And I I know you love our community and you want to make a difference, and you are you're telling stories uh every single day about Hendersonville.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Uh Hendo.today, I founded in early 2016, and it was right after I was uh I was uh asked to do a website for the Bounty of Bethlehem, and the Bounty of Bethlehem is a meal that is held every year. Wonderful thing, yes, and and and anyone can come in, you know, no matter you know if you're on Christmas Day. On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day, yeah. And uh so that was the first year. I built a website for them and they were able to uh take donations on the website, and they were wondering how they were gonna connect, so they had some leadership changes, so I was able to uh bring that event back to life. And then when that ended early 2016, after Christmas and the holidays and everything, I wanted to carry on that community connection. So that's when I started Hendo.today in early 2016. And uh Xavier kind of came on board. We uh did a milkshake social with the uh I met him at uh the upstairs on Mike's on Maine, and we were interviewing uh Miss North Carolina. It was uh like North Carolina beauty pageant, and that was kind of an interesting event. And then we uh We did a toy run. We did a we did the toy run. I had uh I had uh a couple uh city uh videos I did with uh the police, the fire, and also public works, and uh Xavier came along with me and helped me with uh the ride-alongs with the police and the toy run, and you know he helped me uh just you know bring all the equipment in and set everything up, and we did an interview with the the police chief who was then Herbert Blake, and gotta tell a story.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Oh, sorry. Go ahead. So we were doing uh a ride-along with a police officer, and this police officer, she was I guess just scoping out homeless people and just kind of getting them to move. And it was it's funny because I don't I don't know, I guess it was early in the morning. I remember I'm in the back of this police car. I'm in the back. So that's where the the people that get arrested are. And I'm sleeping while he's doing all this. I'm filming her driving the car.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

But you can't get out. They're like, You okay? I'm just like Michael's like, we picked him up. I was like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

They actually were calling me to get arrested. They're teaching me a lesson.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

But it's amazing. But it this has evolved. I mean, by the way, you have 17,000 followers on on Facebook now, and I know you have multiple platforms, right? Instagram, YouTube. Oh, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Uh most of them are on Facebook, though. I I kind of use Facebook and target it up, target marketed, and I would, you know, when I roll out a new video or I'd start, I'd run an ad, and then I just go and invite everyone that was involved in that in that uh liking or commenting. I'd invite them to like the page. That's how I I built that. Organically. Or organically, yeah. But also with some uh paid advertising, too.

The Craft Of Social Media Storytelling

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

So, but you you again, let's talk about the storytelling aspect of what you what what you do and why you do. And again, you specifically for the nonprofits, you're you're helping uh share their story.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

I I love the story aspect part of it. I love the uh you know, I love the intro with the hook, and I love to have the the hero's journey. And the hero's journey is, you know, sometimes, you know, like Xavier, you know, he falls asleep in the back of the police car. So he's not always, you know, he doesn't, he's a he's not always a hero, but then he comes, he comes along. This is you know, a decade later, and that and now he's you know, he's always there to you know help. And and we come together as a as a friend, because one of the things that we're both focused on is increasing our making ourselves better. So, so he likes to, he's trying to be a better salesman, and and I'm trying to be a better cameraman. So so like yesterday we're walking around and and I'm following him with uh the gimbal and centering up on him and everything to be a better cameraman, and then he's selling and uh and and then we just kind of critique each other, like hey, you probably do this better if you sell this like this, or or you could probably center this up better, and we can you know maybe create a parallax effect. So so he kind of helps me brainstorm. That's why we have a connection, because you know, one of the things that I'm passionate about is always becoming a better better at my abilities, because there's so many different things.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

There's you know there's lighting, there's uh audio, there's framing, there's you know, what you can do with what you what you can do and what you've done with media is a great tool. It's you know what you're doing is what Noah's saying about uh people's stories. Yeah, yesterday you were helping me try to get better in front of the camera because we think media is gonna help real estate agents.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Ultimate ultimately we think that we could we could create better videos and we're follow you know, we're going to all these different YouTube videos and we're looking at what what seems to work, what what hooks, you know, changing directions, you know, having a camera up up above and then went to the side and then that way, you know, because people I think now are more distracted and than ever on social media. So you have to kind of hook them within the first three to six seconds, or they're gonna keep on you know, scrolling along and and go on to something else. So you so it's kinda and you know, we have uh a benefit as far as being local, so that people tend to stop for a second and give you a couple seconds if you're local because they're oh wow, this is local. And then it's but you still want to keep it fresh and keep it interesting. Because if you do one thing cool, they're like, oh wow, that's cool. If you do two things cool, oh like oh that's cool, like three or four times like, oh, he's cool. We you know, then they start to follow your content, and that's one of the things I love about social media is you kind of you get to demonstrate, and sometimes it it goes viral and it works really well, and other times it it falls flat. And and and at first I thought you know I'd promote myself and be very self-promoting, and and I came to realize like, hey, you know, it's about the community, and that's what really kind of connected and and build the following was being about the community, and also you know, having the heart with the community, especially you know, through through uh some of the some of the things we went through, like Hurricane Helene, we had to have uh connect with the community about you know, this gas station is open, and you can get you know the grocery stores open here, and you know, there's a long line, and just kind of let people know and give them the courage to uh go out and get what they need to get and after after uh such an event.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

That's fantastic. And noah, where uh you introduced me to Michael and Hendo uh.com is uh is through one of your listings, a beautiful home in Saluda. And the photography and what you did there, Michael, was just breathtaking.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

It was beautiful. Stunning. You can check it out. 1072 Corsica Lane in Saluda, phenomenal listening by Patty on our team. I gotta go back though,

The Ecusta Trail Documentary Preview

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Michael. You're also doing a documentary. Uh is okay to we and we by the way. Oh, certainly I want to. Well, we just have a short, short window here, and we're certainly gonna have more conversations, but um talk about the documentary.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

I'm working on a documentary on the acoustaca trail, and perfect. I plan on having it about the uh history of the acoustic trail with some old pictures from the barber collection at the library, and also uh some narrations about the history, about the about the social hub of the acoustic trail, and also some of the political power players that kind of got it rolling, and and some of the people who did so much, uh, you know, like the uh conserving Carolina or the Friends of Acosta Trail and and how they you know played a role, and some of the local politicians who helped get us going and why it's so important for the community. And even if there's ever a need for a railroad, all that land will be cleared and ready for a railroad. That's you know, that's the great asset of that of that community. Plus, you know, give so many people place to run, exercise, walk their dog, and come to a meeting point. You know, you go down to the Acosta uh market or you go down to Trailside Brewing Company. People love to come down there, and there's campfires out there in the evening, it's so beautiful. And it's a great it's a great thing, it's a great asset for our community and for the people that come into our community as tourists or as new residents who would be looking for a house. That's a great asset for this community.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

Absolutely, and where it's headed to to Brevard, North Carolina, all the way from city to city. Wish we had more time.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

We're gonna have to have Michael back.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

We really are. Uh Noah, thank you so much for introducing us. We have a certificate for you, Michael, that uh that Noah just handed you, uh, our Hometown Hero certificate. Yeah, I'm gonna show that on camera. Thank you. So thank you so much, Noah. Uh, remind us how to get in touch with the George Real Estate Group.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Certainly. And again, it's a privilege to sponsor the Hometown Hero Series. Call the George Real Estate Group at 828-393-0134.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

And join us each Friday morning if you have a nomination for one of our Hometown Hero selections. Please get in touch with us here at WHKP and join us each Friday morning for the George Real Estate Group. Hometown Hero. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134

Hometown Hero Recognition And Next Steps

SPEAKER_04 16:35

or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 A.M. or stream online at WHKP.com. 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.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Maybe the house 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 rite-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 realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.