Choosing Joy After Loss

Interest rates are climbing, people are predicting a crash, and yet homes are still selling across Henderson County. We break down what we’re actually seeing on the ground in the Hendersonville real estate market: rates in the mid-sixes to high sixes, inventory hovering around four to five months, and demand that has stayed surprisingly strong over the past year. If you’re buying or selling in Western North Carolina, we talk about the factors that matter most right now, including price point, condition, location, and why having a steady guide can keep you from making an expensive emotional decision. 

We also share takeaways from a recent conversation with a high-volume local builder focused on attainable new construction. Plenty of folks assume building a home is out of reach, but we dig into how systems, scale, and a clear mission can make new homes possible without sacrificing quality. If you’re comparing new construction versus existing homes, or thinking about your next move in Flat Rock, Hendersonville, or beyond, this part will help you ask better questions. 

Then the show turns personal with our Hometown Hero guest, Barbara Bothe. Her story moves from a chance late-night airport meeting to the unthinkable reality of becoming a widow overnight after 41 years of marriage, followed by a determined rebuild: short-term rentals, Airbnb rooms, community leadership, and even a small rescue-animal farm on Little Mountain that comes with real lessons about tending what you’ve built. Her closing mindset lands hard and clear: happiness happens, but joy is a choice. 

If this gave you a new lens on real estate and on resilience, subscribe for more, share the episode with a friend in Western North Carolina, and leave us a review. What part of the market or Barbara’s story hit home for you?

Transcript

Ten Years On WHKP

SPEAKER_02 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 1005 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. 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. It's 8 45 on Friday morning, and that is always a pleasure to gather round the microphones at WHKP and bring you the George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Salute. And

Builders Talk Attainable New Homes

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Noah is with us this morning to catch us up on the real estate world. You had a very interesting show here yesterday on the radio.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

We did, and again, thankful to be here every Friday morning sponsoring the Hometown Hero Series. And we've been doing our radio program here since 2011, every Thursday on WHKP uh Thursday, right after the 10 o'clock news hour. And we love sharing positive stories and positive news about the real estate market and updates. And we had 2020 builders with us yesterday, and they do about a hundred homes a year, one of the larger uh builders in in the Western North Carolina, and their mission is about helping people build their future, and it's about attainable housing. And because of their volume and their systems and and their vision, they they are making an impact in the community. And it was a wonderful interview when we podcast that. So that's on our podcast. People can listen to that. But it is possible. People have this perception it's not possible to to build their home and and they have attainable new construction and and without sacrificing quality, which is absolutely huge.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Yeah, I was very impressed with uh those guests yesterday. And of course, uh I bet you've got open houses scheduled this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Am I right? We do. We have a number of open houses this weekend, and again, you can find that on our social media, Facebook and Instagram. You can see our open houses we have this weekend, some wonderful offerings and wonderful properties available. Uh a number in Flat Rock and some in Hendersonville, some wonderful properties that that you can come out and check out this weekend. And again, go to our Facebook and Instagram and be sure to subscribe to our podcast. We share all of our all of our radio shows. But just a quick quick snapshot, because we have an exciting conversation this morning with our special guests, and you know, the market continues to

Rates Rise While Demand Holds

SPEAKER_01 2:47

move. This is interesting. The interest rates have been going up, and they're in the mid-sixes, maybe closer to the high sixes. And we've still had more have had more demand in the last 12 months than the previous 12 months. Inventory levels are still hovering around that four to five months of inventory. So it's it in and the price points, you know, your price point matters. It could whether you're technically a buyer's market or seller's market, but the overall demand in Henderson County is is up. We've had over a hundred more homes sold in Henderson County in the last 12 months versus the previous 12 months. And so there's this, you know, the inventory levels, the sky is not falling. I guess that's a the you know, people are saying the sky's falling, and that's not true. If you price your home right, if it's the condition and the location, all those factors go together, and having a guide and having a professional that can guide you through it and navigate through it, homes are absolutely still selling.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Get us in touch with the George Real Estate Group, Noah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Absolutely. You can call us directly at 828-393-0134. We have a very dangerous location for an office right next to the bakery, Hubba Hubba Barbecue, Campfire Grill, our friends at the Wrinkled Egg as well. So stop by and say hello at our office. We are there and we'd love to meet you. You can call us, you can visit us in person, you can schedule an appointment. However, we can help you. Uh, we'd love to connect. And again, if you're thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate or a 1031 exchange or residential or commercial or career in real estate, we'd love to have the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Well,

Meet Hometown Hero Barbara Both

SPEAKER_02 4:16

thank you so much for sponsoring our hometown hero series. Barbara Both is in the studio with us. Good morning, Barbara.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Good morning, Randy.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

How are you? I'm doing great. I hope you are.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm gonna give you a quick correction. It's both. It's a long O. Oh. Absolutely. But you know what? You can call me anything except Barb.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Oh. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yeah, absolutely. I'm super happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Well, you you and I have a fun story. Uh we met uh a couple months ago, and the the weather uh was really challenging, and you and I happened to be uh waiting for our family members, but the the the the joke we've said is we met at a bar at one in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

And we did.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

It's not a joke. It's true. Noah came into work for one day, and so you I met this lady at the bar. An amazing person at the bar at one in the morning. Uh we better explain that, Noah.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Both of our reputations were staked.

The 1 AM Airport Bar Story

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, so yeah, we were um both we were both of us were waiting for a flight coming in from Orlando, and I was watching it on flight tracker or flight aware or whatever it is, and you could see it circling the airport and circling the airport. And we were at the marathon, right? Yeah. Right there by the airport. And and it was starting to get more and more people in there as planes were being delayed. And then I looked and all of a sudden it said the flight I was waiting on was going to McGee Tyson in Knoxville. And I stood up and I looked around and I said, Anybody waiting for a legion out of Orlando? And Noah, you were sitting right at the table next to me almost. And he said, Yeah. And we just started laughing and talking, and his aunt was on the plane, and my uh one of my extra kids, as I call him, was on the plane. We connected them to the city. And they met on the plane. They met on the plane.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

In Knoxville. And we were trying to navigate all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Absolutely. But then we just start talking, and it's like, well, well, how do we not know each other? Because we know all the same people. I mean, I'm the active in the chamber, you're active in the chamber, we're big in the community. And somehow or other, our paths crossed. They finally crossed, and it's the best origin story. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

And by the way, the bar wasn't even open. No, no, that's true. That's true. And again, but the as I learned and heard about your story, I th I heard it, I think it's just remarkable. And you you have a remarkable story. And I thank you. And I wanted to invite you to come on and share about the different things you're doing. And and maybe for some context, your your story getting here to Hendersonville and what you've been doing, and then the work you're doing now is amaz is amazing. Yes, it is. It's amazing. And so that's I wanted to sh sh share with our listeners about what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, well, let me start off by saying I'm an extreme extrovert, as you couldn't tell. Um, so I've got my fingers in a lot of things. So, yeah,

Widowhood, Faith, And Resilience

SPEAKER_00 7:04

just real briefly, I was married to the love of my life for 41 years. In 2001, excuse me, 2002, we moved from Atlanta to Henderson County. And I will say that as I would fix supper each evening in our condo, not knowing anybody anywhere, I would listen to the local radio station, which was WHKP, and the show was Chuck in the Afternoon.

unknown 7:27

Good for you!

SPEAKER_02 7:28

I absolutely fell in. Thank you for the plug.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

I absolutely fell in love with Hendersonville just from listening to that show as I would fix dinner each day, right? So I kind of it gave me a real opportunity. WHKP gave me a real opportunity to really learn about my community that I had moved into, which was great. So we established a home, we established a church, all of that. Um, and uh unfortunately, well, let me back up. My husband was a physician, and we treated patients with chronic pain and opioid addiction, and it was our life's passion. Unfortunately, in June of 2021, he suffered an aneurysm. So I woke up one morning happily married at 41 years and went to bed that night, an extremely surprised widow.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Thank you. And woke up the next morning and said, Well, what's next? And Brian and I had a pact that from early, early in our marriage, that whoever survived the other would live their best life. He used to joke that if I died, he would take a date to the funeral if we still had kids. Wow. So I do him no honor by curling up in a corner. Right. I do God no honor by curling up in a corner and not living anymore. And so I set out to live my best life. My life doesn't look anything like it did on June 6th, 2021, I have to tell you. But um it's it's a good life, it's a story of resilience. Um and um it's it's God, God has definitely led me.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, your faith.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You know, um Philippians 4 7 uh talks about having a peace that passes all understanding. I've known that verse my whole life. I didn't understand it. Now I really understand it because God has given me peace through everything. So I had, I ran Brian's medical practice, so that was kaput now. So

Airbnb Rentals As A Lifeline

SPEAKER_00 9:10

um I already had a short-term rental business. I have a uh three-bedroom, two-batroom house on my property out in Ettawa that I've been renting out since 2007. I thought, well, okay, so there's some source of income. Because you gotta think about it. I was running his practice, income died the day he died. And um, I decided to start renting rooms out in my house and because Airbnb lets you do that. It's m it's the original Airbnb standard that they actually went away from and came back to. Very comfortable for people in Europe and Asia, it's very comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

You're very normal.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Absolutely. So I started renting rooms out and was able to support myself that way, but I just can't hold still. So I um helped uh um Natural Geodata get their operations up and started, and then I did business development for a business coach out of Black Mountain, business development for Paul Davis Restoration, and last fall um I decided to go all in on my business. So I have um nine and a half acres, which after Brian died, I found was really hard to get it all mowed. It's a lot. It's a lot. Now, now half of it's wooded. But I was like, I, you know, the cost of diesel was going up, and I didn't want to touch the retirement funding, and I'm kind of an independent um stubborn person.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

You can never tell that.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

And so I thought I thought, what could I do?

A Rescue Farm With Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_00 10:33

And my brother, who breeds miniature cows down in South Carolina, said, Well, why don't I send you a couple of little cows to mow your grass? Okay, great. I didn't have a fence, but I live on the side of Little Mountain, and I decided that I had a farm. And I started telling the world that I had a farm, and I call it the farm on Little Mountain. Well, within a few months I had a fence. I I I really believe in I'm very much a Bible-toting person, and I believe in asking for what you want. I mean, James 4-2 says, you have not because you asked not. And I said, God, I I think I want a farm. And um the fence came, and within a few months, actually, some sheep that I wasn't expecting showed up. And then I got the cows. And I gotta tell you, the one problem with all that theory is that they do not mow in a straight line. I don't know why. They are all over the place. So I kind of still have to run the tractor around. But I ended up with a couple of unexpected miniature horses, and so I use those to bring people to my business.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Well, talk about the vision for the animals in the farm and what you're doing with that.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So all of my animals are rescues. And uh very, very sadly, um, two of them um died this spring. Um, my my two of my favorite miniature cows because um you know, we weeds come in if we don't watch our businesses, um, things come in and we don't pay attention to them, and uh there's consequences. And I had a wild cherry tree that I didn't even know about that had a branch that was leaning over the fence. My my three cows, but all three were eating off of it. And I found two of them dead in the field, which broke me. Fortunately, we were able to save the third one. So anybody out there who's looking who happens to have a miniature zeboo that needs rescuing, I'd really like to have them.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

But how about I mean, but how about that lesson for life, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Absolutely, absolutely. We have to tend to our business. And and that's so true in our personal lives as well as in our businesses. There are disruptors that come along out of left field that we weren't looking for. And if we're not paying attention to our businesses or our marriages and our relationships. So that's that's my main focus. But I do other stuff. I'm the admin for the Henderson County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Say that fast three times.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

But you've all it's always been, it seems like even b before your husband passed, you guys were involved, right? Yeah. You you were giving back, you're volunteering, you're very involved in the community, but it this has been like exponential now.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

So exponential is right. So with the practice, we were so focused on the medical aspect of helping people reclaim their lives from opioid addiction and chronic pain, because those are two of the most marginalized populations we have, right? Um and so we were really inwardly focused on that, and then our church. Well, when COVID hit, being the extrovert that I am, I had to find other ways to feed myself because now we were doing everything on Zoom. And so I had friends in the chamber and whatnot, so I joined the Hendersonville Chamber or Henderson County Chamber of Commerce. What an amazing move that was.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Great people.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Oh, they're amazing people. And um, they welcomed me in. And while I knew some of them already, I think of Ed Touch with ETS Networks, who I'd been networking with for years, who kind of brought me into the chamber. I was meeting them on Zoom. We were slowly starting to meet each other. You need me to stop reading. No, no, no, no. I'll talk all the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Well, real quick to have you come back by the time.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

They bring me in. They brought me in, they supported me when Brian died. I I rallied around me. They rallied around me, and I can't believe I've talked this long.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

It's okay. This is okay. That's why we had you. That's why we invited.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Will you let me come back?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Absolutely. I have 30 minutes on Thursdays, and you and I are gonna have to have a longer conversation.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Oh my gosh. Yeah, this is so much fun, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Well, we're so grateful to have you, and again, thank you. I mean, again, you are giving back to the community. You took your pain of in what you experienced with your husband's loss, and then have given back and poured back into the community.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Absolutely. I've if I can leave you with one last thing. Please do. Every morning I choose joy. Happiness happens to us. Joy is a choice.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

And I choose joy every morning, and that's the way life is to be lived.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

And another great lady on you in Asheville had uh the cliche. Don't postpone joy. That's absolutely right. Yeah. Thank you for joining us, Barbara Both. Yes, you got it. You know, always next Friday we salute the Grand Marshal of the uh 2026 Apple Festival. Here on Hometown Heroes.

Next Week Tease And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_02 15:22

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 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 AM, 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.

Rightsizing And The Next Chapter

SPEAKER_01 16:11

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 rise-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.