Living in Big Canoe: Part Time to Full Time
Ring, Ring..’Hello, I’m looking for a Cute Big Canoe cabin for the weekends and saw a few on your website. Can we come up to take a look at them?”
This is very similar to the first calls I get from customers looking for Big Canoe homes. It often starts with the weekender. My customers are very Internet savvy and usually have a list ready before we even get in the car to look. The homes in Big Canoe range from 150K all the way to the 2 millions, but a nice weekend home in Big Canoe can easily be found under $300K. This is when we start to run into a grey area in our definition of weekender vs full timer.
The best way to start to explain Big Canoe is grasping the concept of 8,000 acres filled with homes, waterfalls, lakes, amenities, and trails. In other words, Big Canoe isn’t just a clever name. We have many different neighborhoods here that range from 25 minutes to the gate to a quick 2 minute drive. When I meet my house hunters I make sure they have a map of Big Canoe and before we ever look at a house I try to take them on a village and amenity tour and show them some views. I answer all the questions I can regarding amenity prices, grocery stores, community events, and Big Canoe in general. After that we revisit the list that they sent and take a tour of their chosen homes. Lots of oohhs and Ahhsare heard while driving to our destinations. I’m tickled because I can almost predict the point (usually after the 3rd house) when they start asking me questions about what it is like living full time in Big Canoe. The weekender home is now a potential full time home. That’s when I bring out the full time home list I secretly prepared just in case. But the big question is “Can I move to Big Canoe and continue to work in Atlanta?”. In other words “Can I have a Full-Time Weekender?”. (I love a good oxymoron!)
Commuting to the greater Atlanta area is not as tough as it sounds. A good portion of the drive is on low volume country roads where you can sip a cup of coffee and listen to the news. Atlanta is going to have traffic whether or not you move to Big Canoe. An extra 20 minutes really won’t make a difference when you live full time where most people only get to vacation. With the downsizing trend in effect the new Full-Timer is taking on a different persona with a much better price. Many people are willing to trade house size for house quality, efficiency, and quality of life. Smaller homes take less time to clean and that time saved can be spent lounging on a screened porch watching the clouds drift over the mountains. All of the lots here are naturally landscaped so moving to Big Canoe eliminates the need for lawn maintenance leaving your weekends wide open. (Do I hear cheers out there?)
Whether you want to upsize or downsize, the Big Canoe Community has a neighborhood for you. Several professionals live here and commute to Atlanta because they simply enjoy the down time that takes place once they pull through the gates and drive through an emerald forest of hemlocks. Can you live full time in Big Canoe and still work in Atlanta? Yes, you can!
~Karin
Upper Falls in Big Canoe
