Local real estate agents say it starts outside.

“The outside should be very tidy,” Wendy Reddy, associate broker for Dawson Ford Garbee & Company Realtors, said. “This is a great time to clean up wooded areas because all of the foliage is off. The yard should be immaculate. Get all that junk done. Get it all cleaned up.”

Billy Flint, of Flint Property Group, agreed.

“You definitely don’t want leaves on the porch and steps leading to the house,” he said. “And get the gutters cleaned. That’s a biggie,” he said.

If you still have holiday lights hanging from the gutters, remove them.

“Some people leave their Christmas decorations up too long after Christmas and that can be a deterrent,” Josh Ballengee, of Century 21, said. “Once the holidays are over … you want to get everything down.”

A splash of color can also increase curb appeal. Reddy suggests planting cold-hardy pansies or ornamental cabbages in flower beds or pots. Heather Bonawitz, owner of Becoming Designs, said a “beautiful wreath on the door” and “nice doormats” can make a positive impression.

Also, Bonawitz said, even though you might not be using it in the middle of the winter, “make sure your patio furniture is at least sitting nicely. You might not have the umbrella up but don’t have it looking like it’s in storage.”

Tina Friar of The Realty Group said when she and her husband put their house on the market, he installed outdoor lighting so people could see the property after dark. The woman who eventually bought the house “loved that outdoor lighting,” Friar said.

“She kept looking at the house after it was dark. Outdoor lighting in the winter makes a lot of sense. I think it absolutely helped us in the sale of our home,” she explained.

Once you’ve gotten would-be buyers inside, experts say the house needs to appeal to all of the senses. Light a fire in the fireplace or turn on gas logs, put a fresh coat of paint on the walls or new pillows on the sofa, bake some cookies for the open house.

Reddy cautioned against going crazy with the air fresheners, however.

“[Don’t] do too many Plug-ins,” she said, referring to a popular household air freshener. “Sometimes we go in [a house] and it’s overwhelming. Just use a nice, light scent.”

And although you want visitors to be comfortable and not, as Reddy put it, “freezing their tootsies off,” don’t turn the heat up too high. Flint suggests setting the thermostat at about 62 degrees. That “will be really comfortable,” he said. “Too warm is the bigger mistake.”

Most importantly, however, the house needs to be clean, inviting and bright. Although people often want to “hunker down and close those curtains” in the winter, Flint said, “for a showing you want to have as much [natural] light as possible.”

Windows also need to be clean, Ballengee said, along with carpets.

“In the wintertime, you have to combat the dark side by having everything crisp and clean as possible,” he said, adding that the house needs to be even “more inviting” than usual.

Bringing the outdoors in can also make a house more appealing. Kelly Mortemousque, a local home stager and former real estate agent, suggests displaying branches, leaves, greenery and potted rosemary bushes or other herbs.

Orchids, which can be purchased at local grocery stores, “always look great on a table or countertop,” she said. “Anything that looks live in the house. Live house plants, but not old house plants that are out of control.”

If you don’t know where to start, professional home stagers like Bonawitz and Mortemousque can help. For about $50 an hour, they help reduce clutter, organize and “redesign” homes, using the furniture and accessories that are already there. The goal, as Bonawitz puts it, is “creating an emotion in the house so someone else wants to live there.”

Reddy has recommended her clients use home stagers.

“It does make a huge difference,” she said. “They are worth the money, especially for someone who’s more analytical in their approach and doesn’t care about those things. It’s very subliminal and it’s just amazing what those stagers can do by moving a few items around the room.”

And what of this notion that spring is the best time to sell your house? Reddy and others are quick to dispel that theory.

“Winter is not a bad time to sell. … It’s a great time to sell,” she said.

First of all, she said, a lot of people buy into that idea and take their houses off the market, so there are fewer houses available and greater odds that yours will sell. Secondly, she added, “anyone who’s shopping at this time [of year] is a pretty serious buyer.”

Friar agreed.

“I like buyers at this time of year because they’re not just putting their toes in the water,” she said. “They are folks that are going to be purchasing a home.

Over time, the 100-acre farm was sold off. Virginia Baptist Hospital was built there in 1924, as was Oakwood Country Club, in 1914. Eventually, Oakwood added a golf course, a pool and tennis courts.

But like the Clopton farm, Oakwood also changed over time. It suffered financial woes, and in 2008, the golf course was closed. Two years later, it was sold. Now, the golf course is beginning a new life as The Preserve at Oakwood.

The Preserve at Oakwood is a 57-acre subdivision that will include custom homes and cottages and attached units called “villas.” About 20 acres will remain undeveloped. Architecturally, the goal is to build something that looks like it’s always been there, where the houses appear plucked from the surrounding neighborhood.

“I often tell someone, when we’re walking a lot, to picture something that would look nice sitting next to that beautiful [Oakwood] clubhouse,” said Billy Flint, of Flint Property Group, The Preserve’s exclusive real estate broker.

“It doesn’t have to mimic it but anything that would look good on Link Road or Peakland Place or next to the clubhouse. Not just Arts and Crafts but a very period look that’s popular throughout the country and will ensure that it’s a very beautiful neighborhood for years to come.”

Before the first shovel breaks ground, building plans must go through what developer Bryant Hare described as a “fairly strict” architectural review process. Homeowners may use any builder they choose, he said, “all we ask is that they approve the plans before they start.”

There are also covenants regarding, among other things, sheds, fences, vehicles, animals and even yard sales. Window units are prohibited and owners are asked to “use discretion” when “placing permanent yard ornaments, exercise equipment, play structures and the like.”

As restrictive as it sounds, Flint said, covenants “are always for a reason and when they’re done right, they enhance property values and the beauty of a neighborhood. They’re not meant to be onerous.”

The project is currently in Phase One, which includes 12 lots priced between $79,000 and $135,000. Most are more than a half-acre in size. The largest—2 .6 acres—went under contract in mid-November. Flint called the sale a “good sign” about where the project is going.

Phase Two includes seven cottages in the 1,800- to 2,600-square-foot range and 10 villas, ranging from 1,500 to 2,200 square feet. Phase Three will include what The Preserve’s Web site describes as “an eclectic mix of cottages and villas.”

Once a house is built on the property, Flint said, Phase One buyers can expect a $375,000 to $500,000 investment and Phase Two and Three, $250,000 to $425,000.

By mid-November, three Phase One lots had been sold and two more were under contract or expected to come under contract soon. An open house around the same time resulted in several reservations being made for Phase Two cottages and villas.

“We feel good about it to this point,” Hare said. “There are few real estate developments that have started in the last 12 months with the economy the way it is and we feel good about it. That’s why we’re doing it in phases instead of building the whole road system and selling lots. We’re biting off as much as we can chew and doing it in stages.”

When asked who he sees living at The Preserve, Hare said, “We really want a mix,” and listed downsizing 60-somethings, active singles in their 40s and 50s and young couples who “haven’t started their families yet and like the idea of going to the club for dinner.”

Hare said homeowners will be given a six-month membership to Oakwood Country Club. He also would like to see an arrangement with the club where residents can summon a golf cart to take them to dinner or have dinner delivered.

“I think it would be hard to believe that someone would live there and not really want to be a member,” Hare said. “It’s just one of the amenities of the development, that’s for sure.”

Sally Curtis and her husband bought two Phase One lots and plan to start construction this spring. When asked what attracted them to The Preserve, Curtis said, “Number one is the location. … My idea is that I want to be able to walk and ride my bike most places, to Kroger and to Oakwood and to visit my friends.”

They plan to build what Curtis described as a “classic bungalow.” It’ll be similar to their current home in Forest but instead of being awash in a sea of brick colonials, they’ll be part of an architecturally diverse neighborhood.

“That’s what we really want,” she said. “The neighborhood we’re in, we love our neighbors, we love our neighborhood, but it’s all brick colonials, except for our house. The downtown Boonsboro area, the architecture is just beautiful.

“It’s very diverse and you have some colonials, but you have bungalows and Craftsman-style houses and Greek Revivals. I don’t know what all the styles are but no two houses look alike. I think that’s how it’s going to be in The Preserve also.”

“Buyers are very pleasantly surprised at how far modular homes have come,” Keenan Nuckols, representative from Clayton Homes off of Wards Road in Lynchburg, said. “They are just as proud of their homes as any other traditional home, but saved money and were able to maybe go larger or buy more land.”

Nuckols said in the past year Clayton Homes, whose primary customer base is first-time homeowners, has seen a 5 percent increase in sales of modular homes with one of the primary benefits to purchasing this type of home being the cost. According to Nuckols, the price per square foot is approximately $25 less than the traditional built home.

Another benefit to modular homes over traditional built ones is time. Modular homes can be built and delivered in approximately six to eight weeks, depending on size and style, as opposed to traditional built homes which can take anywhere from six to nine months—or even longer depending on the season and weather conditions.

“Our homes are built in a climate-controlled environment with many [quality control] checks and are therefore not inhibited by outside elements,” Nuckols said.

Modular homes are built to essentially the same codes as traditional “stick-built” style homes, but are made in factories, transported to jobs sites and assembled there.

“The thing about modular is that, essentially anything you can build stick-built manner can be replicated in the modular system, so we’re not limited with respect to configuration or size and dimension,” Dan Goodin, Vice President of sales and marketing at Nationwide Homes, said.

Nationwide Homes offers their buyers 130 different standard models, while also allowing buyers to customize their own design by either using the standard models or drawing ideas from a buyer’s own architectural design. Goodin said another major factor in the increase of modular homes is the use of eco-friendly resources.

“Modulars are inherently cleaner because of the way we build. These structures are high-performance. They are tighter, stronger and there is a more efficient use of material,” he said. “They have healthier air quality and all of the types of things people are looking for in a ‘green’ house.”

With the recent economic decline, many local real estate companies have had to not only downsize, but also adjust their marketing focus while many others said they have chosen to focus on fulfilling the customer’s demands of making affordable homes.

“Clayton Homes has done well with the decline because we have always built and always will build affordable homes,” Nuckols said.

He said his company has also found success in offering a trade-in program for all of its buyers.

“Buyers can use their current multi-sectional as a trade-in to buy a modular home, which has been very successful,” he said.

Bennie’s Homes, off of Wards Road in Rustburg, Virginia, has turned to the Internet to push sales and find new clients.

“We work our leads very well, and collect information from our clients,” Rob Rutherford, owner of Nelson Homes, Inc. and Bennie’s Homes, said. “The whole idea is get them to come into a house. They’re not like your mom’s doublewide; they’re just as good, if not better than a site-built house.”

In the past year, Rutherford said his company has seen a 10 percent increase in sales, and attributes this to their techniques and the professional quality of their homes.

“We’re coming out as a lean, mean building machine,” he said.

Rutherford said his customer base is made up of retired people who have returned to the local community as well as 35- to 40-year-olds, and a few first time homebuyers. His company manages several websites to attract its customer base and focuses on keeping buyers informed by uniquely providing them with streaming videos of the progress of their homes.

“We are here to help people figure out how to do this fairly complicated process of putting a home on their site,” he said. “You can go to our job site and see some of those streaming videos that have been recorded.”

Goodin said Nationwide Homes took a huge hit during the economic downturn, but has adjusted with the times and is working in order to remain in business.

“Back in 2005 and 2006, we had five production lines in three states building our homes and now we’re only running a single production line here in Martinsville,” Goodin said. “This has been a devastating time for any company, but we’ve faired a little better than most. Many of our competitors have had to close their doors.”

Nationwide Homes weathered the economic blow and in the past year, Goodin said they have actually started to increase production once again with high hopes for the housing market’s future.

“We expect to ride the rising tide up to continue to open up our capacity,” he said. “We see a steady increase in the market and most people who follow housing are saying the same.”

Goodin said the modular homes remain a smaller part of the real-estate business but he sees the percentage of modular homes sales increasing in the future due to raised awareness of the product.

Nationwide Homes has also begun a side-market of smaller modular homes called “eco-cottages” for more backyard and recreational style structures. They have also recently introduced a new line of “care-cottages” that are smaller homes for independent home-healthcare situations.

For more information on local modular homes and the company’s mentioned above, visit their websites at: www.nelsonhomesva.com, www.claytonhomes.com and www.nation-widehomes.com.

The question, however, is not so much whether you can buy and renovate a house. Interest rates are historically low and between home improvement stores, TV and the Internet, some people can learn to do just about anything. The real question is whether or not you can turn around and sell it in what local real estate agents are calling a “buyer’s market.”

“It’s not a real great time [for flipping houses],” Bob Sherman, an associate with RE/MAX 1st Olympic Realtors, said. “You have to be very careful. If you can’t sell it, you’re stuck. It’s a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market.”

Sherman says deals are out there, but you have to know what you’re doing. Potential “flippers” need to know what kinds of repairs they’re capable of making and be confident that they can sell the house quickly.

“Not a lot of people are taking those risks right now,” he said.

Don Pendleton, with Consensus Real Estate, agreed.

“There’s some expectation that they’re not going to be sold quickly,” he said. “A few years ago, when the market was appreciating in the three to five percent-a-year range, there were a lot of people who were doing that. Right now, it’s cooled off a little bit.”

It’s not that you can’t flip a house right now, but local real estate agents recommend that people are financially secure before embarking on such a project. You can’t need the money so badly that you’ll be sunk if things don’t work out the way you planned.

“I’ve got one investor now, he bought [a house] dirt cheap and ended up putting too much money into it,” Larry Richmond, an agent with Mark A. Dalton and Company, said. “We’re having a tough time selling it right now. He’s certainly not going into foreclosure or bankruptcy. His worse-case scenario is not that he’s not going to pay his bills. He’ll just rent it out.”

On the subject of renting, Richmond says it is a good time to buy investment property.

“Now is the time to buy property and sit on it a little bit and wait,” he said. “Get some rentals. It’s a great time to do that. Prices are cheap; there are plenty of people that are still looking to rent, with the colleges, with Liberty [University]. Lynchburg is a pretty good rental market.”

One possible roadblock to buying rental property, however, whether you’re buying it through a real estate agent or via the auction method, is that you need cash. Lenders consider investors more of a risk than people who are buying a home to live in, Sherman says. They may require a 20 to 25 percent down payment and interest rates are also higher for investment properties.

If buying at auction, in addition to having your financing worked out beforehand, you’ll need to be ready to pay a buyer’s premium−usually 10 percent in Virginia−and 10 percent down.

“If you don’t have much money, you can’t buy rental property,” Sherman said. “You have to have cash. It’s hard to get started in the investment property business.”

If you’re buying a foreclosure to live in, however, it can be easier to get financing.

“There are great plans out there for buyers if they’re going to be owner occupied,” Sherman said, adding that low-interest loans are available sometimes requiring little or no down payment.

Richmond, who in mid-September had two foreclosures under contract, says he works with more buyers than sellers and has seen people get good deals.

“Who I’ve been selling foreclosures to are first-time homebuyers who don’t have a dream of flipping it in three to six months,” he said. “They’re fixing it up as they go and living in it. It’s a perfect time to do that now. There are deals out there.”

As an example, Richmond said he recently sold a “really nice house” to a local couple for $189,000. It was a foreclosure and appraised for about $240,000.

“They’re doing appraisals pretty conservative these days,” he said. “I’d like to think that’s a good example of some good buys out there.”

“My first thought was, ‘The market is doing some screwy things.’ I lost about 60 percent of the value of my 401(k) and that really ticked me off,” Malec, a 49-year-old Staples manager, said. “That was my retirement money and I just didn’t feel comfortable leaving my money in the stock market.”

So Malec sold his Staples stock, stopped investing in his 401(k) and started buying foreclosed houses. Today, he owns five houses in Lynchburg and two in Richmond with a partner. He lives in one of the Lynchburg homes with his family and rents out the rest. When he gets ready to retire, he plans to sell them.

“Real estate is a hard asset,” Malec said. “It’s like gold. Even when the economy goes to hell, you still need houses. You may not make any money, but you won’t lose your money.”

Malec used a real estate agent to buy his houses and says he wouldn’t do it any other way. He said some agents, including the one he worked with on his first purchase, even specialize in foreclosures. Foreclosures are also listed on the Multiple Listing Service, usually as “bank-owned” properties, and on some bank Web sites.

Local real estate broker, Peggy McCall, says the process of buying a foreclosure is much the same as buying property that’s not bank-owned. But with a foreclosure, while the sale is contingent on financing, buyers need a pre-approval letter from their mortgage company or, if using cash, a proof-of-funds letter from their bank or brokerage firm.

“We can’t even submit an offer unless we have that,” she said.

Malec, who considers himself an amateur, says that one thing he encourages people to do is hire a home inspector. The $200 or $300 it costs is “worth every penny,” he said, adding you should also look at the house with a “critical eye” and estimate rehab costs.

“That’s the real key to whether you can make it work or not,” he said. “You can buy a great house for $20,000 but if it needs $80,000 in rehab, you aren’t going to make any money.”

Foreclosures can also be bought at auction, either on-site or on the courthouse steps. When going these routes, the sale is not contingent on financing and buyers need to have cash or have their financing worked out beforehand. There also might be a buyer’s premium—an extra fee added to the sale price.

Mike Torrence, a partner with Torrence, Read and Forehand Auctions, is hired by banks to market and sell properties that have gone into foreclosure when buyers can no longer make payments.

He has auctioned off everything from modest homes to entire housing developments, where builders put in curb and gutter and water and sewer, and even built houses before going belly up.

“[There are] great buys for buyers in those situations,” he said.

One advantage to buying a foreclosure through an auction company, Torrence said, is that you’re guaranteed a clear title, meaning there are no surprise judgments, liens or extra mortgages. Torrence also hires a home inspector and makes their report available to prospective buyers, and schedules open houses prior to auction day.

At an auction on the courthouse steps, he said, you may be buying sight unseen, knowing no more about the house and its history than what’s contained in the legal notice that ran in the newspaper.

That’s why it’s important to do your homework and, if necessary, hire an attorney or professional title searcher to ensure you don’t get more than you bargained for.

“It takes some skill to properly search the title of a property,” Hank Creasy, a lawyer with Edmunds and Williams, said.

“It’s like a lot of things. Is this the time to be a do-it-yourselfer? A lot of people do this routinely and develop the skills and knowledge. If you’re not familiar with the land records, while the clerks [of court] are more than willing to help those that ask questions, it’s really not their job to teach someone how to do a title search. So it would be best to have someone … qualified to do that search,” he said.

A title search usually costs $150 or $200, Creasy said, adding, “Five-hundred dollars would be an expensive search.”

As for the bidding, sometimes the bank starts the bidding and sometimes the crowd does. When the bank starts, it’s often for the amount of the debt, Torrence said. When the crowd does, it’s usually for about half the value of the house, although no one expects it to be a steal.

If the bidding isn’t going the way they would like, the bank may step in and buy the house back, thinking they can try to sell it again later.

“Not to imply that there aren’t good buys out there, but nothing ridiculous,” Torrence said. “They know they can do better than $10,000 on a $100,000 house.”

When the bidding stops, wherever that is, someone will own the house, as-is.

“Do your homework,” Creasy said. “Going to bid at a foreclosure sale is a pretty serious matter with a lot of money at stake, so it should be treated like going to any other auction where real estate is being sold.”

Prospective buyers mop their brows with handkerchiefs and shirtsleeves. They mill around, inspecting the property and equipment and talking about the economy, the weather, whatever. They’re waiting for Bill Bryant, president and owner of Counts Realty and Auction Group, to say, “The auction’s on! Here we go!” and start the bidding.

The first item up for bid is five and a half acres, zoned commercial. The bidding starts at $50,000 and quickly passes 100-grand. Two men, one wearing a blue oxford and the other a sea foam green polo shirt, are going back and forth, outbidding each other.

Oxford is winning, then Sea Foam. Then Oxford, with a cell phone to his ear, nods, signifying he can do better. When the bidding reaches $135,000, Oxford has it. A bidding assistant shouts, “One-forty? How about it?” but Sea Foam doesn’t bite.

“Are we all in? All done? Last call,” Bryant says, raising his gavel and pausing for a second before slamming it down. “Sold!”

Because the property is in bankruptcy, the winning bid will have to be submitted to the bank for approval. When the final price is confirmed and accepted―which Bryant says usually happens― a real estate investor from Roanoke will be the proud owner of 5.5 acres with railroad frontage.

You don’t have to be a real estate investor to buy property at auction, but there are a few things you need to know before you bid.

“Absolute auction” means there’s no reserve price. To win, you just have to be one bid higher than the last guy.

“[It’s] definitely an advantage because everyone knows the property will be sold regardless of price,” Bryant said. “There’s no reserve, which means whatever the price is, you get it.”

When there is a reserve, Bryant explained, it’s usually because there’s a mortgage on the property or the seller needs to clear a certain amount for some reason.

Expect a buyer’s premium―usually 10 percent in Virginia―to be added to the final bid. The Mayflower Drive property had a buyer’s premium of 5 percent, making the final price $141,750. A buyer’s premium helps offset the seller’s cost of hiring auctioneers, advertising, surveying, etc., Bryant said, adding that it’s not a law but a “tradition” that started about 20 years ago.

Thoroughly inspect the property prior to the sale, or “do you due diligence,” as Bryant put it.

Charlie Watts, owner of Watts Auction Realty Appraisals, encourages prospective bidders, especially first-timers, to do their homework: hire a home or code inspector, tour the property, have a well test or perk test done.

“I tell my first-time homebuyers, ‘Go ahead and do all that before the auction so you’re not buying a pig in a poke,” he said.

On that line, if you’re the high bidder when the auctioneer yells, “Sold!” then you just bought some real estate. “What buyers need to understand is when you’re buying at auction, you’re buying ‘as-is’ and it’s your property,” Watts said. “When the gavel falls, it’s your property. There’s no backing out.”

In other words, don’t bid if you can’t put down 10 percent and close in 30 days. Work out financing, if necessary, before the auction and be ready to prove it.

“We’ve had people show up unprepared to bid, so you need to prepare yourself before sale day,” Watts said. “If you are a new buyer, they’ll want to see some kind of prequalification letter from the bank and we’ll want to see your driver’s license on sale day. Sometimes, you’ll want to see the purchase contract before sale day. Most auction companies will make that available.”

If you renege on your bid, be ready for consequences.

“You’d lose your deposit and the property would be resold at auction,” Bryant said, adding that if the property sells for less than it did in the previous auction the buyer not only loses their 10 percent deposit but is responsible for the difference in price.

After the sale, stop worrying that you paid too much; you probably didn’t.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the selling side and the buying side,” said John Haney, general manager of Higgenbotham Auctioneers International, which recently handled a sale for Oliver Kuttner, Lynchburg investor and Edison2 founder.

“The question that always goes through a buyer’s mind is, ‘Did I pay too much?’ At an auction, you know that you only paid one bid higher than what someone else did. You’re pretty much where the market is,” Haney said.

And don’t worry either about buying a million dollar mansion by accident, because you were swatting a fly or scratching your nose. It’s not likely to happen and even less likely to cause a real problem.

“I think it happens to all [auctioneers], someone waving across the crowd,” said Watts, who’s been in the business since 1998. “When that happens, most times the guy or gal in the crowd can say, ‘I was just waving’ and we can back up. Most times, it’s nothing serious but we may kid around with you and say, ‘You just purchased that.’”

A year and a half ago, Blickenstaff transitioned her company of 13 years, known as “The Lynchburg Company, Realtors” into “Blickenstaff & Company, Realtors.” In a short amount of time, this agency has made a mark in the community, due in part to a drive to build lasting relationships and credibility with their clients.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from Purdue University, Blickenstaff has a trained eye for architecture and an ability to envision and articulate a home’s potential. After moving to Lynchburg for her husband’s job, Blickenstaff struggled to find something in her field of interest. This prompted her to make a decision.

“I decided I was going to go to real estate school, and temporary turned into 34 years,” Blickenstaff said.

When she began her real estate career in 1977, the industry looked much different than it does today. In those days, shopping for real estate was an entirely different process. Without the Internet, marketing was done primarily through print, such as newspaper. There were no cell phones and lock boxes didn’t exist. She said “men would be in the front seat, women in the back” when driving around looking for houses because men were the primary decision makers.

Today, a large portion of the market is made up of female buyers, sellers and agents. When Blickenstaff began her career in real estate, she recalls that there were only about “five women agents in the entire city” in the same profession. To contrast that with the present, Blickenstaff & Company, Realtors currently employs six licensed agents, only one of whom is male.

One of the youngest agents representing the company is Lauren Habermas. Licensed in September 2007, she is blazing her own path to success, one carved out nearly three decades ago by her colleague. Habermas attributes part of her success to “making sure every part of the transaction is perfect. As a young agent, marketing and networking are huge. I work off of referrals. All of my business in the last year has been through referrals and networking.”

Blickenstaff agrees that repeat clients and referrals comprise more than 90 percent of her business. The fact that personal contacts and connections have been the agency’s primary means of gaining clientele speaks to the personal touches used to connect with each client. This personal approach gives them continued opportunities to reach new and repeat business.

At their newly renovated office in the former Bank of America building at Lynchburg’s Boonsboro Shopping Center, it is apparent that Blickenstaff and Company, Realtors, takes pride in those crucial personal touches. A beautiful foyer and waiting room greet each person who enters, making it feel like entering the home of a friend rather than the institutional feel a former bank teller’s station. Blickenstaff adores the fact that a bank vault is still in the building, which is now offset more like a closet than a money vault. Even this element adds to the charm and character of the building and shows how she sees potential for a house to become a home.

This attention to detail is not just apparent in the décor of the office, but also in each agent’s approach to their clients. It is not uncommon for Habermas to work 80 hours a week for her clients as a Realtor.

“It is about going the extra mile,” Blickenstaff and Habermas state without hesitation.

This dedication to investing in their clients is what many say makes Blickenstaff & Company, Realtors so professional, and yet, so personable.

“What makes us different from other companies is that we are small by design. You come in here and it’s a family. We keep up with [clients] long after the sale,” Blickenstaff said.

Over the years, Blickenstaff has become friends with many of the families she has served, which now often extends into multiple generations.

“We hope we are the ones that they choose. We hope that they will walk in and we will tell them about Lynchburg,” she explained.

Habermas said her favorite part of the job is “helping people—it’s the biggest purchase they will ever make.”

She says she delights in helping to turn what can be a negative experience in home searching and buying into a positive one.

As for Blickenstaff, having a client say, “Yes, I love my house. I love it. You gotta see it!” is what has kept her in this industry for more than three decades. “Knowing the families are happy” is the biggest reward she seeks from her clients, and through Blickenstaff and Company, Realtors, she and her agents get to spend each day doing just that.

“We’ve come a long way,” Baker, a former Lynchburg police officer, said. “[In 1996] we had swing blades, a push mower and a hand-me-down chainsaw.”

Yes, swing blades.

Along the way, Baker and Keith Wright, another long-time code compliance officer with the city, have worked closely with the sheriff’s office—and now with the Blue Ridge Regional Jail—to supply the manpower for what can be a hazardous job. Sure, this isn’t the rough at Augusta National, but at least the job now strikes a better balance between manpower and horsepower, as inmates are trained on self-propelled mower/bush hog equipment. Although, that’s not always a blessing.
One time, an inmate hit a steel Tonka truck and sent it flying in Baker’s direction. He saw it coming, dodged it and was left with only a scratch. Another time, a grass crew found a house in the Sandusky area that was invisible at first blush because it was set into an embankment on three sides.
Hazards aside, the inmates—non-violent offenders (ex: tardy with the child support) classified as “trustees” with special privileges—are outside. Only six, out of hundreds, are eligible for that privilege, Wright said. Even with that trust established, Baker, a city employee, is sworn by the sheriff’s office and carries a gun.
Complaints arrive on Wright’s desk every day. Sometimes, it’s a residential sanitation concern that he goes to check out. Recently, he ran a finger over a city map sectioned off with the district he’s assigned to enforce. It seemed a wonder he ever makes it back to the office with the myriad violations (and ones that will soon be violations) that popped up on the sanitation outing.
“You can’t write ‘em all up in one day,” Wright said.
As for the folks who own those properties, Wright will be sending them a letter warning that a fine awaits them if, after 10 days of being put on notice, the inmates have to be called in for the job.
Rats, snakes, non-honeybees, people, guns, knives, drugs: Each of those are reasons why the city needs the grass ordinance, Wright said. Any one of them could be hiding in the overgrowth.

“Weeds, by definition, are a public nuisance,” he said.
A Class 4 misdemeanor, being cited for long grass is not something that almost ever lands a person in jail. But, the minimum $250 fine isn’t exactly recession friendly. Those fines, if unpaid, can be extracted through liens, DMV driver’s license holds, etc. The price of the fine went up several years ago because some out-of-towners with city property were not deterred by the original $100 slap on the wallet.

“We started finding out that we became their lawn service,” Wright said.

On a recent delinquent grass-cutting outing, the neighbor of a derelict property walked over to ask Baker if he could come over and cut the adjacent yard when he finished with the one he was standing in. All told, Wright estimates the city draws in between $20,000 to $25,000 each year in fines for grass code violations. That also includes money collected from expired tags on cars and penalties for when inmates have to collect trash on private properties.
“Most people understand where we’re coming from and why the laws are there,” Wright said.
Enforcing code is more about the way of the law, not the letters that spell it out, he said. He rarely encounters a case where everything in life—except the grass—is falling neatly into place for the people receiving his letters.
“We try to honor [trying times] and respect that,” he said. “But be consistent.”
A bright spot for the program is that the amount of grass being cut in recent years is “way down” since the mid-1990s, Baker said. That and, these days, the swing blades are gone.

David Wall is leading the way when it comes to sustainable construction in Central Virginia. But for him, it’s not about taking advantage of a trend or cashing in on folks who want the latest and greatest in everything eco.

“My goals have been, and still are, to build affordable, super-efficient, green buildings,” Wall said. “You usually don’t have ‘affordability’ put into the same sentence with ‘green building.’”

Wall owns two businesses, Wall Construction and Affordable Energy Concepts (AEC), both located in Madison Heights. He realized the need to go green while working for a large contractor that was building a dining hall for a university. The projected power bill for that building was $95,000 a month. Stunned by the number, David knew there had to be another way.

“I then realized that I wanted and needed to build buildings that are much more efficient,” he explained. “I believe if you don’t look at energy efficiency when designing and building new buildings, then you are missing a huge piece of what a quality built building is.”

Wall Construction launched in 2005 and builds and designs environmentally sound and energy-efficient homes and commercial buildings. Wall Construction is unique among most other contractors because it uses the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for its projects. LEED is a green building certification system and is recognized around the world as the best criteria for eco-friendly construction.

Wall Construction also builds “passive homes,” which are homes that are well insulated and well ventilated, making them ultra-efficient. That means that in the winter, the heat stays inside where it belongs and in the summer, the cool air from the AC doesn’t escape.  The company just wrapped up three residential projects all using the Passive House Certification process.

“I used the Passive House guidelines as a way to reduce cost and dramatically improve the energy efficiency of these three buildings,” Wall explained. “All three of these homes are considered net zero (no power bills) because of the added active solar arrays each building has.”

Kamala Bauers lives in one of the passive homes built by Wall Construction.

“Can you imagine if all new homes were built to this standard in the USA and if older homes were to be retrofitted to this standard,” she questioned. “Over 25 percent of all energy use in our country is in our residential homes, so we could reduce our national energy use by 25 percent over time.”

Located in Floyd, Bauers is thrilled with her home’s eco-design and the message behind her one-of-a-kind home.

“People express concern about global warming and high utility bills,” Bauers said.  “Rather than worry or complain, I chose to do something about it. There are solutions out there but you have to do some research and make some changes to take advantage of them.”

One of those solutions is solar energy. Wall has his hand in that field, too. Affordable Energy Concepts provides a number of systems that use the sun to slash energy costs. Right now, AEC is working on projects for local manufacturers, all using solar energy to produce clean, reliable electricity straight from the sun’s rays.

“Large-scale solar is the most affordable way to utilize solar, and these systems provide not only great environmental benefits but great economic benefits when done in this manner,” Wall said.

Like his projects, Wall’s offices are also one with Mother Nature. The building is solar powered, built out of recycled and sustainable materials and, as you probably guessed, the office has a recycling program.

“I also drive a Honda Insight 90 percent of the time (43.5 miles to the gallon), which is a little unusual for a contractor,” Wall added.

As energy prices continue to climb, more people are realizing that going green can actually save some green. And that’s exactly what keeps things so busy at Wall Construction and Affordable Energy Concepts.

“The fact that their power bills are on the rise is probably the number one reason why people are looking to build more earth-friendly,” Wall said. “For the normal customer, it really boils down to economics.”

“Our next project is to build a solar recharging garage for our next all-electric vehicle,” Bauers said.  “Then we will have a zero energy home and a zero energy car.”

That’s good news for eco-contractors like David Wall, and even better news for the environment.

Ted Counts founded the Counts Auction Company in 1963. After eight years of operating as a sister company to Counts Reality, Counts combined the two businesses to create the Ted Counts Reality & Auction Co., Inc. In 1988, Counts formed a partnership with Bill Bryant, whose career with Counts Realty & Auction began as a part-time gig.

“My interest was real estate and appraisal,” Bill said. “Ted offered me an opportunity to take over the real estate part of his company … but I also built houses and did a little developing in conjunction with working with his auctions.”

Two years later, Bill came on full-time with the company. Today, he is the president and sole owner.

“I saw the demand for quality auction companies to represent banks and attorneys and states up and down the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast region,” he said. “There was a demand for a company to step up and do a lot of that business and we did.”

Bill said from a young age, he knew real estate was a career he wanted to pursue.

“I had family in the real estate business and so I really wanted to be involved in real estate and the auction was such an exciting and aggressive way to market property,” he said. “Once the bug bit me, I was in with both feet and that’s what I’ve been in since.”

Jennifer Bryant is principal broker of Counts & Realty Auction Group, and though they share a last name, she and Bill Bryant are not related. She says she had a similar attraction to the business of real estate and began working with the company 10 years ago at the age of 22.

“I’m the third generation in my family to be in the real estate [and] auction business. It was only natural for me to work in this field; I have been around the auction business my entire life,” she said. “I can remember as a small child helping my parents and grandparents work auctions, filling out bidder cards, selling concessions—anything I could do at a young age.”

In the years since the early beginnings, the company itself has grown and now operates out of various Virginia locations including Richmond, Marion and Abingdon. The company has also worked to evolve with the rapid changes in technology.

Bill says that Counts Realty and Auction Group was one of the first few companies to be able to automate their auction database as well as successfully sell properties over the Internet to people in various locations of the U.S. The company currently offers online bidding and live auctions and recently expanded to include sales for businesses and clients in areas and states such as Washington D.C., Maryland, Georgia and Rhode Island.

“We certainly prefer to work in our region here, right at home and we do the bulk of our business right here at home,” Bill said. “But, by expanding out doing sales in Georgia and Newport, Rhode Island, it gives us a broader base of buying power.”

Jennifer says being licensed in multiple states gives the company a needed flexibility with their sellers.

“We could sell something for somebody in Forest who owns a second home they want to sell in North Carolina and we have the ability to help them,” she said.

The company has also grown in the way they advertise, as the market has changed throughout the years.

“Buyers are doing a lot more homework and searching before they even contact us, so we have adapted to that,” Jennifer said. “We do a wide range of online marketing to promote properties in a much bigger market than just local advertising.”

Today Counts Realty and Auction Group employs about 16 local staff members, making about 40 overall employees when including the combined offices in the company’s other Virginia locations.

“Our staff has been together for a long time,” Bill said. “We work together; it’s an exciting business, but it’s very time-consuming at times.”

Especially during the spring and summer seasons, he says the staff sometimes ends up working up to seven days a week.

“We’re at the office late at night working on budgets and marketing plans,” he explained.

With expansion to areas outside of the region, the company has been working to maintain strong relationships with their local clients.

“Sometimes, there are people who are retiring. That’s a great opportunity to be able to help them sell their assets,” Bill said.

There is also more of a personal touch with the local clients, according to Bill. He says he enjoys being able to get in and feel a part of the issues they are dealing with.

“Unfortunately, we have to work with people at times who are having financial difficulties or even the loss of a loved one and that’s always tough,” he said. “At times, it’s tough circumstances that we work under but it is always a good feeling when you get to help people accomplish their goals and their needs.”

As for the future of Counts Realty & Auction Group, Bill says he wants to see the company grow in the areas they reach and continue to succeed.

“We certainly want to maintain our base that we have here and expand out, always focus on our home, but I’d like to see us broaden out,” he said.