The Impossible Wish List
Privacy, Views, Acreage, Internet, and a 5-Minute Drive to the Hospital. Sure. Let Me Get Right On That.
There is a conversation I have constantly. I mean constantly. Multiple times a month, every month, for nine years.
It goes like this.
"We want privacy. Mountain views. No neighbors. Acreage. Good internet. And cell service."
Great! You've come to the right place. Murphy, NC has all of that. Let's go look at some houses.
"Also we need to be within five minutes of a hospital."
...
I'm going to pause here so you can do the math on that particular combination of requirements. Privacy. No neighbors. Mountain views requiring actual mountain elevation. Five minutes from a hospital.
I work through it. I always work through it. I pull up the MLS, I adjust the search, I have the conversation about how mountain miles work differently than flat miles, I mention — gently, professionally — that their cell carrier may have limitations in the areas that offer the privacy and views they're describing.
"Oh, we'll be fine."
Okay. Let's go look at houses.
The first property is ten miles from downtown Murphy. I want you to hold that number in your mind — ten miles — because it's about to do something unexpected.
It takes forty minutes.
Not because of traffic. Not because I got lost. Because ten miles in the mountains involves elevation change, switchbacks, gravel roads, and the fundamental laws of physics, none of which care about your timeline or your navigation app.
About twenty minutes in, I notice the energy in the car behind me shifting.
About thirty minutes in, my clients are driving two miles per hour and their GPS has gone fully silent because there's no cell signal, which I mentioned, which they said would be fine.
About forty minutes in, we arrive at the property. The views are, objectively, spectacular. The privacy is exactly what they asked for. The road getting there was, I promise you, perfectly graded. Barely a hill by any reasonable measure.
"The road is really steep."
The road is fine.
"It feels very far."
It's ten miles.
"Our phones don't work."
I mentioned that.
"What if there's an emergency?"
I'm going to refer you back to my earlier comments about the five-minute hospital requirement and the privacy-and-views requirement and how those two things exist in direct opposition to each other on a map.
Here is the thing about mountain views that I need everyone to understand before we get in the car together: the views exist at elevation. Elevation is accessed via roads that go up. Roads that go up feel steep when you are not accustomed to them. Properties at elevation have reduced cell service. This is not a design flaw. It is geology.
You cannot have a flat, conveniently located, well-connected, hospital-adjacent property that also has complete privacy and panoramic mountain views. Those things are mutually exclusive. One of them has to give.
My job — the part I actually love — is helping you figure out which one.
So before we get in the car: What is your actual non-negotiable? Not your wish list. Your non-negotiable. The thing that, if it's not there, you're walking away.
Tell me that one thing. I'll build the search around it. And I promise the road will be fine.
Even if it takes forty minutes to go ten miles.
Chrissy Sidler | 321-890-3143 | chrissy@homesmurphync.com
Sales, Swearing & Sarcasm... What more could you want in a REALTOR!?