Priscilla Richardson

Recent columns

• Column archive: Priscilla Richardson
• Clean technology latest move for Botetourt man
• 'Tree City' Buchanan celebrates Arbor Day

The words "he's everywhere" describe Troutville's Pete Wood. If you attend Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce meetings, he's there. If you even think about Attic Productions, he's there as a nonperforming gofer. Plus he generally helps his performer wife, Freda, clean up the theater after her performances. When you go to any Historic Fincastle event, he's not only there, as current president, he was working on it. And he's there at meetings of the Knights of Columbus. Just so happens he's a charter Grand Knight because he helped start the Fincastle group, having been a Grand Knight in Roanoke.

Wood started life in Roanoke. After college and his Vietnam War-era stint with the U.S. Army, he came back home. He moved to Botetourt in 1978 after selling his interest in the local Bonanza chain. "I've been in real estate 23 years," he said. "Before that, I spent 15 years in the restaurant industry, working my way up from busboy to part-owner of a local chain."

Oddly enough, Wood got into real estate because of his restaurant business. "We were developing restaurants, working with Realtors on sites," he said. "So that was a good chance to become who I was dealing with. But I ended up selling homes, not commercial property, and fell in love with it. With homes, when things work out, you get a hug afterwards. You can see a happy person or family on the other end. They send cards; they recommend you to friends. It's a good feeling." After his two daughters went off to college and started their careers, Freda joined him in the real estate business. They both now work out of the old Bridgewater College stone house next to the Bank of Fincastle building on U.S. 220.

Because I see Wood so often, and with all the bad news about real estate, over the past six months, I started asking him if things are that awful here.

Turns out, reports of the death of the real estate business in Botetourt County have been greatly exaggerated.

"Yes, the market is down, but that's not necessarily a bad thing," Wood said. "Now that the market is soft is a perfect time for somebody to buy, with interest rates on mortgages still in the middle sixes."

And, of course, if you wait until everyone else is buying, that's when prices start to rise.

The large number of houses for sale in Ashley will sell, he's sure.

"Last week alone, there were several sales both in Ashley and in Highland Manor. Highland has a lot of houses like Ashley. The same thing was happening there in Highland, with just as many houses for sale, but nobody was reporting on it."

I checked his outlook with another Botetourt agent, one who deals mostly in land, with or without buildings. Fincastle's Micki Patrick has sold real estate here since 1975. Although she's a California native, when she and her then- husband drove through this region in 1974, they went home, turned around and came back here.

"We chose Botetourt as the most likely place to have continued steady growth," she said. "It has geographic attributes, ease of commuting to any direction, and open spaces."

She finds the market here to be excellent. Competing offers for the same property are common. "There's always a short supply in Botetourt for good land, so prices have not moved down," Patrick said. "Botetourt is still extremely popular."

Her feelings echo those of John Kilby, president of the Bank of Fincastle. The news there is that there isn't any. The Bank of Fincastle never made doubtful loans so they aren't facing any mortgage meltdown. "I've been in this 34 years," he said, "and things are slower, but not doom and gloom." He remembers the early '70s slowdown, another in the '80s and then one in the '90s. "This is not something we haven't been through before."

And all those stories about New York and California? Just remember, those places aren't Botetourt. Our special wonderful Botetourt, as Patrick said, with "geographic attributes, ease of commuting to any direction, and open spaces."