Historic North Augusta bed-and-breakfast hotels for sale
Caroline Ashe Your Source in Augusta, GA Real Estate August 30th, 2008
Looking to invest in some North Augusta history? Well, two of North Augusta’s most recognizable landmarks, Lookaway Hall and Rosemary Hall, are on sale for a combined $2.5 million.
The two historic bed-and-breakfast properties quietly went on the market this past April. The tiny sign in the front lawn of Lookaway Hall is so discreet even my eagle-eye for listing signs almost missed it – but spot it I did! It turns out the properties are listed with a small real estate company based in Aiken.
The two Halls share a home on the web and visitors will notice a large banner across the top of the website that states, “THE HALLS ARE LOOKING FOR INTERESTED BUYERS & INVESTORS!!! VISIT OUR LISTING AT LOOPNET FOR MORE INFORMATION.”
If you view the listing at Loopnet.com the first word of the description is pre-foreclosure, so it appears that the two B&B’s are the latest to fall in the ‘mortgage crisis’. For the current owners of the estates, I feel bad that they invested their time, money, and effort into a business that apparently is proving unsustainable.
Now to the real estate part of this story: Strangely, the properties still have not been listed in the Greater Augusta MLS. As far as I can tell, they are entered only in the Aiken MLS. The Greater Augusta MLS advertises to a vastly larger pool of local buyers and is used by hundreds more real estate professionals. The Aiken MLS is just that – a listing service for properties in Aiken SC, and not North Augusta. As a result, I had heard nothing from the real estate community here in North Augusta as to what was happening with these beautiful properties.
I’ve had excellent success using Loopnet for selling commercial properties, but the marketing exposure can’t be too large when selling properties such as these with a very limited buyer pool. As a bit of professional real estate advice – get that listing on several MLS systems. These listings need to appear in Augusta’s MLS, and ideally on an even larger MLS like the Atlanta FMLS.
For the new buyers of North Augusta’s beautiful Lookaway and Rosemary Hall’s – advertise, advertise, advertise!!! I think you have a winner on your hands if people know you exist! Best of luck on the sale and best of luck to the new owners.
Real estate investors from Virginia purchased Lookaway Hall for $1.5 million and Rosemary Hall for $1.2 million as reported on this blog back in March of 2007. (Figures according to Aiken County tax records.)
