About Us
My goal is to use my hard earned skills to find you the Western North Carolina home of your dreams.
Being raised with a great work ethic is one of the best things my parents gave to me. I was raised in Iowa and had a photography business there for 13 years before moving to North Carolina in 1993. I owned and operated Linden Photography for a total of 26 years before getting my real estate license in 2007. I started out selling homes and property at Mountain Air, a gated community in Burnsville, and quickly became the top sales person for 2007 and 2008, my first and second years. Working at Mountain Air was a great experience and I still list and sell many luxury properties in that community today.
I continued to gain experience working for a few carefully selected local real estate companies over the past 7 years before opening my own company, WNC (Western North Carolina) Mountain Realty Group in January 2015. I am a member of two MLS systems, the Asheville WNC system and the Yancey-Mitchell system. This allows me to advertise my listings in two systems and get better coverage for my sellers. I have had many real estate experiences over the past several years, including selling out the majority of the foreclosures for a local bank over a 3 year period. That experience was invaluable as the foreclosure business will continue to be in our lives for a very long time. I have worked with all types of clients, from first time buyers to investors, and from finding median priced homes for clients to working with luxury buyers and sellers.
I love marketing and have developed numerous unique marketing strategies to help sellers get their unique properties into the hands of the right buyers, either locally or to the many out of area brokers that I frequently work with. A marketing strategy that works for one property doesn’t necessarily work for another one. I have a huge network of people that I regularly work with. I refer and take referrals from out of area brokers. In addition, I very much pride myself on my reputation as the “go-to” person when it comes to seeking information and services. I can find you a housekeeper, plumber, carpenter, graphic designer or even a mortgage broker. If you need a tree trimmer or someone to clean your gutters, they are just a phone call away!
On the personal side, I am married to the wonderful man I have been with for almost ten years and I have a daughter by a previous marriage and now I have gained a stepson. I have three cats, have fostered numerous cats, and have had multiple rescue dogs while living in Weaverville since 1993. My favorite charities are Children First in Asheville, Emma Resource Center, Emma United Methodist Church and Heart of Appalachia Rescue. I also volunteer for WNCAP every year to help raise money for Dining out for Life. To me, volunteering and giving to charities is a way of life, not an obligation.
Professionally, I enjoy all aspects of real estate. I have been a Top 100 Broker in the Asheville area, but truthfully I don’t do this job for the material awards; rather for the gratification involved in assisting people in getting into not only the right home, but in the right town and neighborhood. Western North Carolina is a large area to cover and buyers come into Buncombe County because of the publicity that Asheville commands, but may not want to buy a home in the actual city limits. These prospective buyers may want to be further out into the mountains, which could take the buyer to several counties and towns surrounding Buncombe County. This is what brought me to form my new company.
I feel as though I have brought together the best brokers in several counties to assist you in finding the best town, the best neighborhood and the best home for you and your family. My new company will assist you in finding the best broker in the county or town in which you are looking at property. As you can see, my website allows you to first click on the appropriate county on the map to find a broker, or you can first find the property, then choose the best local broker for that area, or an expert broker for that area will be assigned to you. Sometimes buyers start their search in one location and end up in another one. With my company, you can stay within our group of brokers and one of us will continue to take care of you. By changing search areas, our brokers will refer you to another expert broker within our group who is familiar with that area so that you can stay in touch with everyone as we all work together to help you find that right home or property.
Diane Vander Linden, Broker/Owner