Mountain Real Estate is a boutique real estate agency that helps clients find or sell their dream home.
Our Story
Mountain Real Estate came to be from simple effective change – change triggered by a belief that expertise and being “where we need to be” is more important to serving our customers than any “brick and mortar” office location. Real estate has changed, and we’re changing with it.
Thirty years ago, we would drive you around looking at properties wasting gas and each other’s time until we finally found the right property – today, our search links and modern photography bring those properties to you, and no one knows what you want or like better than you.
Yesterday, we would bring you into the office to meet or sign papers – today, you can sign papers on your home computer or smart phone, and we can meet you where it’s convenient for you, not for us. If Covid-19 proved one thing, it proved that “business as usual” is not necessarily the “most effective way to do business”.
Our business model is simple: Invest in people, not buildings. Be professional, competent, and ethical. Make things as comfortable, and stress-free as possible for our clients, while hopefully making some new friends in the process. And, most importantly, provide service that inspires our clients to refer us and use us again.
At Mountain Real Estate, your dreams matter!
We take real estate seriously, we take our clients’ needs very seriously, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. So, if your real estate needs involve WNC, give us a call. You’ll be happy with the results and maybe make a friend in the process.
Meet Our Team
Donna Hodges
REALTOR® / Broker / Broker-in-charge
Donna was born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains. Her love for our mountains inspires her to protect them so that everyone can experience and learn to value the natural wonders of Western North Carolina.
Before launching Mountain Real Estate, Donna was a postmaster for 26 years, served as a paralegal for a real estate law firm (that experience comes in handy), served as President of a local Rotary Club, and as an officer for the National Association of Postmasters. Donna feels she is successful in real estate because she strives to be Personal, Genuine and Authentic with her clients (who become friends).
When away from work (yeah, like that happens), Donna enjoys hiking, gardening, and knitting, and especially loves dancing to beach and shag music.
We dare you to try to keep up with her!
Dan J. Hodges
REALTOR® / Broker / Team Leader
Dan is originally a Winter Park Florida native who first came to the Blue Ridge Mountains at four years old. The family built a cabin in Cashiers the next year, and Dan spent formative summers and family getaways in western Carolina. Memories of those years instilled a love and appreciation for this mountain area that knows no bounds. He wants his clients to experience that same love for the area, and he works tirelessly toward that objective.
Dan attended UCF in Orlando for Business Management, with a minor in Marketing. Throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s Dan owned and operated three successful electrical contracting firms, in three different counties, doing business with many governmental agencies; USAF, USN, NASA, US Army, and many subcontractors to those entities. Projects extended into multiple oceans, multiple states, multiple countries.
After that shocking period (pun intended), he experienced another life epiphany of sorts. Dan was bitten by the real estate bug in 1998, and he’s had real estate fever ever since. We’d challenge you to find anyone who knows the geography, history, and real estate of Western North Carolina more thoroughly than Dan.
For pleasure (and for Dan, real estate IS pleasure), Dan enjoys the simple, but important, things — family, photography, gardening, hiking, traveling, or simply taking care of his goats and chickens. But, his greatest pleasure is simply being with Donna, the best decision he ever made.
Mike Clary
REALTOR® / Broker
Mike holds a marketing degree from the University of Georgia (GO DAWGS!) and enjoyed a successful career as both a sales and marketing executive for two food companies you may have heard of – Oscar Mayer and Land O’Lakes. He later founded, and ran, a successful marketing consulting business for twenty-five years. His varied corporate experiences included responsibility for eleven western states as a sales manager, national responsibilities over marketing and promotions departments, positions on the management staff, and overseas assignments assisting multiple Eastern European government transitions away from communist regimes.
These roles forced Mike to relate well with people from every background and circumstance, and they are the basis for his core philosophies as a real estate broker:
- The right house doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit dreams and desired lifestyles.
- A broker should represent buyers and sellers in the most friendly, professional, competent, and ethical manner possible. Relationships matter.
- Do what is right for the customer. It’s about helping people achieve their dreams. It’s not about another dollar in your pocket.
- Our primary role as a broker is to facilitate the process to owning the home, more so than finding the home. Stress happens. Help minimize it.
Mike has lived in eight states, three of them twice, touching both east and west coasts, as well as the nation’s northern border. With so many relocations, Mike has felt personally most every emotion that a buyer or seller will feel during a real estate transaction (there is no such thing as a stress-free real estate transaction). This valuable experience helps him anticipate and navigate any challenges his clients face.
Away from work (is that a thing?), Mike enjoys golf, traveling, time at the beach or on a mountain trail, and spending time with family, friends, and Snoopy, the family dog. But, mostly, he enjoys growing old with his wife, Carrie (though, according to her, he’s growing old, and she’s stuck on 29).
Kristin Waitschies
REALTOR® / Broker
Kristin’s professional career, and connection to real estate, began with eighteen years at Harvey Builders in Houston, TX. Under her leadership as national marketing manager, revenue more than tripled during her tenure.
Over the next five years, Kristin managed her husband’s home inspection business. So, the link to real estate continued.
In 2020, Kristin and Robert (yes, Robert is her husband) took the drastic action of moving where they wanted to live without any plans and without any jobs. (Those of us who live here totally understand the draw of the mountains). Robert soon found a job as a home inspector, and Kristin recently joined the Mountain Real Estate team to pursue her passion for real estate, both residential and commercial.
As a broker, she plans to leverage her business and marketing skills to help others achieve their dreams of home ownership.
For relaxation and fun, Kristin enjoys the hiking or chasing waterfalls, as well as creative activities (such as gardening, herbalism, foraging/wildcrafting, crafting, making jewelry) that allow her to work with her hands. She is intent on learning to navigate rapids in a kayak.
Hear from Our Happy Homeowners