1949 Wolf Creek Hwy

A 1920 chinked-log cabin on Wolf Creek in Bland County, 792 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath on a single level, listed at $200,000. The listing says the creek runs past the front yard with what it calls massive frontage, that the acreage spans both sides of Wolf Creek Highway, and that a new survey is on file. The survey figure the listing gives is 9.695 acres. Bland County records the parcel at 11.75 acres in two tracts, and the aerial map among the listing’s own photos is captioned 11.75 acres too. It sold for $70,000 in 2008 and $176,000 in 2015.

The land and setting

The listing gives 9.695 acres, rounded to 9.7 in its fields, and names one parcel, 13A77. Bland County records that parcel as 13 A 77 at 511,830 square feet, 11.75 acres, with a legal description reading “DOWN WOLF CREEK 11.75 2 TRACTS 1949 WOLF CREEK HWY 6-174 101”. County zoning is A1, in the Rocky Gap district.

The listing’s own aerial map shows two outlined tracts: a narrow strip along the creek where the cabin sits, and a larger wooded wedge behind it, with a gap between them where the road runs. That is the “both sides of Wolf Creek Hwy” the remarks describe. The map labels the road State Route 678.

The creek is in the photos at length: running over rock, pooling wide, bending past a gravel bar, and lapping the edge of the mown lawn a short walk from the porch. The remarks say you can fish in the front yard, and the photos support it.

Beyond the cabin the parcel climbs into hardwood, and the aerials show the wooded tract rising behind the clearing toward the ridge. The remarks put the property about three miles from I-77 near the Virginia and West Virginia line.

The cabin

Built in 1920, 792 square feet on one level, log construction on a stone foundation under a metal gable roof. No basement, no attic. The listing style is Cabin, Log, and the county calls its condition average.

The covered porch runs along the front and partway around the side, and the floor plan among the photos gives it as 29 feet 11 by 33 feet 8, which is larger than the cabin itself. A stone chimney rises through the porch roof.

Inside is a family room of 16 feet 11 by 20 feet 2 with a stone fireplace, a kitchen and dining room of 16 feet 4 by 12 feet 4, a bedroom of 13 feet 8 by 10, a second room the floor plan labels bedroom/laundry at 13 feet 8 by 7 feet 11, and a bathroom of 4 feet 11 by 12 feet 4. The floor plan totals about 834 square feet.

The fireplace is listed as gas logs, ventless, and wood burning, and the remarks say it currently runs gas logs and could be converted to wood. Heating is propane, cooling is none. The listing says the windows are insulated tilt windows and the floors are wood throughout, which the photos show.

The kitchen has been redone, with gray cabinets, an island with a cooktop, and a new counter. The only appliance the listing includes is an electric water heater, so the cooktop and anything else in the photos may not convey. The rooms are empty in every photo; nothing is described as furnished.

The bath is a full one, with a vanity, toilet and shower stall. Water is a well and sewer is a septic tank, and the county record agrees on both. Additional storage is listed under exterior features, the remarks say outbuildings, and the photos show two log sheds and the inside of one.

The facts

What to know before you call

The listing gives two different acreages, and the county sides with the larger one. The fields and remarks say 9.695 acres from a brand new survey. The county says 11.75 acres in two tracts, and the aerial map the listing itself published is captioned 11.75 acres and outlines two tracts. A new survey finding two acres fewer than the deed is not unusual in creek bottom country where old descriptions ran to the water, but it can also mean one tract or a piece of one is not in the sale. Ask for the survey, ask which tracts convey, and have the title company match the survey to the deed before you sign anything. The price per acre moves by 20 percent depending on the answer.

The road runs through the middle of it. The remarks say the acreage spans both sides of Wolf Creek Highway, and the map shows the cabin on a strip between the creek and the road with the larger wooded tract across it. The map labels that road State Route 678, which would make it a VDOT-maintained secondary route rather than a private road, and that is good news for grading and plowing. It also means the state owns a right-of-way through your land and traffic passes between your house and your woods. Ask how wide the right-of-way is and whether any of the surveyed acreage sits inside it.

Nothing says whether it floods. The creek is the whole appeal, the remarks say you can fish from the front yard, and the photos show the water a short walk from the porch on a flat strip below the road. Flood zone is not listed. Ask for the FEMA panel and whether the cabin sits in a special flood hazard area, because on a 1920 cabin on a stone foundation at creek level that decides insurance, financing and what a bad spring does to the crawl space.

The floor plan and the listing disagree on size and rooms. The listing and the county both say 792 square feet. The floor plan among the photos says about 834, and its measurements are approximate. Its second bedroom is labeled bedroom/laundry and measures 13 feet 8 by 7 feet 11, which is a narrow room doing two jobs. Ask which figure the price is built on and whether the laundry hookups are in that room.

The only appliance that conveys is the water heater. The kitchen has been redone with an island and a cooktop, and the photos show it. The listing includes an electric water heater and nothing else. Ask what stays.

Where are the well and the septic? Both are listed and both agree with the county, but the parcel is two tracts split by a state road, with a new survey that may have moved a line. Ask where the well and the drainfield sit relative to the surveyed boundary and the right-of-way, because a well on the far tract or a drainfield in the road easement is a problem that only shows up at closing.

Taxes are low and Virginia does not reset them at sale. The bill is $471.60 on an assessed value of $78,600, unchanged since 2020. Virginia has no sale-triggered uncapping: assessments move on the county’s general reassessment cycle. A $200,000 sale against a $78,600 assessment is the kind of gap the next reassessment closes. Ask the Bland County commissioner of the revenue when the next one is due.

The price is 14 percent over the 2015 sale and nearly three times the 2008 one. Public records show $70,000 in December 2008 and $176,000 in January 2015. The kitchen and the windows look recent, and the remarks name both. Ask what was done since 2015 and whether there is paperwork.

Outbuildings: the county counts one building, the photos show three. Exterior features say storage, the remarks say outbuildings, and the photos show the cabin plus two log sheds. The county record shows one building. Ask whether the sheds were permitted, whether they are on the assessment, and whether they are on the surveyed 9.695 acres.

The fireplace is gas now and wood later only if it is sound. Listed as gas logs, ventless, and wood burning. The remarks say it could easily become wood burning. Converting means the chimney and firebox have to pass inspection for solid fuel, which a ventless gas set never had to. Ask whether the chimney has been inspected and lined.

The address says Narrows, the parcel is in Bland County. Narrows is a Giles County town, and the postal address follows it. The county record, the zoning, the taxes and the listing’s own map are all Bland County, Rocky Gap district. Confirm which county’s offices you are dealing with for permits, taxes and emergency response.

It has been listed three days. No price cuts, no market feedback, listed on two MLSs at once. Nothing has been tested yet.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. In the same state we have a log cabin on 21 acres of Peters Creek in Stuart and a 1910 farmhouse with a country store on Poplar Creek in Ferrum.

To ask about this one, call Joseph Dykes at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Mountain Sky Properties on 304-952-9367, or the Bland office on 276-688-3555, and reference MLS 428544. Tell them where you saw it.