3387 Union Hill Rd

This is a log-sided cottage built in 1950, 917 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath per the listing, on 0.81 acres on Union Hill Road above Whittier, in Jackson County, North Carolina, between Cherokee and Bryson City. The remarks describe a wood-burning fireplace, solid wood doors, a third room that serves as an office, a front deck, and a detached building with power that could become a workshop or a guest space, and they say the road is paved and state maintained. Water is a spring. It sold for $180,000 in June 2021 and was listed on September 7, 2026 at $235,000. The county record carries the legal description as a life estate.

The land and setting

The photos show a cottage on a bank above a paved road, with a mailbox at the bottom of a paved drive, a covered porch along the front, an outbuilding with a green door and a woodshed beside it, a small shed built into the bank, and hardwoods all around. The listing gives 0.81 acres, no subdivision and no zoning. The county record gives 0.81 acres in one parcel in Qualla township.

Two things about the location need saying plainly. First, reverse geocoding the listing coordinates places the parcel in Jackson County, and the county record agrees, so the tax bill, the permits and the deed are Jackson County’s, not Swain County’s, though Whittier straddles the line. Second, the county record’s township is Qualla, which is a Jackson County township name. The parcel is not on the Qualla Boundary. We queried the county’s own boundary layer and the Census Bureau’s federal reservation layer at the coordinates: neither puts the point inside the Boundary, and the county layer puts the nearest Boundary land between 100 and 250 meters away, a few hundred feet. The land here is ordinary fee simple land in Jackson County, sold and recorded like any other.

The house

The listing gives 917 square feet on one story, two bedrooms on the main level and one full bath, propane heat, wall units and ceiling fans for cooling, an electric range and water heater, a refrigerator, laundry in the kitchen, a wood-burning fireplace in the family room, wood construction on a crawl space, no basement, a septic system, spring water, wired internet available, and a driveway. The county record gives 924 square feet, three bedrooms and one bath, built in 1950 and renovated in 1990, with gas forced-air heat that is not ducted, one fireplace, a continuous wall foundation and average condition.

The photos show a living room with a stone fireplace and pine walls, a dining room with a wall air unit, a galley kitchen with green counters and a stacked washer and dryer, rooms with beds in them that read as two or three bedrooms depending on how the frames overlap, a bathroom with a shower stall, and a room fitted as an office with two desks. The floor plan in the listing draws 917 square feet on the main floor with a living room, kitchen, dining, laundry, bath, two bedrooms and an office, and a separate storage building of 224 square feet with two rooms. Every room is furnished with the owners’ things. Nothing is virtually staged.

The detached building in the remarks has power and lighting. The photos show its outside, with a green door and a woodshed, and the plan gives it 224 square feet. The remarks say it could become a heated and cooled space subject to building requirements. A second, smaller shed sits in the bank below the house.

The facts

What to know before you call

A life estate on the record. The county’s legal description reads Union Hill life estate. A life estate means someone holds the right to live on the property for life and someone else holds the remainder, and a sale needs both to sign. The 2021 sale went through, so the arrangement may be older, newer or already extinguished. Ask the listing agent who holds title, whether a life tenant is living, and have the title company pull the deed before you write an offer.

Not on the Qualla Boundary, and close to it. The township is named Qualla and the Boundary is a few hundred feet away, between 100 and 250 meters per the county’s boundary layer. The parcel itself is outside it on both the county’s map and the Census Bureau’s federal reservation layer. That means fee simple title, a Jackson County deed and a Jackson County tax bill. It also means a neighbor a few hundred feet away may be trust land with its own rules, so ask where the line runs relative to the parcel and the road.

Jackson County, not Swain. The coordinates and the county record both put the parcel in Jackson County. Whittier’s post office serves both counties. Every record you pull, from permits to the septic file to the tax card, is at the Jackson County offices in Sylva.

Three bedrooms on the card, two in the listing. The county counts three bedrooms and the listing counts two plus an office. The floor plan shows the office as a room with a door off the bath hall. Ask how many bedrooms the septic permit allows, because a two-bedroom permit and a three-bedroom house are a common mismatch on a 1950 cottage.

Spring water. The water source is a spring. The county record says water is available, which usually means a public line runs along the road. Ask where the spring is, whether it is on the parcel, whether the spring box and the line cross a neighbor, and what a tap onto the public line would cost. Ask for a water test. A lender may require one.

The 2025 reappraisal. Jackson County reappraised effective January 1, 2025 on a four-year cycle, and this parcel’s value rose 57 percent, from $109,760 to $172,635. The bill rose from $542 to $660. The next reappraisal is due in 2029, and a sale at $235,000 will inform it. Present-use value does not apply at 0.81 acres, so there is no deferred tax to inherit.

Helene. The listing does not mention the storm. What the sources show: the parcel is in Zone X with minimal flood hazard on the federal layer, it sits on a bank above the road rather than in a valley, the 2025 reappraisal raised its value rather than lowering it, and the photos show a house, a porch, a drive and outbuildings with no visible damage. The Tuckasegee River flooded an RV park in Whittier during the storm, and the river is well below this hill. Ask the seller whether the property lost power, road access or water during Helene, whether any tree came down, and whether the insurance carrier has stayed. Get a homeowner’s quote before you offer, because western North Carolina carriers have tightened since the storm.

Access and the road. The remarks say paved, year-round access on a state-maintained road, and the photos show asphalt at the mailbox. Ask the county for the state road number to confirm the state maintains it, and ask who plows it. The drive is paved and climbs from the road to the house.

The detached building and the shed. The remarks describe one detached building with power and lighting. The photos show it and a second, smaller shed in the bank. The county record counts one building. Ask which buildings the county has assessed and whether the outbuilding’s wiring was permitted, because the remarks themselves say finishing it is subject to building requirements.

Heat. The listing says propane. The county says gas forced air, not ducted, which usually means a wall furnace. The photos show a fireplace and a wall air unit. Ask what the propane serves, where the tank is and who owns it, and what the winter bill runs.

No phone anywhere. Zillow prints the agent’s email address in the space where a phone number would be, and no number for the co-listing agent or the brokerage. Redfin prints no agent or brokerage at all. The email is the listed contact.

Twenty-seven images, eight short of our standard. Zillow and Redfin each carry the same 27 images in the same order, confirmed by perceptual hash. Zillow’s are larger and we used them all: 26 photographs and the floor plan. Not shown: the inside of the outbuilding, the spring, the crawl space, the septic field, and the road beyond the mailbox.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. For other western North Carolina posts we have a house on Hardison Falls Trail in Hendersonville and a gutted contemporary with no bridge near Burnsville.

To ask about this one, email Jennifer Simandl at EXP Realty at Jennifer.Simandl@exprealty.com and reference MLS 4421408. The listing prints no phone number for the agent or the brokerage. Tell them where you saw it.