Sally "Cricket" Benfer - President & Founder

Phone:828.674.0900
Email:cricket@AshevilleLuxuryBrokers.com

224 Bent Creek Ranch Road

After she first vacationed in Western North Carolina, Cricket knew she wanted to move to the area permanently and in 2003 she made it happen! She is now living the dream on four acres just outside of Asheville, NC with a menagerie and a garden.

Cricket has been in the real estate business for over 30 years, working in several facets of the industry before she found her true passion in residential real estate. In 2010 opened her own firm, Asheville Luxury Brokers. Before real estate, Cricket worked for GE and prior to that as a flight attendant. She graduated from THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!) where she received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Cricket’s areas of expertise include working with second home purchasers, transfers, luxury real estate, and equine farms. She is a Strategic Pricing Specialist (SPS) and Strategic Listing Specialist (SLS). Her real estate expertise and local market knowledge are greatly appreciated by her clients. However, it is her trust, discretion, integrity, superior negotiation skills and ability to produce results that set her apart. Cricket truly is the authority in real estate in Asheville!

Cricket is active in the tennis community in Asheville where she competes on several USTA teams. Her most important role is that of a mother to two daughters. Her oldest a PA in Raleigh, NC and her younger daughter is in social media and marketing, resides in NYC.

Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist

Recognized as the mark of accomplishment in luxury markets around the world, the Certified Luxury Home Marketing SpecialistTM (CLHMS) designation assures affluent buyers and sellers that the agents who have earned it have the knowledge, experience, competence, and confidence they require.

CLHMS - Guild ELITE designation is awarded to the best of the best of successful luxury agents by the Institute with documented sales performance in the top 5% of their market.

Testimonials

Cricket is tops!!! We were in a new-build situation, and, living clear across the country, were able to rely on her to deal with our rather stressful builder, sending pictures and videos weekly (even when the builder declined to do this for us), and kept the communication lines open throughout the yearlong process. She also helped the moving process go more smoothly, giving us exceptional allowances and favors. We still maintain a great relationship with her, a year later! Go with Sally/Cricket! You'll be glad you did! Eileen and George T. - Sarasota, FL

I have known Sally socially and through sports for 15 years and have appreciated her business acumen as well as her sports abilities over many years. There is always respect that is built when you see how hard a person works on and off the court and responds to each and every query as to property a Buyer. such as myself, might be interested in. Sally has always made herself available for showing properties and has been very knowledgeable as to disclosures, comparative values in the community, and a certain special awareness of Buncombe County as a whole. She is a professional with the highest standards of transactional real estate, top-notch negotiation skills, a wonderful relationship between sellers' agents and buyers' agents, and I would recommend her to anyone also looking to sell their property or to a friend looking to purchase a western Carolina property in the Smokies! Sally is the go-to realtor for luxury properties or a 2nd home when Florida summers just get oppressively hot! The transaction took place within about 3-week period, everything included, from Offer to Closing, and the recent Closing was handled extremely efficiently between 5 very prepared women and concluded easily by all. ~ Francine K.

We have worked with Cricket and her team for both the purchase and sale of a luxury home in Asheville. She is top notch! When purchasing, she was patient and realistic; offering sound guidance and serving as a relentless advocate. When selling, she pulled out all the stops- drone video, expert photos and virtual touring, and sharing our home with multiple potential buyers from across the country. Our multimillion dollar home went under contract for our asking price in less than 3 weeks.

Buying and selling a home can be incredibly stressful. It is critical to have a team you can trust. Asheville Luxury Brokers is that team! Ruth Z.

We recently worked with Asheville Luxury Brokers to sell our Grove Park home (multiple offers in one day on the market!) and I can't recommend them highly enough. From pricing strategy and innovative marketing to the constant communication and negotiations, Jill and Cricket were world-class. I've bought/sold more than 10 homes and this was by far the best experience we've had with our real estate partners. Thanks again for the great work! Jonathan J.

Several months after moving to Asheville, we tired of apartment living and decided to buy a home. Cricket worked with us to give us several options. And we were fortunate enough to find a perfect home for us in an area that we weren't familiar with. The location is as good as it gets...rural, yet just 10 minutes from downtown. It was a new build, and the insight and guidance she gave us made the decision and the process that much easier. We've bought and sold multiple homes, and this was as painless as any of the previous transactions. We love our home, and Cricket was right when she told us that the first home in a new development is the cheapest. Homes in the neighborhood are now selling for more than $200K more than we paid just four years ago. Thanks again Cricket! Arsene G.

We first worked with Cricket Benfer and Asheville Luxury Brokers when moving to Asheville from out of state. Cricket was amazing finding us a house for all of our needs at the time and making the out of state move as smooth and stress free as possible. Now almost 3 years later I am using Cricket again to sell our home and once again she has been amazing with everything from communication, listening to concerns, and once again making this as stress free as possible. Penny O.

Sally Benfer was fantastic. She was knowledgeable, friendly and extremely responsive to our needs. She found us an amazing house at a great price. We will be returning to her, and Asheville Luxury Brokers, for any future real-estate needs! Linda B.

Sally Benfer was a joy to work with. She listened carefully to what I was looking for in my new place and kept me updated on new listings that fit perfectly with my constraints and requirements. Sally is very knowledgeable about the greater Asheville market and I highly recommend her. Marco L.

They really went the extra mile to help us find just the one! Bought the house moving from 13hrs away with a family of 4 kids and they took away so much of the extra stress we didn't need. In the end, we didn't just find an awesome realtor....we found great friends to grow with being new to the area. Bill S.

Cricket is outstanding in communicating with her clients - Debbie P.