This month’s edition of Chamber Corner we are highlighting Canaan Realty, one of the Chamber’s oldest members and longest running vacation rental company in Canaan Valley.
This November will be Canaan Realty’s 45th year in business at their same Mirror Lake location.
Canaan Realty was established in 1970 when real estate sales and rentals began in Canaan Valley. The company has continued to sell, rent and manage properties.
Cary Reed has been the broker here since 1985 with a total of 37 years of experience in Canaan Valley as Real Estate Broker and General Manager of daily operations overseeing all departments of the business.
Cary Reed has come a long way since the days when he stayed in a 12′ x 12′ cabin on Back Hollow Road during vacation trips to Canaan Valley in 1963. So has the company his father and mother started, Canaan Realty.
Cary’s father and mother, Charles and Betsy Reed, actually started coming to the area regularly in 1963, after they purchased 55 acres. At the time Charles Reed was running a prospering business in the Washington, D.C. area that supplied restaurant refrigeration equipment. He would bring the family, including Cary and his two sisters, to a 20′ x 30′ hunting cabin that once had been used as a sheep barn.
After four years, the state acquired the land, which is now part of Canaan Valley State Park in 1966. When the Reeds sold that to the state they all agreed “We still want to be in the valley,” so Charley Reed bought a building site directly from Red Cooper, the mayor of Davis at the time. This five acre building site located along W.VA Rt. 32 had an established stream running through it and is now known as Mirror Lake. Charley Reed built one of the first vacation homes in Canaan Valley there in 1966. This is the same chalet that is now the Canaan Realty office.
In 1970 shortly after Charley Reed finished building the 5 acre Mirror Lake on land he had once described as “swamp, underbrush and woods,” he left the Washington, D.C. area to work and live full-time in Tucker County. Charley started working in real estate with an agency from Elkins. There were no other real estate agencies in Tucker County at the time. He worked for the power plant at Mount Storm as an engineer until he made his first real estate commission when he started working full time as a real estate broker.
Canaan Realty then started selling and renting homes in the Canaan Valley area in 1970, when second home development was in its infancy. Timberline started in 1973 and Charley built the first speculative house there.
Canaan Realty once had branch offices at Canaan Valley Stores, Davis, Parsons, Gormainia, and Arlington, Virginia.
Son, Cary and Betsy (Jr) Reed purchased the business from his parents, Charles and Betsy in November of 1985. The sale was closed just days before the county wide flood and the Parsons office didn’t reopen after that. Today Canaan Realty is at the Mirror Lake location where it started, selling land, homes and managing vacation rentals.
Their unique location attracts a lot of visitors. The office has a five acre lake, Mirror Lake, with its beach, canoes, paddleboat, covered pavilion, sundeck and hiking trails into National Forest guests find it is a great place to swim, fish, and walk or just relax.
Canaan Realty has 3 licensed Realtors on staff. Cary Reed; Broker, Kathy Knight; Realtor and Larry Knight; Realtor. Canaan Realty agents work with buyers, sellers and the other real estate agencies to offer full service to all. The hours of operation are 9 to 5, 7 days a week and closed Thanksgiving and Christmas days. The office staff, maintenance personnel and housekeeping staff are capable in all aspects of second home management. The entire Canaan Realty staff works closely with our owners to keep them competitive.
You can contact Cary Reed and his staff at Canaan Realty by calling 304-866-4400 or visiting their website canaanrealty.com.