Meet Our Team
Our team of contractors, landscapers and interior designers makes the most of every house we buy. We’re proud of our finished products. Take a look at our before and after gallery, and our reviews.
Natalie Dorsey
Natalie Dorsey’s wonderful sense of style, color and layout design makes every project shine. She’s a family medicine Physician Assistant, and offers the same caring and precision to our projects as she does to her patients. When she’s not solving medical problems or creating the perfect kitchen layout, she’s taking our baby son Zeb, or our toddler daughter Via to music or swim class, or a day in the park. She also mountain bikes, rock climbs and dances Contra, Swing and Salsa.
Leland Davis
Leland is the glue that holds the operation together. His advanced understanding of the physics of construction allow him to create beautiful and highly functional homes, even when we start with questionable or poor raw material.
Leland and I met on a cold rainy Thanksgiving afternoon 22 years ago on the Big East Fork of the Pigeon River at 4,370 feet of elevation off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the next four terrifying hours bashing through horribly rocky cascading rapids, then fighting through dense rhododendron with our kayaks to avoid one huge waterfall after another. Fading daylight and a rapidly advancing cold front left us shivering in windblown snow, hoping for a way out.
We were willful and strong headed in our younger days, and we both had very different ideas about how to escape the gorge. As our disagreement escalated and dragged other group members into the conflict, ice formed on our lifejackets, darkness fell and the snowstorm turned into near white-out.
Despite the rough start, our common love of whitewater rivers, travel, music and Asheville brought us back together to form a deep and lasting friendship. We look back now on that first day with a chuckle, if not a shiver. We’ll be glad to tell you the rest of the story when you meet us, but you may get a different version from each 🙂
Jason Michaels
Jason Michaels is our overqualified master carpenter, builder and general construction guru. He’s a Warren Wilson graduate, with an MBA from Norwich University in Vermont. His precise and artistic carpentry skills make for beautiful spaces.
He has an uncanny awareness of the feel of a property, and knows how to maximize its beauty and appeal. He is optimistic and affable almost to a fault, and is usually the first person you’ll meet from Asheville Fast Cash. He enjoys biking, climbing, music and spending time with his son Spencer.
Ryan Renegar
Ugly houses come with ugly yards. Ryan makes them beautiful. He’s our master landscaper and get-it-done guy. When he’s not helping Jason with finishing work, or masterminding a landscaping salvage, he’s traveling with family, enjoying local music or surfing in the Outer Banks or Costa Rica.
Jeff Burkhalter
Jeff Burkhalter is an experienced carpenter with organizational and property management skills in his blood. He comes from a long line of castle-keepers, and keeps our supplies and work spaces ready to rock. This lets our finished projects have all the bells and whistles needed to sell for top dollar- which means we can put more cash in your pocket when we buy your home.
Chris Harjes
Let me tell you- HGTV is highly entertaining, but far from the mark. They conveniently omit the boring logistical and permitting delays in the interest of good television. They also assume contractors will show up, do solid work and charge reasonable prices, which does not happen in the current market.
My first project nearly bankrupted my family. I got way behind on my taxes, and had to work 80-hour weeks for months to keep us afloat. My second project went a bit better, with only a $23,000 cost overrun and completion (only) three months behind schedule.
Learning the hard way has taught me to think outside the box when Murphy’s law rears its ugly head- and to take the advice of strong, trustworthy people. I’m proud of our team and our finished products .
Like Natalie, I am a medical provider, working with the Veterans Administration to make sure our Veterans get the benefits they deserve. During the rare times I’m not working or with the kids, I still kayak down local whitewater rivers. I also enjoy reading, chess, music, surfing and mountain biking.
