mission accomplished, dream fulfilled
by larisa harrill

Ask yourself: What would you sacrifice for financial independence and creative freedom? Could you give up your home, your career, and life as you know it for your dreams and hope for the best?

Vanessa Cram did, and the full-time real estate buff and business owner on the side has had a rocky road to success.

Her budding dream to run a business was put on the back burner throughout college at Appalachian State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design and went on to work for Dianne Divant Interiors, which she describes as “one of the few truly successful interior design companies in the country”. Despite her $75,000 annual salary, she ultimately found the job to be unfulfilling. “I was well paid, but other people were making millions off the work I was doing,” she explains. “I only saw a fraction of that. It just wasn’t worth it to me to continue that way.”

The same principle applied to paying rent on her home. She felt sucked into a financial vacuum where her work and her money were benefitting those better off than she, with nothing to show for it herself. “I was going into a hole buying my landlord a house,” she notes.

Finally, frustration and inspiration led her to make a decision that would change her life forever. Determined to pay her own way rather than someone else’s, she quit her job and moved into a 1989 Volvo station wagon with her future business partner, Jason Eller. There they spent two months while she waited tables at the Blowing Rock Cafe (“like 150 hours a week,” she laughs). Her tips were stashed in savings and later contributed to the 5% down payment on their first home.
With little credit, getting a first time home loan would have been costly and difficult. Vanessa discovered owner financing, which she recommends to any prospective first time home buyers.

“It’s easier to get owner financing than to go through a bank because the process is quicker, the interest is usually lower, and you can get away with having little or no credit or even bad credit,” she says. “It works for the seller because they’re not paying a chunk of their profit to somebody’s commission, and the whole process just goes smoother with fewer parties involved.”

Another tip? If you do apply for a loan through a mortgage company, you’re more likely to be approved if you’re a woman. This is due to little-known minority quotas enforced by the law.

After purchasing her first home, an old house in need of some TLC, Vanessa and Jason hired a small crew to help fix up the home in preparation for resale.
The sale was a success, and the profit was encouraging. They bought another home. Then another.

“On one of our first houses, we made a $20,000 profit,” Vanessa says with a tired smile. “But you have to realize that we work 7 days a week, usually from sun up to sun down. It’s hard work to fix up older houses because there’s so much that goes wrong with them. We get a lot of dirt on our hands.”

In addition to her expertise in upscale interior design (come on, the lady’s visions were worth $75,000 to Dianne Divant) and the diehard work ethics that fuel the team’s projects, Vanessa and Eric have something else to offer the homeowner community. “Mission Accomplished”, located downtown, provides fine funiture and crafts remnant of Grove Park Inn elegance.

“The shop helps to fund our home projects,” Vanessa announces. “We also have merchandise available on e-Bay.”

Among the most popular items are large concrete planters in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, which are most demand in some of the country’s ritziest cities such as New York, L.A., and Miami.

For those interested in exploring Vanessa’s classic line of furnishings, “Mission Accomplished” is open by appointment. You can contact her at 225-9816.
When asked what it takes to go from living in an old car to owning five homes (including her own, the original Clingman home built in the 1920’s) and running a successful business, Vanessa says this:

“I haven’t done anything extraordinary. Anyone who is willing to work hard and take some risks can do what I’ve done... what we’ve done. I just had to be brave enough to throw caution to the wind. I saw (my first business venture) like this; even if I lost everything I had, what did it matter? I didn’t have much to begin with, and I was fine then. I felt that I had far more at stake if I didn’t even try.”

Perhaps one could speculate that while initial sacrifices were painful and the road to success was tedious, the only thing Vanessa truly lost along the way was a lifestyle that forced her to work, live, and exist to serve and support others.
Now ask yourself: What would you be willing to sacrifice for your financial independence and spiritual freedom?

Larisa Harrill is a 21 year old Asheville native who wrote her first short story at age 8 and traded it to students in her school in exchange for candy. Since then, she has written two major articles and over a dozen news shorts for the Mountain Xpress. She has just left a secretarial job to write freelance full-time.