‘Exceptional’ estate with sweeping views for sale in the NC mountains

Vernon and Marie Krause are selling the North Carolina mountain estate they bought for a record-setting price nearly two years ago.

The couple love their home in The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, but they bought another one in the community to be closer to its par-71 Jack Nicklaus Signature Design golf course, co-listing agents Vince Roser and Frank Nix of Cliffs Realty told The Charlotte Observer Thursday.

The course will host the PGA 2026 Biltmore Championship Asheville from Sept. 17 to 20, which is on the PGA Tour’s FedExCup fall schedule.

The couple paid $8.45 million for the home at 510 Cloud Top Way in the private community in Arden, 15 miles south of Asheville, the Observer reported at the time.

They were drawn by the mountains, the closeness to Asheville and the access to the golf courses at The Cliffs’ seven mountain and lake communities in the Carolinas.

“They felt it offered everything they were looking for,” Roser and Nix said in a statement to the Observer.

Their purchase set an all-time record in all Cliffs’ communities. The transaction also represented the highest-priced single-family home sale of 2024 in the Asheville area and Buncombe County.

Two months later, a $10 million sale in The Cliffs at Keowee Springs, on Lake Keowee in South Carolina, broke the mark.

A new record for The Cliffs at Walnut Cove was set in March 2026 with a $9.5 million sale near the Krauses’ home, the Realtors said.

The Krauses are selling their 7,640-square-foot home for nearly $8.9 million.

The Krauses own 23 auto dealerships in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida through their Krause Auto Group, including Asheville Lincoln, Asheville Ford and, in the Lake Norman area, Huntersville Ford on Statesville Road.

Its Realtors call the couple’s stacked stone and cedar home “exceptional.”

The home is anchored by a two-story great room, with exposed steel beams, and large windows with views of Pisgah National Forest, downtown Asheville and the Biltmore Estate.

The home’s 2,800-foot elevation also means summer temperatures rarely above the low 80s.

The home is located on 1.07 manicured acres.

Its steel entry door opens to the main level, where the kitchen anchors the open floor plan, according to the property listing.

The kitchen includes Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, an 11-foot-by-five-foot island, solid quartz backsplash and a concealed pantry with a second Sub-Zero refrigerator and a wine cooler.

The dining and great room lead to an outdoor deck with a built-in Sedona gas grill, retractable phantom screens and IPE decking.

The home has two offices — one with custom-soundproofed walls — and a primary suite with coffered ceilings. The French doors of the suite open to a deck and a custom floating king bed.

A spa bathroom has heated marble floors, a zero-entry steam shower with treetop views, a Bain Ultra soaking tub, and a marble wardrobe island that anchors an expansive primary closet, the listing says.

The lower level of the home has a beamed media room with a MadVR Envy video processor; a bar kitchenette with a Marvel keg refrigerator, a waterfall quartz island; a temperature-controlled glass wine cellar and a gym with epoxy concrete floors.

The lower level also includes a separate heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, three guest suites, and a bunk suite sleeping four.

This story was originally published July 31, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline “‘Exceptional’ estate with sweeping views for sale in the NC mountains.”