Need advice, accidental investor: No longer building dream home

[Marty Milligan]

I am pretty much an accidental real estate investor. I have three different investments but I only chose to be in one of them. I have questions about each but I'll ask them one at a time to reduce confusion.

My first question deals with some property we bought to build a new home on. Back in 2001, we bought about 5 acres of land along the Potomac river in the Eastern Panhandle of WV. It is on a paved road and has a nice little community that has low HOA fees to maintain the road and some hiking trails. In addition to the river front, it sits high on a bluff and has spectacular views. While the community started out as mostly cabins, it didn't take long before large log homes started going in and the neighborhood went upscale.

We had a pretty nice home designed but before we could build, I had a unique job opportunity that I just couldn't pass up in another town so we put the project on hold. That was eight years ago and I'm about to move to another position that is going to take me farther from the land and will put off the project even longer. At this point, I think it would be best to sell the property to someone that will use it sooner. I doubt I will ever find anything this unique again but it is getting expensive to pay the taxes each year and the trees are starting to need care. I'd love to eventually make it back to the Eastern Panhandle but I really don't see that happening for five to ten years.

So my question is, should I sell the property and if so, how do I go about figuring out what it worth and how do I find a realtor that will be able to market something like this?