Over a decade working in Charleston real estate, I’ve created an exceptional team in the top sales office. I know you might be asking: “What separates me from the competition?”There are several things that separate me from the competition.
We have a preferred list of venders to share with you.
We're proactive.
We’re expected to sell over fifty properties this year.
I earned the Realtor of Distinction in the Executive Circle this year, the highest honor.
I’ve been ranked in the top 10% of Keller Williams Realtors globally.
We’re invested in continuing our education. We have incredible resources available, updated frequently.
If you or someone you know is buying or selling a home today, contact us today for a free consultation! We would love to show you what we can do!
What’s happening in the Charleston real estate market?We’re up 14% in number of units sold. Additionally, we’ll exceed 15,000 properties sold. Right now,2015 is our third busiest year in history.
Median price increased by 4.2%.The average median price now is currently $232,000.
Seven areas in our MLS system are up 10% in value.Additionally, ten areas in our MLS system have less than three months of inventory; nineteen have less than 4.5 months worth.As you can see, homes are selling quickly!
Buying activity is excellent for this time of year.We’re setting records every week.
Although the The Mt. Pleasant and Summerville markets have slowed down slightly,new construction continues to explode and thrive in our region.
Our market continues to grow!According to The Post and Courier, 43 new people move to Charleston every day. All these numbers reveal our real estate market’s current success.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home, contact us for a free real estate consultation today!
For most sellers, negotiating an incoming offer is a matter of settling on a price with the buyer. However, there is another aspect in negotiations that greatly impacts your home sale: the terms of the contract. Terms are equally as important as the sales price. Here are five things for you to consider while navigating the negotiation process.
Make sure the buyer is pre-approved. If a buyer has a pre-approval from a reputable lender, you know whether or not the buyer can actually afford to purchase your house.
Pay attention to the down payment. Lenders require appraisals on homes in order to equate the home value with the selling price. Unless the buyer has a significant down payment available, an unsatisfactory appraisal could cause the deal to fall through. Check to see how much money the buyer is able to put down, and add that amount to the loan to see if they equal the asking price.
Does the buyer have an existing home to sell? This can be a problem for sellers, as these buyers usually want to include a contingency in the contract that absolves them from buying your home if their home fails to sell. This can wreak havoc on the sale of your property, as it requires you to leave the terms of your sale up to the success of another sale. It's best to avoid offers with existing home sale contingencies.
Closing dates are crucial. If the buyer requests a closing date beyond 90 days, it might be time to reconsider the offer. Lenders have timing guidelines that allow a buyer 45 days to apply for a loan. Any closing period longer than 45 days leaves the seller in limbo. If a buyer cannot meet that 45 days, forego the offer.
Look carefully at cash transactions. Although these are attractive to sellers, you need to make sure that the buyer has the cash. Ask your Realtor to verify the funds before you move on with the offer. Unless you know the cash is there, it's a better idea to move onto the next offer.
Negotiating can be tricky in today's market. If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!
Today we will discussthe current market conditions in Charleston. Given all the great things going on in Charleston,it's easy to understand that the real estate market continues to thrive.It's quite possible that we will sell over 15,000 homes this year, making it the third busiest year in our history.
Prices have recovered nicely from the recession and we seem to be back to that nice and steady 5% appreciation rate per year.Because it's been a while since we've seen these price levels, it seems like prices are rising even faster than they are.However, it's a pace that's quite sustainable.
Credit is much tighter than it was back in 2005 or 2007.You can get a loan now, but you have to jump through several hoops to make it happen.
Areas around the downtown peninsula have recovered the best. These include Mount Pleasant, the most popular area, James and John's Island, and West Ash. North Charleston and Daniel Island are doing well also. Summerville and Goose Creek are really coming along in price point; they are the furthest from the beaches and downtown, so these two areas better reflect the prices see in most areas of the U.S.You can buy a great new home with hardwood floors and granite countertops in Summerville or Goose Creek for less than $100 per square foot.
We are up almost 16% in the number of transactions for the same period of time in 2014.Year-over-year, we are also setting records for the number of contingents. Median sales price is around $232K, which is only up a modest 4.4% when compared to 2014. It's worth mentioning that these price increases are modest and sustainable.
For the entire area of Charleston, there is less than 4 months of inventory.However, 19 of our 32 MLS areas are in a seller's market, which leaves 11 of those areas in a buyer's market.
If you have any questions about today's video or the market in a specific area, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!
In today's busy market, it can be hard to know the most effective strategy for locking in a new home. Today, I want to explain how to get the best results when making an offer on a Charleston home!
First and foremost, you must have a buyer agency agreement in place before making an offer. This establishes the relationship between the Realtor's agency and the client's, and allows your Realtor to facilitate the transaction. Once the buyer agency agreement is in place, your Realtor can then begin to prepare your offer.
There are several items you will need when preparing to make an offer on a property. The first is a pre-approval letter from a lender, which shows the seller you have begun working on your financing. The second item includes any disclosures you might have about the property. Finally, the third item required is the offer itself, which includes the sales price, the date you would like to close on the property, the due diligence period for repairs, and financing contingencies.
In today's hot market, if you find a home you think is the right fit, I highly encourage you to get these items in immediately so you can make an offer quickly. If you have any questions about this process, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love to hear from you!
Today we'll be discussing an important distinction among home buyers in Charleston.I'm talking about a pre-approval versus a pre-qualification. It's an important difference that you may not know about, but home sellers will surely be scrutinizing you about it.
A pre-qualification and a pre-approval are two entirely different documents.A pre-qualification is a much more basic certification, and it can be obtained in a few hours. You only need a few pieces of information, none of which is really double-checked, and you can then get your pre-qualification letter once a lender has looked over your numbers.
A pre-approval letter is much more desirable, and I highly recommend it to all of my home buyers.This is more time-consuming, but it will designate you as a serious buyer if you can acquire it. You will submit tax returns, pay stubs, insurance information, and more.Once the lender has an opportunity to review these items, you will then be issued an approval letter.
Both buyers and sellers like to see letters of pre-approval, and this is especially true when the real estate market is as hot as it is in Charleston.
If you would like to be put in contact with a great local lender, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Today, we want to share a video from HGTV to discuss how you can plan ahead when it comes to home renovations.Renovating your home can be an exciting process, but it's important that you don't get ahead of yourself.You can't just go willy-nilly into a major project and expect it to go perfectly.Planning properly for these types of projects can assure a smooth project, and one that may even cost less!
HGTV’s
Amy Matthews recommends making a very detailed timeline of your
project, including potential things that could go awry and making backup
plans in order to prevent these things from happening.Putting your plan onto paper is a good way to start this process.
Another
major step is choosing a good team of contractors that you can
communicate with. If they don't know what you want done, they can't do
it.
Just remember, there is no such thing as too much planning!If
you plan on renovating your Charleston home, please contact us. We
know great contractors and could also give you advice on what projects
will bring you the highest return on your investment.
Today, we cover a topic that confuses many people: the difference between a home inspection and a home appraisal.
Most real estate contracts have both a home inspection contingency and an appraisal contingency. These are completely separate:
The home inspection contingency pertains to the overall condition of the home and any potential issues with the property. This protects the prospective buyer and can include structural issues, a leaky roof, or faulty appliances. A home inspection typically takes anywhere from 2-4 hours. The idea is to pinpoint any issues with the property prior to moving forward with the purchase.
The home appraisal contingency is in place to get a licensed appraiser to the property to justify the purchase price of a property. An appraiser will visit the property once it has gone under contract to make sure the sales price is in line with the current market. The appraiser will review comparable sales and review items such as square footage, condition of the property, lot premiums, and other variables that are factored into property values. The goal of the appraiser is to provide a detailed report showing how the sales price was reached in the contract.
We hope this gives you a good understanding of the differences between home inspections and home appraisals. If you have any further questions, or if you would like our assistance, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would be pleased to help you!
Hey everyone, today we are going to be discussing Zestimates, and how accurate they are in Charleston.
I cannot even begin to explain how often buyers and sellers ask me about the accuracy of their Zestimate, an automated home valuation from the home search website, Zillow. From my experience, the Zestimates in Charleston tend to be off in value considerably.
I've seen property value off by as much as $100,000 on homes in our area. Zillow uses several different sources for their information in an attempt to put an accurate value, but in my opinion, it will never be accurate. Each home is unique, and has its own unique value. There simply is not a substitute for a local Realtor who is familiar with all the market details. They can get you the most accurate home valuation.
If you don't believe me about Zestimates being inaccurate, let me prove it to you. If you go on Zillow.com, scroll down to the very bottom, and click on the "Zestimates" link, you will see a tab that says "How Accurate is my Zestimate?" Here you will see for yourself that their Zestimates can be off by as much as 10% in 40% of sales.
As you can see, the Zestimate is pretty useless for getting an accurate home value. I invite you to visit with a local Realtor or appraiser for a much more accurate idea of what your property is worth in the current market. If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!
"We were very happy. We ended up buying a house with him. We wound up with new construction. He walked through the process, and he was with us the entire way. We actually had a couple of issues as we were doing the construction. For example, they put the wrong kind of toilet in the house. We were at the hospital with our newborn daughter, and we couldn’t get to the house. Greg got the toilets fixed before we moved into the house. He took care of everything out of the kindness of his heart."
Today, we discuss the importance of being pre-approved in the competitive Charleston market.
The market is moving quickly right now, so if you wait to get pre-approved, you may miss out on the home you're interested in. Having a pre-approval letter in hand will show the seller that you're a ready, willing, and able buyer, and will make your offer stand out!
We recommend contacting a lender immediately if you plan on buying soon. You're not making any commitments by getting pre-approved - you're simply getting an idea of what your interest rate and monthly payments will be. This initial contact with a lender will provide a ton of valuable insight into what price point you should be focusing on, among other important aspects of home buying.
If you have questions about the value of a pre-approval letter, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, give us call! We would love to hear from you!
Hey everyone, welcome back to our blog. Today we will be discussing some of the most common mistakes that home buyers make. Our current market is extremely active and buyers can't waste any time once they find the right home. We have seen many buyers fail to secure their dream home due to not acting quickly enough and getting that initial offer in. If you're searching for a home in our current market, take our advice and get that initial offer to the seller in order to get the ball rolling on your home sale. At that point, the seller will at least know you have some interest, and you will be notified if the home goes into a multiple offer situation.
Multiple offer situations are becoming much more common, and sellers are definitely aware that this is the case. You can put several contingencies on that initial offer to protect you and give you more peace of mind when making such a big decision. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. We look forward to hearing from you!
The real estate market in Charleston has literally never been busier! We just hit a record for activity, and more than 400 homes went under contract in one week.
Inventory levels are very low right now, which means that sellers will have the advantage and be able to sell their homes for a nice profit. Buyers may find it hard to find a home, but they will find comfort that prices are rising moderately and interest rates are still very, very low.
The dollar per sq. ft. prices are still 5-10% below the peak of 2005-2007, which is a good sign of market recovery. Our median sale price is sitting right around $220,000.
Transactions have increased 94% year-to-date since 2014, which is unbelievable!
We are likely to see more than 14,000 transactions before the year is over. If you're interested in buying or selling a home in Charleston, now is the time to do so.
