Plantation Lakes Blog!

A Myrtle Beach listing can be a smash hit when the pictures show a property that’s cosmetically appealing, the copy rings true, and the details hit the sweet spot where features and value are a match for the best the area has to offer. But it still might not be as effective as it should be if one other detail is a little bit off. It’s a detail that can cause qualified buyers—the ones who should be a home’s most interested prospects— to miss the whole show.

I suppose that calling that part of a Myrtle Beach listing a “detail” is like calling the end score of the NBA’s final playoff a detail—or calling the final vote count in an election a “factor.” It may be just one element of many, but it is uniquely important. In a Myrtle Beach listing, it’s often the first element that shoppers specify when they’re picking which area homes they will consider. If it’s not thoughtfully calibrated to fall within the parameters they name, the results may suffer considerably.

Of course, the “detail” we’re talking about is the price on the listing, and choosing the “right” one is the object. We’re looking for a number that will help a home sell quickly at the highest price possible. If the neighborhood comps—the prices paid and asked for nearby area homes with similar features—were all that mattered, coming up with the most suitable listing price would be a cut-and-dried affair. But there are other factors that need to be taken into account. Some are easy to determine, some…not so much.

• the Myrtle Beach residential market is a moving target, sometimes building from a lower level, sometimes echoing the latest transactions, sometimes losing momentum.
• competitive Myrtle Beach listing prices reflect either other sellers’ best estimates of that market for their properties, or else their personal opinions of what they think the market should be--but there’s no way to verify which!
• the final selling price of any home is determined not only by the seller’s situation, but by the buyer’s, also, which is a factor which cannot be determined in advance.

That’s why there is no universally agreed-upon formulas to rely upon, and since there is no way to determine what outcome would have resulted if a different price had been chosen, there’s also no way to verify after the fact if the absolute “best” one was chosen—even if everyone considers the sale a great success! Web titan Zillow says, “if the home sells within a few days of listing, chances are you listed too low” yet if a higher price had been chosen, causing that home to linger for months on the market, it wouldn’t have been listed too low. On the other hand, if the listing price were set to court multiple offers, a quick sale could mean a higher selling price was achieved. There’s simply no way to know for sure.

Put it all together and you have to figure that arriving at the right listing price is really more of an art than a science. I help clients by pooling my extensive Myrtle Beach experience, up-to-the minute market knowledge, and detailed examination of the property’s unique attributes to suggest the range of listing prices I judge most likely to achieve the Holy Grail—a quick sale at top dollar!

If you’d like, we can get together for a no-obligation discussion of your own property’s listing prospects. It’s a great reason to give me a call!

Blue Pin, 3/5/02, 5:49 PM, 8C, 1122x1416 (1806+134), 100%, bent 5 stops, 1/100 s, R72.2, G66.2, B79.7

A few of Myrtle Beach's professionals operate as one-person enterprises, but that’s unusual. Even a one-doctor medical practice has back-up staff. Most lawyers, even if they aren’t in a partnership arrangement, have at least one assistant or secretary to help. Small commercial businesses are called ‘mom and pop’ operations because…well, you get the picture. Almost any serious enterprise takes a team effort to get anywhere—especially in this day and age.

So it’s no surprise that when they set about buying a Myrtle Beach home or selling their own, most Myrtle Beach folks don’t take on the project all by themselves. Even though the average American family buys a new home every 7 to 10 years, constantly changing state and local regulations make keeping up with them a professional-level challenge. And even though the first part of the buying process—finding the most likely listed properties—can be started from your computer, as soon as the winnowing begins, the knowledge of a Myrtle Beach real estate agent—someone who lives and breathes real estate—soon becomes crucial.

As we wade deeper into the 2016 election cycle, one of the themes that keeps coming up is “leadership”—the ability to recruit and direct expert help. When buying or selling a Myrtle Beach home, it’s no different: you want the team you assemble to be as strong as possible. That will free you for your most important leadership role, the decision-making. The first order of business is to find an agent who will not only assist with all the real estate transactional details, but also help identify and recommend other reliable professionals you will need in successive steps of the process. Since finding that agent starts with you, here are some tips to help focus your selection:

• Everyone responds differently to differing personalities. What type of person do you click with? Do you envision a real estate agent who is a straight shooter—who will deliver realistic advice, a bubbly personality full of optimism—or perhaps a bit of both? Jot down the personality traits that you would like to see in your agent.
• Identify needs unique to your situation. If you’re house hunting on a tight budget and need a home fast, you want an agent experienced in finding affordable options. If you’re selling an expensive home in a much-sought-after neighborhood, you might want a Myrtle Beach real estate agent who’s sold high-end properties in the neighborhood.
• Ask colleagues, neighbors, and friends for recommendations. Don’t collect referrals from just one source. Everyone in your neighborhood might use the same agent, but a colleague might have another recommendation. You want to shop around for an agent, so don’t rely on just one referral.
• Check credentials. A credentialed real estate agent is absolutely essential. Of course, nix any agent who isn’t licensed in our state.
• Interview your short list. When you meet with potential agents, ask for a list of recent sales completed near your price point. See if you are comfortable with how the agent prefers to communicate: phone, email, text, or a mix. Finally, request the contact information for a few recent clients to check references—and then check them!

Finding your perfect real estate agent starts with the effort put in by the leader: you. I hope your search includes this real estate agent…in fact, why not start by giving me a call!

If you’ve ever had the kind of neighbor who is apt to borrow something (like your hedge trimmer), only to later complain about how it performed, you know how much patience it takes to hold your tongue. The Mortgage Bankers Association would be justified if they felt that way about me: I read their website, and sometimes quote it in posts about current Myrtle Beach mortgage rates—but it sure makes for dull reading!

Anyway, with apologies to their (undoubtedly hard-working) writing staff, last week’s blog about national mortgage rates was as numbers-heavy as usual, yet still held a contradiction…but one that actually makes perfect sense. It also flags what could be seen as a bellwether that Myrtle Beach home buyers and sellers would be hard-pressed to ignore.

The apparent contradiction was that mortgage rates were on the increase: national mortgage rates for 30-year fixed loans rose to 4.17%, which is the highest they’ve been since November. This is for conforming loans; the jumbos (greater than $417,000) went north as well, up to 4.15%.

As everyone knows, low mortgage interest rates are terrific for our Myrtle Beach residential home sales. The low monthly payments that they create make homeownership more affordable for a greater number of buyers. So when rates increase and monthly payments go up, it should create a drag on the market. The apparent contradiction in the MBA release was that the increase in rates was accompanied by an increase in mortgage applications. And it was a big one: up 8.4% from the week before.

Most commentators were united about the phenomenon, and it’s hard to disagree. In addition to the natural surge that comes with the season (spring and summer are always expected to be quite active), consumers are seeing the uptick in mortgage rates and suspecting that rates will head higher. That’s nudging them to action, causing them to jump in now, while rates are still attractive—especially compared with historical averages.

CNBC’s Diana Olick agreed that such sharp increases actually help the home-buying market. She quotes one lender’s take about the buyers: “They understand that ‘wait a minute, rates are at an all-time low, let’s react now, let’s react before they go higher.’”

It’s far from a certainty that rates will continue to take off. Lots of us remember last year, when almost all the experts predicted a rise, yet mortgage interest rates headed in the opposite direction…and stayed there! But you can hardly blame area buyers if they go with the national trend and decide that locking in today’s rates is a prudent move: it’s a bird in the hand.

If you have been thinking along the same lines, I hope you will give me a call!

You pronounce it “FIZZ-bow.”

That’s FSBO: For Sale by Owner, and it’s the Road Less Travelled by area homeowners bent on selling a home in Myrtle Beach as economically as possible. It does seem to make common sense, after all. It’s the homeowner who knows the ins and outs of their own home best—so who could be more qualified to show it off to the buyers who’ll be lined up, waiting to take a look?

And even more to the point, why lose any part of the sale proceeds to some Myrtle Beach real estate agent? It can’t be rocket science to fill out the paperwork and complete the sale. Isn’t that just common sense?

For those considering selling a home themselves, even cursory research is likely to result in one nagging question. The latest sampling from the NAR shows that the vast majority—88%, in fact—of today’s successful sellers are assisted by a real estate agent. That proportion has been growing, lately, too: it’s up 19 percentage points since 2001. This has to give rise to the nagging question: “If it’s common sense, how come the vast majority eventually wind up going with a real estate agent?”

What actually happens in a sale plays a large part, starting with an examination of the bottom line of actual sales. It reflects the fact that the customary commission percentage that goes to real estate professionals is split in two, with half going to the seller’s and half to the buyer’s agent. So the net “savings” a FSBO seller stands to realize is half of the usual initial assumption when the buyer is professionally introduced by the buyer’s representative.

Unless the buyer just appears on his or her own.

Which brings up a couple of other potential problems. If the buyer shows up on the seller’s doorstep, who has qualified him or her? (Short answer: nobody). It’s awkward and practically impossible for a homeowner to interview every prospective buyer in depth before showing the home, but having strangers in your Myrtle Beach house with no outside record of the event is at best an iffy prospect. The fact is, most qualified home buyers see the advantage of teaming with a licensed Myrtle Beach real estate agent, whose market knowledge is up to the minute, and who will assist them every step of the way at no cost to themselves. Those qualified buyers stand to be a FSBO’s likeliest prospects, in which case the potential ‘savings’ from a do-it-yourself strategy are halved.

But as a working reality, FSBO sellers run a substantial risk that those hoped-for calls from active agents may be slow to materialize. It is often the case that local agents, noting that the home is a FSBO, place it low on the list of properties their clients have time to tour. Among other indicators, a FSBO listing on the MLS signals to the Myrtle Beach real estate community that the owner is not truly serious about selling the home—else why is it not part of a professional office’s marketing package? Too, buyers’ agents work to protect their clients from difficult situations, and many FSBO sellers are not well-versed and experienced in negotiating and selling houses. Problems can erupt. All things being equal, it means that FSBOs get few showing requests.

Plus, any advertising costs will be paid for out of the owner’s own pocket—an expensive strategy.

It’s pretty clear why almost 9 out of 10 homeowners selling a home go with a qualified real estate agent. I hope you agree—and decide to give me a call!

You want your approach to finding a new home in Myrtle Beach to be at least somewhat hard-headed and businesslike. The financial stakes are certainly major, and to some extent, much of what your future lifestyle will be like will depend on making a good choice.

This is not to totally discount the emotional component that’s inevitably part of finding your new Myrtle Beach home. You do want your family to feel good about the final choice—you’ll be moving to the dwelling that will become everybody’s center of operations.

So if your repeat visit begins to convince you that this really is the place you’ve been hoping to find, it’s the appropriate time to take a step back to do your most hard-headed, businesslike projection. This is beyond the back-of-the-envelope kind of calculation (the one that originally guided the price range you gave to your Realtor). This is time to take everything into account to see how well this new Myrtle Beach home truly fits—on a number of counts.

A new home’s true affordability begins with the banker’s basic price formula—purchase price, mortgage, insurance and taxes. You should also contemplate the cost of having the property inspected and the closing costs (your Realtor® can give you a close estimate). But that’s not the whole picture—a new home’s true affordability also incorporates the difference between your family’s current expense profile and any factors that will change it.

For instance, if the square footage of the new home greater, you can expect that simple maintenance costs will rise proportionately (unless the new home’s condition is a good deal better than your current one). Utility costs may rise, too, if the living space is greater—unless more efficient systems are in place.

If the location will necessitate a change in driving distance or other transportation expenses, they should be taken into account. Does the new place have a significantly larger lawn or other landscaping features? If you have a green thumb and enjoy getting that kind of outdoor exercise (IOW, mowing), that won’t have much effect. If not, you’d better factor in a gardener’s bill.

There is one other element that’s easy to overlook, but accounting for it can eliminate the possibility that the whole move results in an unexpectedly depleted bank balance. Most people who are moving into a terrific new home forget to fully account for the few changes they’ll need to make before the place is perfectly suited their family. These could be minor, like changing out a light fixture that doesn’t fit the dining room table. Or they could be major, like addressing wholesale décor clashes that call for choosing between repainting the walls—or reupholstering— or even purchasing new furniture!

Helping you make sure your new Myrtle Beach home is a comfortable match for your family’s needs is a large part of the service I provide my buyers. If you are ready to take a look at the latest crop of Myrtle Beach new home offerings, I’ll be standing by for your call!

“There’s No Place like Home” is one of those quaint sayings that somehow lasts forever, probably just because it’s so true. “Home is Where the Heart Is” is another one: corny, maybe, but undeniable.

There’s a strictly real estate saying that Myrtle Beach residents will recognize at once, too. Less corny as well as a good deal more practical. It’s “Location! Location! Location!”—and it’s every bit as true as the other ones. It’s the where of real estate, and although it is usually thought of in its commercial connection, to a slightly lesser degree, it has major Myrtle Beach residential significance.

For those of us who are already Myrtle Beach residents, where our next home should be located is almost certainly one of the two or three primary considerations. But even more so for out-of-towners who will be moving into our area. After price range, it’s a ruling factor: location location location—which Myrtle Beach neighborhood will be our best choice for home—is a good place to start.

When you’re brand new to any area, just thinking ‘location location location’ is one thing, but going about finding the right one in a timely manner isn’t necessarily easy. First step will be to consult the real estate professional you’ve teamed up with (a good one would be me!) and have an in-depth orientation conversation about our neighborhoods. Next come prioritizing your own priorities:

Professional. If you know the ‘location location location’ of where you’ll be working, the commute distance is likely to be a key factor. The convenience of having your Myrtle Beach home as close as possible to your Myrtle Beach work will only grow with time.

School. If you have school-aged children, you’ll want to research how the schools are rated, or opt to a top-notch private institution. Either way, getting the kids to and from can be less of a hassle if home is in the right place. Location, location, etc.!

Shopping. Weekend mall visits certainly don’t need to be right around the corner, but things like visits to the grocery store can become an irritant if it involves 15-minutes each way…every day! Perhaps not a governing factor, but one that gains importance over time.

Community. Church, social groups, cultural gatherings are either to your liking or less so. Once you have gauged all of those “practical” factors, it will take some local visits and conversations with residents to get the real flavor of the possible communities—and determine which seem most inviting. Access to sports and outdoor recreational facilities also fit into this category…which, taken together, can easily turn out to be the most important quality of life factor.

Unless you happen to be a longtime local resident, many of the qualities of a listing’s location location location in Myrtle Beach isn’t fully evident from the listing information. It takes some on-the-ground knowledge, and (ideally) more than one visit. It also will benefit when your buyer’s Realtor® is a knowledgeable and experienced local resident…which is another good reason to give me a call!

Myrtle Beach residents don’t have to be pet owners to get a sense of just how nutty Americans are about our animals. Just a few minutes of watching TV will do it. After you’ve been bombarded with the images of happy/sad/exuberant/listless cats and dogs who are saved/rewarded by the pet products in the commercials, you won’t doubt that $60.59 billion is being spent on pets this year. It becomes clear how Fido and Kitty can afford to foot the bill for so much of today’s prime time television.

Another fact—one that directly relates to Myrtle Beach real estate—is that slightly more than 56% of all American households are said to include a pet. The ASPCA says that 37%-47% of households have a dog, and 30%-37% of households have a cat (as far as the cats are concerned, it’s the cats that have the households, not the other way around). Whether or not Fido and Kitty are part of your own family, this does give rise to how important the real estate concept of “pet-friendly” homes has become.

Consideration:

Does your finicky cat need a room of his or her own? Does your MegaDog require a large yard? Space is always a leading qualification when you go to assess minimum real estate requirements for your Myrtle Beach family, but since 68% of families include pet needs in their calculations, that is one of the basics that qualify a property. That’s why it makes increasing sense to emphasize pet-friendliness. For instance, if the back yard has a low or not very restrictive fence, a proactive seller might research the cost of installing an invisible fence. Even if they don’t go ahead and actually put it in, having a bid in hand showing that the cost is reasonable could be enough to sooth pet-owning prospects’ concerns.

Consideration:

Although pet owners are unambiguous about considering the four-footers to be family members, that’s not a universally shared concept. If you don’t see (or hear) any signs of pets in a prospective neighborhood, buyers should make certain that a property they are thinking about buying doesn’t carry restrictions that could cause pet turmoil. Local ordinances and neighborhood associations can enforce restrictions on the number and kind of pets.

Consideration:

Along with the growing popularity of pets have come a number of pet perks that have real estate implications. Pet amenities like dog parks are becoming more and more common in newer communities (in some areas, a movement is afoot to feature dog- and even cat-friendly cafes and public buildings).

I hope you will give me a call if you are embarking on a Myrtle Beach house-hunting exploration­­, or are preparing to list your own property­­­­­ this summer. Pet accommodation is only one dimension I’ll help you make sure is fully addressed!

When it comes to boosting your Myrtle Beach home’s value, the question arises about which of the possible improvements that you might undertake would wind up paying for themselves. At first blush, you might think this should be a cut-and-dried analysis­—that is, any improvements that don’t at least add their own cost to the asking price should be disqualified.

But that would be to discount the fact that a property’s improved condition can speed its sale. When a few improvements might change the overall impression from ‘fixer-upper’ to ‘move-in-ready,’ true value is added. Too many days on market can wind up being costly to the seller, not only because of the inconvenience factor, but because interested buyers may assume a deeply discounted offer will have a better chance of being accepted.

In any case, especially when the budget for improvements is especially tight, there are some cheap fixes that can be counted as especially likely to recoup their cost. Here are three that Myrtle Beach sellers can consider:

Let There Be Light

Nothing torpedoes a Myrtle Beach home’s marketability like the impression that it’s a creaky old relic. We’re not talking about homes that merit ‘antique’ status, which is a plus, but those with rooms that seem gloomy: the opposite of those with bright, airy spaces that convey a cheerful feeling. Because rebuilding a room to actually expand its physical dimensions is expensive, one solution is to create an improved atmosphere with light: adding or replacing light fixtures.

To maximize your bang for the buck, consider adding a showpiece fixture or two—perhaps a chandelier or pair of wall sconces—in key locations. The kitchen, dining room, and entryway/foyer are all great choices for a hanging light fixtures. Buyers often tend to focus on those areas, and respond well when they are transformed into warm and inviting spaces.

Seed Your Way to Curb Appeal

It’s a truism that curb appeal is vital, but when time and budget make it impractical to deal with a full front yard do-over, one of the least costly improvements that immediately boosts eye-appeal is to put the lawn in top condition with a quick reseed. Brown patches and bare spots are a sure way to kill a lawn’s visual appeal, and even otherwise-healthy areas can get a boost from thicker growth. A variety of easy-to-use products are available that allow you to simply sprinkle an all-in-one mixture of fertilizer and seeds that will take root and grow quickly. Take a pass over the lawn now, and with consistent watering, by summer the entire yard can look terrific!

Update Vintage Plumbing

While appearance matters, buyers are still going to be very interested in the “guts” of the home. If you’re dealing with an older Myrtle Beach house, it’s likely that the plumbing has seen better days. Fortunately, replacing or upgrading pipes doesn’t have to be as expensive and disruptive a project as used to be the case. Modern technology allows new plastic piping to be snaked between the walls through a few small holes. Amazingly, today’s plumbers can sometimes even avoid installing new pipes by lining existing pipes with self-expanding vinyl bladders that seal leaks and protect water quality.

I’m always happy to provide a no-obligation consultation to discuss which budget-wise improvements have a track record of adding appeal to Myrtle Beach home buyers. Why not give me a call?

Remember the good old days, when most people could depend on staying in the same job in the same community for an entire career? Okay; the truth is, I don’t actually remember any time like that—but I do remember watching TV shows about it... The truth is, as with so many other facets of 21st Century life, sudden career upheavals that cause a Myrtle Beach citizen to undertake an abrupt relocation are fairly common today. And accelerated timing requirements can make the situation more intense.

Even without that added obstacle, familiarity with the ins and outs of practical relocation is one of the most valuable assets you gain access to when selecting an experienced Myrtle Beach Realtor®. Especially when a relocation is in your immediate future (even if it’s a future that became apparent without a lot of warning), the reality of having to deal with the mass of details accompanying both moving out and moving in can seem like a huge gray, angry-looking cloud hanging overhead.

Just getting a handle on the details can go far to remove the mystery and dispel anxiety. A short list of the elements that need to be determined and coordinated are:

a. Professional and school requirements
b. Transaction imperatives in both communities
c. Moving and storage details
d. Utility requirements

Once a timeline is determined and a To Do checklist assembled, it will be possible to stay on top of the process. Most importantly, it will help highlight those details that seem to be falling behind— allowing them to get extra attention. Staying abreast of relocation details is the single most important key that will lead to a smooth outcome. It’s one of Murphy’s Laws that, come moving day, any detail that has been put off until the last minute is likely to cause foul-ups of one kind or another. For instance, if the electric service wasn’t notified far enough in advance, count on the move taking place on the hottest day of the year. Unpacking cartons and moving furniture around without working air conditioners is a memory best avoided!

Any relocation is a challenge that requires a welter of decisions in areas that fall outside what people encounter in everyday living. Fortunately, it’s a challenge that your Myrtle Beach real estate professional encounters regularly. Help with practical relocation to (or from) Myrtle Beach is just one of the areas of practical expertise that is yours to tap into when you put an experienced Realtor on your team.

The days when most Americans expected to stay in the same community for a lifetime may be fading from memory, but being able to rely on your Myrtle Beach real estate professional to help master some of the most challenging upshots is still here.

They may say that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, but that shouldn’t stop you from giving me a call, anytime!

This is actually a situation that’s very common, but not much remarked upon: you know you are going to be selling your Myrtle Beach home—only not for a while…and perhaps not for a very long while! Is there anything you should be doing now, long before actual preparations are called for?

There sure is! Let’s call these low-intensity preparations. They may be low-intensity in the immediacy department, but when the distant day arrives when you are selling your home, they can be very fortuitous. Here are some of the elements you can benefit from putting into action long before you expect to need them—

LANDSCAPING

Number One (the most obvious and perhaps most important) is landscaping. Trees and bushes are part of the backdrop of our everyday living, and something many people—even gardeners—may tend to accept without envisioning large-scale changes. That’s because they grow so slowly it doesn’t seem realistic to worry about what might be possible. But when you think long-range, landscaping should be at the forefront. When the time comes for selling your home, a vision first initiated five or 10 years earlier can become a colorful and shady reality, worth a very great deal in terms of the overall impression your Myrtle Beach property makes.

THE MECHANICALS

It’s human nature to just put up with heating, plumbing, air conditioning and other systems that could operate much more conveniently and economically, but which are expensive to overhaul. But think realistically: if you know that later on you will be selling your Myrtle Beach home—and realistically will certainly have to upgrade those vexing mechanicals when that happens—give serious thought to taking action earlier…even NOW! Not only will you be able to enjoy the improvement­, it’s entirely possible that savings realized from the gains in efficiency will materially offset your initial outlay. Why let the future owners get all the benefit?

PHOTOGRAPHY

When you are selling a home, photography is one of the most impactful marketing tools you’ll have at your disposal. A couple of years before you plan to join the Myrtle Beach listings, keep a camera ready to snap those fleeting moments when the season and light combine to make some detail of garden or home magically illuminated. Even a professional photographer can’t ‘make’ such moments happen. As Ansel Adams’ outdoor masterpieces confirmed: the perfect light at the perfect season is worth more than money can buy.

INFORMATION

It doesn’t hurt to keep abreast of happenings in the national and Myrtle Beach real estate market, so that you’re informed about what to expect when you ultimately join the fray. One of the best ways to do that (other than to keep reading my blog) is to check out the neighborhood listings from time to time: they’re here on my site.

And one of the best ways to proceed when the moment does arrive when you will be selling your home in Myrtle Beach is (of course) to give me a call!