Plantation Lakes Blog!

Everyone agrees that getting the right Myrtle Beach Realtor® for your team is vital when you’re buying or selling a home­­. Defining ‘right’ isn’t hard, either: for some of us, that will be a Realtor with the kind of dynamic sales personality that seems to make obstacles just disappear; for others, the ‘right’ Realtor® is the one we just ‘clicked’ with instantly­­—somebody who speaks the same language—is on the same wavelength—who we sense immediately will be someone with whom we can work seamlessly.

Sometimes even veteran homeowners who have bought and sold residences over the years have never had to develop a penetrating interview plan. Their trusted circle of friends may have included a real estate professional, or they may have had a good experience with the Realtor who introduced them to the community. But if that individual is no longer available, it’s going to be necessary to find a suitable replacement.

It all comes down to interviews—and why it’s important to get the most out of them. Personality is a perfectly valid basis for weighing candidates who will be performing the kind of vital­­ service your Myrtle Beach Realtor will be called upon to do, but what if there is no single standout candidate in that department? If, after interviewing a host of equally sympathetic candidates, you can’t pare down the field with any degree of confidence­—what then?

You won’t have to flip a coin (or consult a fortune teller!) if you’ve asked each candidate the same group of relevant questions. Some of them will differ depending on whether you are choosing a Realtor to help you buy or sell a property, but these are universally relevant:

• How long have you been working as a real estate professional? How long here in Myrtle Beach?
• How do you keep your clients informed of progress?
• What if I need to get in touch with you?
• What kind of Myrtle Beach service providers can you connect your clients with?
• Will you represent me only, or will you represent both buyer and seller?
• What kind of team do you work with?
• What is the proposed fee arrangement?

If you make note of the answers to these and other similar questions, you should emerge with a feeling that you’ve gotten the most from the interview process. Along with the ‘track record’ materials every candidate Realtor will be sure to volunteer, at the end of the day, you’ll have with a solid basis for comparison.

I hope you won’t hesitate to include me in your group of candidates!

You may have wondered why there are credit repair companies out there, since the credit reporting agencies have to allow any Myrtle Beach consumer to dispute incorrect line items on their own. The big Credit Reporting Agencies (“CRAs”) even have online systems for challenging erroneous information. The Agency must act speedily to investigate and correct any false information. Soooo, why pay someone else to just fill out their form?

The answer seems to be the same one that makes practitioners in the legal profession permanently in demand: it’s in the fine print. And in this case, it could be that some of that fine print is written in invisible ink.

As you can well imagine, speed is vital when a would-be Myrtle Beach mortgage applicant finds a credit score that’s lower than expected. The mortgage companies will decide whether you qualify (and how much interest to charge) based largely on that credit score. The actual details about how speedily the CRA must act are all contained in the fine print located in the FDIC’s Consumer Protection regulations, “Procedure in case of disputed accuracy” (6500, § 611). Once you notify the CRA, they have to investigate the validity of your claim and (without charging you a dime) determine within 30 days whether the item is accurate. More fine print describe further protections you have—

PARAGRAPH 2: The CRA has but 5 days to notify the company or person who provided the information about your challenge.

PARAGRAPH 6: The CRA has to provide you the results of their investigation in writing, and, if you’ve asked for it, describe the steps they took to arrive at their decision.

PARAGRAPH 7: If you didn’t know that you had the right to receive the above description, they must furnish it within 15 days after you later request it.

Those sound like pretty solid protections—vitally important, since the CRA can’t just sweep your dispute under the rug, stall, or ignore you altogether. After all, they have to detail in writing how strenuously they worked to protect you! Right?

Except for one problem, which is in PARAGRAPH 8. If the CRA simply drops the disputed item from your current report within the first 3 days, that’s officially considered an expedited dispute resolution. Since the item has been dropped, that might seem to be a solid win. But PARAGRAPH 8 says that if the CRA does that, it no longer has to do anything demanded in Paragraphs 2,6, and 7! It’s as if those protections were written in invisible ink…so that next month, if the company or person just reports the same thing, voila! your credit report might once again go back to Square One. The CRA is supposed to notify you 5 days in advance; but let’s face it, the phrase ‘Catch-22’ comes to mind…or ‘Credit Score Whack-a-Mole’…

What can you do, short of hiring repair agency experts to fix your credit score? Most commentators are in agreement: just stay away from the online dispute forms. Send a registered letter with your dispute, because it usually takes the CRA longer than three days to act on it, so they can’t skip the protections.

And while you’re waiting, why not give me a call? We can start scouting for your new Myrtle Beach home!

Become a landlord!
Be your own boss!
Build equity that someone else pays for!

These may sound like the kind of come-ons that you tune out when you hear them on the radio or TV, but, surprisingly, they’re actually more reality-based than not. Whether you're buying a Myrtle Beach property for its rental potential, or preparing to turn a currently-owned property into an income-producer, the game plan is straightforward. Locate a suitable Myrtle Beach property: one with the rental potential to create cash flow either as income, or to build real estate equity…or both!

So what’s the catch?

In fact, there is one. Becoming a successful landlord has more to it than spotting an appropriate Myrtle Beach property and sitting back, waiting for someone to nail up an ‘Easy Street’ sign. In order to make the most of the opportunity a Myrtle Beach rental property represents, you need to either already have, or develop, a requisite set of skills. Chief among them:

1. The relationship between landlord and tenant, and landlord and the tradespeople he hires, should be purposefully professional. Your tenants may also be fellow Myrtle Beach residents (or even neighbors), yet skillfully establishing and maintaining an amiable yet businesslike relationship takes dexterity and finesse. Substituting an overly personal relationship instead of the more proper businesslike one can result in counterproductive consequences…like tardy rent payments or superfluous demands.

2. As much as any other business, successful landlords are usually ‘people people’: they don’t shy away from interactions on a face-to-face basis. Whether it’s dealing with renters’ concerns, interviewing potential tenants, or handling the personnel who help maintain a Myrtle Beach property, great landlords have great leadership skills. They have the knack of bringing positive energy to everyday dealings. Good landlords exhibit authority without being overbearing, and they allow their tenants to feel the right degree of investment in what is their home, if only temporarily.

3. It may seem as if turning a property into an income-producer is an extremely simple task, but in fact it takes organizational skills to accomplish it efficiently. There are laws that have to be observed, and documentation to be maintained. People who cultivate clarity in such matters are nicely suited to the demands of running a rental property.

4. There are unavoidable time availability demands that mustn’t be ignored. A tenant with a maintenance emergency needs to have it addressed. Now. It’s one thing that even the most people-oriented, organizationally proficient business titan should be prepared to attend to without delay.

But suppose you lack some (or even all) of these traits? Should you just walk away from a Myrtle Beach property—even after you’ve spotted one you know has great potential? Actually, there is a Plan B, which is to hire a property manager—a professional practiced in all the requisite skills.

To explore the current crop of Myrtle Beach property listings with serious potential, just give me a call!

There are two kinds of situations that homeowners looking at Myrtle Beach comparables run into:

1. THE SIMPLE COMPS: Your Myrtle Beach home is part of an area that’s more uniform than not, in a neighborhood where there are a sufficient number of similar houses to have produced several sales recently. Your street may not be part of a literal development with models that have near-duplicate floor plans—but the area is, in general, homogenous. When it comes to selling your Myrtle Beach home, you’re in luck!

2. THE NOT-SO-SIMPLE COMPS: AKA, the incomparable situation. Your Myrtle Beach home is one of a kind, almost totally unlike any other in the neighborhood (two bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths) or unlike any other in any neighborhood (who else has a swimming pool built into the attic?). All right, maybe your house isn’t quite that weirdly incomparable, but it’s still the case that no similar home has sold within a 5-mile radius within the last year or two. When it comes to selling your Myrtle Beach home, you may still be in luck—but not because of ‘the comps’!

When your property falls into the first category, one whole part of your selling situation becomes a piece of cake because of the comparables. Myrtle Beach comparables from previous sales make the ultimate, convincing case that your home has at least $X value, because the market says so. In writing. Real people have plunked down their hard-earned dollars as proof. Even better, real banks have backed them up with their also very real dollars. It’s all verifiable in the public records.

When your property falls into the second category, in terms of the comparables for Myrtle Beach, it really doesn’t matter if you have the most attractive house or the best bells and whistles and bathroom renovations that will take a buyer’s breath away. If no other home within a reasonable distance has sold with a reasonable period (say, six months) that are close to the same size as yours, or if none has anything like similar features, you and your Realtor® are going to be pretty much on your own even settling on a listing price. Here’s a few lesser known reasons why paying attention to comparables is important when selling your home.

• Unique amenities won’t always guarantee a higher comparable value. If the amenities are unusual for Myrtle Beach, it might make it that much more difficult to find enough comparables in your area to come up with a listing price.
• School districts factor heavily into value. You might have grumbled about paying school taxes if you aren’t sending your own children off to school, but the quality of the school district has a large influence on comparables.
• Scarcity of housing inventory in your neighborhood can be either an advantage or disadvantage. It’s a plus if the housing inventory is low due to high demand (there will be enough recent sales information to set an accurate listing price). It’s a negative if scarcity occurs because no one is buying nearby homes—and appraisers will find it more difficult to place a value on the property.

It’s my job to get your home the best offers in the shortest amount of time for either category of Myrtle Beach comparables. Give me a call—regardless of which one yours falls into, we’ll discuss how we can produce results that are truly incomparable!

With Myrtle Beach's housing news behaving pretty much in line with the rest of the nation’s—that is, exactly as expected for a brisk spring selling season—you don’t usually expect to see much eye-catching housing news in the national press. That’s why last week’s USA Today Money section’s front page story was interesting. Inside, there was more, too. Tucked inside the same section was “THE WEEK AHEAD” which provided a day-by-day schedule about imminent housing news releases—a welcome heads-up for any devoted Myrtle Beach housing news observer. I’ll get back to how that wound up working out later...

The lead housing news item, headlined “AS RENT GOES UP, SO MAY HOUSING MARKET,” centered on the sort of shift that can wind up being indicative of something: for the first time in at least five years, they found “a milestone that should spur the sluggish home-buying market.”

That milestone was a rise in U.S. median rent prices, which climbed 4% from a year earlier—the most robust increase since March 2013. A little less firm was what the ‘something’ that this indicated, but the balance of opinion seems to be that the climbing rent number will prod more renters into buying a place of their own. This seems a reasonable enough takeaway, and it’s one that is supported by history. Underlying that conclusion is another contributing factor: “multifamily construction fell off a cliff after the…financial crisis in the late 2000s…”, so the tightening availability of rentals also factors in.

The item ends with a slightly contrary (and logical) point: rising rents means it will be tougher for tenants to save up for down payments, all the more because rents are now rising faster than wages.

That earlier-mentioned “THE WEEK AHEAD” article on the second page had a list of real estate news reports that were scheduled to be released last week. It was headlined, “Data may point to warmth,” and was indeed more real estate news (rather than a weather update). But the optimism about warm spring weather possibly pointing to a rise in home builder sentiment was slightly chilled when the actual report came out: sentiment dropped two points in May.

Housing starts data were scheduled to be released on Tuesday—and this one turned out to be GREAT! The Census Bureau “surprised the market” with the strongest monthly report for starts and permits in 7 ½ years—soaring 20+% in April (with single family housing up 16% from March). So, one has to wonder: if home builders are less optimistic than predicted, why are they breaking out the hammers and saws so energetically? The housingwire.com website thought it represented a rebound from “weather-depressed” previous numbers…so maybe the “Data may point to warmth” headline had been right, after all.

The rest of the real estate news releases for the week were less interesting because they centered on reaction to the Federal Reserve’s release of the minutes of their meeting, which (let’s face it) are traditionally confusingly vague. But the week was slated to end with Friday’s Labor Department release of consumer prices, as indeed it did: price rises slowed to 0.1% from the 0.2% in March. Good news, also. All in all, Myrtle Beach readers had to come away from the spate of housing news with a considerably warmer feeling than they’d had for much of the winter.

For an up-to-the-minute update on how Myrtle Beach's market compares with the rest of the nation’s—and how your own plans stand to fare—just give me a call any time!

“Buyers make their decisions in exactly eight seconds. After that, they’ve either fallen in love or are just honoring an appointment.”

You’re likely to come across that quotation (from prominent Manhattan Realtor® Barbara Corcoran) whenever you’re researching how to add the most value to your Myrtle Beach home with the least expense. For Myrtle Beach home owners about to list their property, it’s a somewhat unnerving prospect. If true, then every showing may start with what sports fans call a sudden death playoff!

If you are a future seller with a Myrtle Beach home that needs improvement, it’s only realistic to accept the likelihood that should you go to market without doing anything about it, it will cost you one way or another. Either the offers you garner will be lower than they needed to be, or (worse), the home will linger too long with no real offers at all. If you have any leeway in time and/or budget, there are two approaches you can take to fix the problem.

First, you can hire a professional to assess the problem and lay out solutions. It may be expensive (not necessarily); but it’s a pretty foolproof approach. You and your real estate representative can go over the recommendations, assess which will be most cost-effective—most certain to reflect in the value your home realizes—and then get them done.

The other way is to make your own evaluation, and act on it. Drive up to your curb just as prospective buyers will, get out of the car, approach your home, and take in what needs fixing. If your curbside mailbox doesn’t have clearly recognizable numbers on it; if the walkway looks stained or broken; if the bushes have last fall’s dead leaves lodged in them; if the front doorbell is rusty…you get the idea! Note what’s wrong (heave a sigh of relief for what’s right), and get going! It will pay off!

On the other hand, if you have a Myrtle Beach home that’s undisputedly a true eye-pleaser, you’re probably content with the Love at First Sight precept—as you should be. If you’ve done your job of maintaining your home’s exterior and landscaping, you’re steps ahead. But a word of caution: that first decision doesn’t have to be final. If what buyers experience once they are inside is persuasively positive, any off-putting first-glance judgement can be turned around. What’s of key importance is that no single glaring negative element be present. If it is, it can seal a negative first impression…or undermine a positive one.

I’m here to lend experience and advice every step of the way. And a good first step is a really simple one: call!

Whenever you are getting ready to buy or sell a residence, taking the temperature of the local housing market is part of how you prepare to engage. When Myrtle Beach real estate prices are on the rise, bargain hunters know they’ll have to scramble. When Myrtle Beach real estate prices are flat or on the downturn, spotting good value in the local listings is easier. A slow market means that those sellers who are impatient to move on will be willing to reduce their asking price. They will tend to “find the market” more quickly, rather than waiting it out.

Our Myrtle Beach real estate prices are seldom in exact lockstep with the national market—but when it moves, the impact is felt sooner or later. Of all the national barometers that are out there, the pre-eminent one is the research done by under the Case-Shiller banner.

At the end of last month, the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index again confirmed the uptrend we’ve been seeing for nearly 3 years now. No surprise there: nationally, residential real estate prices continued to rise at the moderate clip that we’ve grown accustomed to. The only standouts were in the 20-City Composite (the single month rise of .5% was the largest increase since July) and in Denver and Dallas—both of which have now actually surpassed the peaks registered at the height of the real estate price bubble (which might have Coloradans and Texans wondering if it was a bubble at all)…

But what was unusually interesting were some observations published at the end of the Case-Shiller report, in the Analysis section. It noted that the data marked the 34th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains, and that home real estate prices “continue to rise and outpace both inflation and wage gains.” It pointed out that, nationally, average residential real estate prices are within 10% of the “housing boom peak.” And then it came up with an insight that puts things in perspective in a way that hasn’t appeared elsewhere. This by S&P Dow Jones Index Chairman David Bitzer:

“A better sense of where home prices are can be seen by starting in January 2000, before the housing boom accelerated…”

Looking at inflation-adjusted numbers, the latest U.S. real estate prices as registered in the Index rose just a touch under 30% from January 2000 to February 2015. In other words, when you remove the whole statistical bulge—the “bubble” phenomenon—out of the picture, residential real estate prices have risen at an annual 1.7% rate. That’s real appreciation, adjusted for inflation. Slow—but “steady as she goes!”…and for the past three years or so, it’s more than doubled that long-term gain.

Myrtle Beach homeowners whose stress levels went up and down with the extreme price rise and fall would have been a lot more comfortable had they just snoozed through the whole affair, confident that the long-term history of real estate demonstrates, as the name implies, just about the most ‘real’ investment you can make.

When you get ready to take a look at the residential market, I hope you will want to give me the first call. I’ll share the latest up-to-the-minute info on Myrtle Beach real estate prices and activity that will put everything into meaningful perspective!

Just as with movie credits, the features you find in Myrtle Beach listings have a “billing order.” The “stars” may not be printed in gigantic superstar type—but the order in which they appear do reflect changes in current buyer priorities. For a homeowner soon to add their property to this spring’s Myrtle Beach listings, it’s important to learn which features currently tend to attract the most favorable attention from prospective buyers. It’s of more than marketing interest, as well: knowing what’s in and what out can also help determine where improvement dollars should go.

The question is, which features are most desirable, and which formerly popular features have become passé: “so Twentieth Century!”

New answers to these questions usually appear a couple of times a year—and 2015 is no exception. The latest one I found was on the Realtor.com website. It went into recent history, describing in detail how listings’ features for newly-built homes have been undergoing rapid change over the past few years. In general (and probably as a reaction to the difficult economic times that only lately have seen improvement), over-the-top luxury details are fading, being replaced in favor of features centered on efficiency, organization, and pragmatism.

Examples of the kinds of details less likely to be found in today’s listings are two-story foyers, master bathrooms with whirlpool tubs, and luxurious details like outdoor kitchens. (“NOPE” in capital letters is shown stenciled over a picture of one of those outdoor kitchens…which, I have to admit, really does look like it belongs in a hotel). Whereas ten years ago, those outdoor kitchens with fancy wine racks might have been found near the top of a listing, today it might be replaced by ‘walk-in closets’ or even, simply, a ‘laundry room.’

“It’s not sexy,” says one industry executive, “but that’s what people want.”

The most extensive survey of home builder trends is conducted by their national association, the NAHB. By quizzing nearly 400 builders, they concluded that other features on the decline include outdoor fireplaces, sunrooms, and media rooms. Taking their places (and likely candidates for what we’ll soon see creeping toward the tops of some of our Myrtle Beach listings) are the walk-in closets (since people want to get out the door efficiently first thing in the morning) and well-organized and well-lit laundry rooms (to improve the efficiency of the household).

As part of a “post-recession cultural shift toward pragmatism,” this makes perfect sense. But that word “post-recession” may offer a clue to what could be the temporary nature of the NAHB’s 2015 findings. For example, granite countertops—once a ‘luxury’ item in Myrtle Beach listings—are now more popular than the laminate alternatives. And those supposedly unpopular media rooms are not vanishing totally. They’re simply being replaced by spaces that are “more flexible.”

If you’re soon to be scrutinizing your own home to determine which of its best features to emphasize, I’d be pleased to furnish an opinion—it will be based on the results we’re seeing from today’s Myrtle Beach listings!

Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran an article about personal finances that Myrtle Beach mortgage payers who are at or near retirement age should find thought-provoking. It centered on the idea that today’s retirees are often making a decision that differs from what past generations have chosen.

The basis is twofold. First, it’s undeniable that the 60- or 65-year-olds of today rightly expect a future that’s likely to stretch one or more decades longer than was the case for their grandparents. Improved health care and health awareness have combined to extend life expectancies considerably. The WSJ didn’t mention it, but some quick research reveals that while a baby boomer’s parents (assuming they were born in the 1920s) had a longevity expectation at birth of only about 55 years, the CDC says that today’s average 65-year-old male can expect to live another 18 years—with ladies even out-surviving them by another 2½ years.

Such a radical advance combines with a second development—today’s low mortgage interest rates—to create a shift in thinking by many as they hit retirement age. Experts believe that previous generations tended to feel “they were in the last inning” of life, and thus needed to pick a safe path regarding their residences. Paying off their home’s mortgage was given very high priority—one that was almost universally unquestioned. Home ownership unencumbered by a mortgage was taken to be a sound part of a worry-free old age.

But today’s Myrtle Beach retirees are significantly less defensive in their thinking. According to The Journal, “Maybe their parents paid off the house before retiring, but many baby boomers say it makes more sense to carry a mortgage.” Instead of surrendering their cash or investments, the 21st Century trend is for mature Americans to take advantage of today’s low interest rates. The long time run-up in the stock market has also made the choice that much more appealing.

Myrtle Beach seniors may also be departing from the way previous generations behaved. A Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study in August found that 30% of relocating retirees were moving to larger homes! And let’s face it: the whole notion of retiring is undergoing a transformation as more and more of the 60+ set realize they don’t want (or can’t afford) to quit working altogether. With so many good years before them, many are embarking on new careers—often elatedly following pursuits they’d “never had time for.”

With mortgage rates in Myrtle Beach continuing to roost down in the bargain basement, today’s seniors aren’t alone in recognizing that this spring represents a rare home buying opportunity. If you are coming to the same conclusion, I hope you will give me a call to chat about today’s many Myrtle Beach offerings!