Plantation Lakes Blog!

When you own the Myrtle Beach home your family lives in, you are by definition a real estate investor: it comes with the turf. Your investment is essentially a passive one. Until the day you decide to sell and move on, any improvement in its value is secondary to how well it serves to shelter your family.

How you think about your investment—and how you proceed to manage it—is altogether different when you buy a Myrtle Beach home purely as a financial venture. For one thing, you face an immediate strategic decision: will you be flipping for a quick short-term profit, or aim for the long term through a buy-and-hold strategy? You have to weigh some pros and cons in order to make the right decision.

Flipping

Pro: Capital is Freed

A flipping strategy minimizes the amount of time your investment capital is committed, freeing it for other uses. Should you identify another potentially lucrative investment, you will be able to take advantage of it.

Con: Unexpected Challenges

While flipping for short-term profit has definite ‘hands-on’ appeal, first-time investors can be surprised by unexpected complications. Properties that appear to be undervalued (and ripe for a quick flip!) may require costly fixes. Overspending on renovations quickly eats into profits, but underspending can lead to a lengthier holding time. Experienced Myrtle Beach flipping veterans have learned to successfully gauge a property’s true turnaround value.

Additional Consideration: Taxes

Myrtle Beach flipping has tax implications that impact the bottom line. Profits from a property owned more than a year are generally taxed at the ordinary income tax rate, while a property held for less than a year may be taxed at the capital gains rate. Local and state tariffs need to be considered as well—this is where input from a qualified professional is important.

Buy-and-Hold

Pro: Passive Investment

If management is outsourced to a professional property manager, the buy-and-hold strategy will require less personal attention than flipping does. Preparing a property for a flip often involves considerable time commitment and adept contractor schedule-juggling.

Con: Management Costs

The passive investment advantage holds true if outside management is contemplated— with commensurate expense. If you enjoy the challenge of successfully managing a property, this negative doesn’t apply.

Pro: Fewer Properties Need To Be Identified

Ultimately, successfully executing a flipping strategy means scrutinizing a huge number of properties over the course of time. In contrast, a buy-and-hold strategy necessitates finding only a few great bargains. Pursued intelligently, both buy-and-hold and quick flip strategies have proved profitable for many investors.

Both call for finding solid value in Myrtle Beach properties—which is where giving me a call comes in!

For many Myrtle Beach parents of high school seniors, these are hold-your-breath days—the time of year when college acceptance letters begin showing up in Myrtle Beach mailboxes. If all goes well, after settling on a school, next comes tackling the array of decisions that follow. Chief among them: where he or she will live. Many parents tend to take the common course, assuming that a college dorm is automatically the best answer—but a college’s room-and-board plan is actually only one of the possibilities. In fact, it may not be the best financial, social or developmental choice for parent or student. Renting a house can be an intriguing alternative. Here are three of the reasons why some Myrtle Beach parents decide a home rental makes more sense:

1. Cost

Sharing a home rental is often significantly less expensive than renting an apartment—or even a dorm room. Prices vary, but it’s more than possible to end up paying as much as $4,500 per semester for student housing. If your student lives on campus during the summer, fall and spring terms, that would create a $13,500 bill for the year’s housing (the equivalent of paying more than $1,000 in rent per month). Considering that most dorm rooms are tiny, that translates into a much higher cost per square foot than does a shared home rental.

Renting even a one-bedroom home near campus can give your child more space and quiet time to study without interference from fire alarm-pulling pranksters or noisy roommates. Every student is different, and having a place to escape the hustle and bustle of campus life can provide some kids with the extra focus they’ll need for success.

2. Safety

When students live in crowded dorms, many parents worry that they are more likely to catch colds or other communicable diseases. Being packed into a dorm with hundreds of people who may or may not behave responsibly is a dire way to view dorm life, but that is some parents’ view. When their child lives on his or her own or teams with a select group of roommates, some parents breathe easier.

3. Responsibility

With a home rental, any student will learn more about responsible adulthood than when campus authorities assume parental-like responsibility for day-to-day living. Students who are on their own may be wholly or partially enrolled in school cafeteria programs, or may learn to shop for and prepare their own meals. Household and maintenance chores will be theirs to handle, rather than being the province of college employees. In that way, a college home rental can serve almost as a youngster's "starter home." They will graduate from college with a rental history, self-sufficiency skills, and home stewardship experience that will prepare him or her to better care for their own home later in life.

Of course, it’s not universally the best answer to the student housing problem: every institution and child combination are different, and different youngsters respond to independence and responsibility in differing ways. But if you haven’t thought about the possibility, it could be worth looking into.

If I can help with a referral to a rental agency—or if you’d like to consider buying—do give me a call!

The first day of spring! The vernal equinox! This year, March 20 is the red-letter day on Myrtle Beach’s real estate calendar. It’s the nominal kickoff to the traditionally rambunctious spring selling season—historically, the go-go time of year. It’s when more homes come on the market, more prospective buyers come out to see them, and more sales are launched than in any other season.

But this year, what happens three days later might well turn out to be nearly as noteworthy.

The 23rd may not mark an annual event, but it could become a second red-letter day for Myrtle Beach home buyers and sellers in 2015. If all goes according to plan, it’s the day when Freddie Mac joins Fannie Mae in easing the down payment requirements mortgage lenders observe.

This is part of a development that surfaced last fall when sharp-eyed Myrtle Beach residents first noticed some trial balloon announcements from the mortgage lending industry. The sources were insiders who leaked details of an agreement being hammered out between Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the lenders they underwrite. Fannie buys mortgage loans from the large commercial lenders, Freddie, smaller houses. Both of the mortgage behemoths are regulated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA is the government overseer that lost most of its trusting good humor after it had to bail out Freddie and Fannie during the subprime mortgage fiasco (actually, it was we taxpayers who got the bill).

But last falls’ news leak indicated a reversal was in the wind. Borrowers with weaker credit might soon find it easier to land a mortgage, because Fannie and Freddie would resume making such loans less risky for lenders. That would be welcome news for Myrtle Beach home buyers and sellers alike. Tight Myrtle Beach mortgage lending rules had been part of the national reaction to the subprime mortgage mess, but the result had been predictable: a throttling back of the number of loans banks were willing to grant. Fewer mortgage loans meant that some sales simply wouldn’t take place. In some cases, it was downright irritating.

That’s why, for some Myrtle Beach mortgage applicants, March 23rd could mark the resumption of renewed home owning possibilities. It’s the kickoff date for a program Freddie Mac calls “Home Possible”—and it means that Fannie will be joined in offering “flexible credit terms and low down payment options”…options that can include down payments as low as 3%. Freddie’s website calls the result “more flexibility for maximum financing.”

With the kickoff of the spring selling season, Freddie’s “Home Possible” couldn’t have come at a better time (some humor-minded real estate professionals had begun to think of Freddie’s previous programs as “Home Impossible”). Even just the expected publicity should encourage some formerly gun-shy prospective Myrtle Beach mortgage applicants to resume their quest for a home to call their own.

If you could be one of them—or a homeowner preparing to list for the spring season—I hope you will give me a call. Your timing couldn’t be better!

Would you buy a house where someone died? Would it make a difference if the death was peaceful or…otherwise?

You might never have considered such questions, but the answers can become a serious issue for a Myrtle Beach house for sale—especially if it has a history that could be right out of a CSI episode. And what if you are the owner of a Myrtle Beach house for sale with this kind of issue? It may be labeled as stigmatized—the unpleasant term that can attach to a house for sale which buyers or tenants may shun for reasons unrelated to its physical condition.

It’s a good thing that the list of potentially disturbing events isn’t a long one: death; murder; suicide; scary illness; being haunted (rather, the belief that it’s haunted—let’s not get into that discussion!). An owner might have known of a sketchy history when he or she purchased the property, or perhaps found out later on. The information may not have made a difference before, but it could impact the number of prospects who will make offers on a house for sale—in Myrtle Beach (or anywhere, for that matter). What to do?

Selling for the Right Price

What of happenings that are simply gruesome? Another property in California's Bay Area had a grisly past involving drugs, murder and other heinous activities. This was a stylish home in an affluent neighborhood which sat empty while other comparable homes for sale came and went. Then one day a young businesswoman made an offer well below the asking price. The bank that owned the property had a list price of $335,000, already below values in the area. After negotiation, the buyer bought the home for $261,000. She saw past the horrific story to the potential that it offered to someone not affected by the drama of days gone by. And probably counted on the fact that her remodeling efforts—plus the many years she planned on living there—would make future buyers much less likely to worry about what would gradually turn into a distant past.

Telling the Right Story

One otherwise quaint home in a western small town was widely reputed to host paranormal activity. The stories of what previous owners had faced from ghosts of the past were widespread enough that even non-believers might think twice about taking it on. For some properties, it is just a matter of putting the right spin on the story. Events that took place decades ago often bring allure to a property—while more recent activities may cause buyers to hesitate. The Realtor® took the ‘problem’ head-on by making the most of it, figuring that a good ghost story could add to the appeal if it was marketed correctly. It sold at a premium.

The takeaway: if you have a Myrtle Beach house for sale that’s connected to a sad, tragic or paranormal history, don't assume the worst. Some ‘stigmas’ may mean a sale takes more careful handling (but that’s just one more reason why a call to my office is a good first step).

With the right story and the right price, you’re pretty certain to find the right buyer—one who either overlooks the past, or is fascinated by it!

This March has been such a busy one on the Myrtle Beach real estate calendar that I thought it would be a good idea to double-check everything just to be certain I wasn’t overlooking any important happenings.

It wasn’t just that the first day of spring on the 20th is the traditional start of what’s regularly the busiest time of year for Myrtle Beach real estate activity. This is a reliable phenomenon, further reinforced by the 61 million results you get when you Google “Spring Real Estate Selling Season.” To be accurate, the National Association of Realtors® fudges a little by calling spring and summer the hottest seasons for real estate activity—but it turns out they are pointing to the fact that many sales initiated in spring close during the summer (which is when people prefer to move).

March also has a red-letter day on the 23rd, which is when Freddie Mac, the mortgage reinsurer, is set to kick off their ‘Home Possible’ program. It’s a lowering of their down payment requirements, so mortgage lenders will have more leeway with borrowers. That should provide a further boost for Myrtle Beach real estate activity, which has been laboring for years under tough lending requirements that discouraged some otherwise well-qualified home buyers.

Then there is March Madness, in which basketball plays havoc with more than just television schedules. You could say that it plays hob with appointment times for many Myrtle Beach home showings, since the last five minutes of most of the games take at least half an hour.

Just in case the calendar has even more events that might affect Myrtle Beach real estate, we thought we’d better check to be certain we haven’t overlooked any upcoming happenings.

We found out we can relax.

True, this March is Optimism Month, which is certainly thematically in tune with the positive spring real estate outlook (speaking of ‘in tune,’ March is also Music in Our Schools Month and Play the Recorder Month).

It’s International Ideas Month, which, for anyone who’s been following the headlines, is certainly arriving in the nick of time. For those who are, internationally speaking, prone to sticking to their old ideas, March is also International Listening Awareness Month. It’s Mirth Month as well as Humorists are Artists Month. It’s also Noodle Month (does this have a connection with Mirth Month?), Peanut Month, and National Nutrition Month.

In addition to minding nutrition, this is a month for safety: it’s National Collision Awareness Month, as well as National Cheerleading Safety Month. It turns out, there are another couple of dozen other Months that are taking place right now, but most have little to do with buying and selling homes.

What seems better connected to Myrtle Beach real estate is the fact that this is also Umbrella Month, although it’s too early to know the precipitation total for the whole month. It hasn’t prevented many showings or open houses, for sure.

In any case, if you are thinking of taking advantage of the Spring Selling Season, it’s also a terrific month to give me a call!

Once you're mentally prepared for the relocating experience (to self: “it’s definitely the right move”), where is the first order of business. Perhaps you've outgrown your Myrtle Beach home anyway—the family simply needs more space. Perhaps relocating is necessary for work reasons; or now that the kids have moved out, you're ready to downsize. No matter what the reason for relocating from Myrtle Beach, thoroughly evaluating the possible destination communities before deciding to buy couldn’t be more important.

While your real estate agent can be an invaluable resource in guiding you to the right home within your target area, the original question—designating the search perimeter—is pretty much in your wheelhouse. If you are not already committed to an area because friends or family make it an easy decision, one way to think about narrowing your choices is to recognize and prioritize the elements most important in your day to day living:

If you have kids, the quality of the school districts will play a major role in relocating. The web offers a number of rating and comparison sites (to find them, just search for ‘school district ratings’). How you winnow the field will be different depending on the age of your children and your own priorities. Once you’ve narrowed the field, you can get an inside look at where your kids might be studying if you include tours of potential schools in your house hunting forays. See if you can seek out parents of current students to get their take on the school's performance: it’s the bottom line.

It may not be a major concern in all neighborhoods here in Myrtle Beach, but remember that safety is paramount—so you want to choose a community that is comfortable for you. Again, the web makes this research much easier than in years past. Many police department websites include crime maps where you can find both nonviolent and violent crime statistics organized by zip code. Before relocating—in fact, even before you begin your property search—make sure the target areas are safe!

You might not be a resident of the new community just yet, but you can act like one during your research phase. Hang out at a local park; take a stroll through the neighborhood. Have a family dinner at a nice restaurant, and breakfast at the local diner (be sure to pick up any flyers that are laid out on the counter). Look for community events, like fairs or festivals. These simple experiences will give you a sense of the community—one that should make your move less intimidating. Just a little time spent in the neighborhood can help you decide whether the area feels right to you.

Population densities and traffic profiles can differ widely from what you are used to here in Myrtle Beach. Some are pedestrian-friendly, others in a nearly permanent state of gridlock. Picture your daily commute, whether you're heading to work, taking the kids to school, or both. How close are grocery stores, restaurants, and retailers? Are doctors' offices, salons, and other services handy—or a painful 25 minutes away? Looking beyond the house and at the community as a whole can make relocating the success you hope it will be.

If you have to leave Myrtle Beach, the most fundamental stress-reducer is the one that comes first: the expert handling of the sale of your Myrtle Beach home. Do give me a call: after all, that’s where I come in!

When it comes to selling your Myrtle Beach house, the first attributes that will bring in prospective buyers will be found in your listing description: size, location, and all the details that either match prospects’ wish lists (or don’t). Price is in there, too. Next comes curb appeal, which can turn on or turn off prospective buyers. Although it is often the second “at bat” you get when you are selling your Myrtle Beach house, it’s not usually decisive. The third attribute can be just that—a bunch of factors that can hook your ultimate buyers.

Call it your home’s “emotional IQ.” Everything else is important, but emotion plays a powerful role in selling your Myrtle Beach house. That’s because home is, well, home—where people hang their hats, raise their kids, and spend their precious downtime. When potential buyers come to your house, they may think they are checking out four walls and a roof, but they are much more likely to be seeking a place that tugs at their emotions.

All very well and good, but how do you up your home’s emotional IQ (and snag the sale in the process)? Look objectively at your home, then think about the emotional plays that will get them where it count—through their senses. Give your home a quick sensory scan, looking for things that cue all five:

Sight.

Is your home clean? Is it decorated and staged (but not so much that potential buyers can’t imagine themselves in it)? Make sure your home is as spotless as possible, and warm but not personal. When room entrances are arranged to feel open, they look welcoming: a strong way to please the eye.

Sound.

Does your home sound like a home? There’s nothing less emotionally pleasing than doing a walkthrough of a perfectly empty shell of a house. Attractive floor coverings (rugs and throws) can eliminate the unbroken echo of footsteps—and make your home feel more inviting; less clinical. And don’t forget a drop or two of 3-in-1 oil or WD40 for squeaking doors!

Smell.

The nose is a powerful emotive factor. Aromas can evoke nostalgia, bringing on the feeling of well-being that comes with familiarity—but it can also sound alarm bells. Make sure the air doesn’t carry strong chemical or perfume smells. Better to throw a few cookies into the oven before walkthroughs arrive. It makes it easy for potential buyers to imagine themselves living, working, eating, and enjoying time in your home.

Touch.

Look for surfaces potential buyers may touch, and make them clean and inviting. Importantly, door latches and light switches should feel sound and serviceable.

Taste.

No—nobody can really taste a home, but selling your house may come down to leaving your personal taste at the door. It’s risky to forget to focus on the most tasteful place of all—the kitchen. The old real estate agent trope that gorgeous kitchens sell houses is more true than not, so if yours is hopeless, you may judicious to spend your upgrade dollars in a modern, open kitchen space.

How does your home’s emotional IQ add up? If you’re lacking in just one area, congratulations. You know what to fix, and a few subtle tweaks will help a lot. If you’re lacking in many areas, give me a call! I may be able to recommend some quick fixes, or point to a home staging professional. Don’t forget: Whether buying or selling your house, things can get emotional. Take a deep breath, remember the real purpose of a home, and be ready to move!

As the demand for age-restricted senior housing continues to grow nationwide, it’s certain to influence more than just the new home builders whose bread and butter depends on paying attention to such trends. It’s also likely to influence the character of neighborhoods as a whole, Myrtle Beach’s included.

The numbers tell a story that’s been written about for years. As Myrtle Beach’s baby boom generation joins their cohort’s arrival into retirement age over the coming decades, they will become part of the wealthiest generation of senior home buyers in history. Senior housing developers are very well aware of that fact, but its full impact has only really begun to be felt recently. One evidence: the National Association of Homebuilders reports that starts of age-restricted homes nearly doubled between 2012 and 2013.

Part of the reason may be cultural—but it’s also possible that improvements in health and longevity could be involved. Today’s older generation views senior housing through a different lens than did their forebears, which means that new senior housing communities are taking on a look that’s considerably different from retirement neighborhoods of the past. There are multiple influences that are shaping the new senior housing mold. Among them—

• Many senior citizens continue to hold jobs. Earlier forecasts of dire results from predicted shortfalls in retirement savings don’t seem to be working out that way, since a great number of seniors are showing marked determination to put off full retirement indefinitely—regardless of financial need. Delaware’s Benchmark Builders reports that more than half of the residents in their age-restricted communities still work at least part-time, a trend being echoed throughout the nation. Developers are moving senior housing out of the Sun Belt and closer to urban areas to facilitate easy commuting (some are even incorporating office facilities as part of resident amenities!).
• A number of housing projects are being designed to provide a patchwork of age-specific sections. While grandparents may enjoy living on a street or block devoted to neighbors in their age bracket, in the best of all worlds, they also would choose to be close to children and grandchildren. Some new housing developments are setting aside sections for young families close to senior housing blocks.
• Options for active older home buyers are crucial. In 1960, activity choices in many retirement communities began and ended with shuffleboard. Increasingly, senior housing projects are aimed at buyers who have no intention of pursuing a sedentary lifestyle. They look for active environments, with walking trails and easy access to amenities beyond the community. Indoor walking tracks, lap pools, hiking and biking trails and exercise equipment are becoming must-have features.

Today’s typical senior as part of a financially powerful demographic, is changing the look of retirement neighborhoods. But independent thinking has long been a notable characteristic of the boomer generation—so it also follows that not every Myrtle Beach senior will make that lifestyle choice.

Senior or not, I’m always standing by to further your next residential move!

Many people don’t fully understand why it is that St. Patrick’s is the perfect day for selling a Myrtle Beach home, or for buying one. But if ever there were a right time to explain it, this is it. There is one drawback to any such explanation, though: namely, that it makes so little sense.

That does not seem to make much difference to a lot of real estate industry marketing supply companies. I can bear witness to that fact, in the form of the postcards and various art pieces that are pitched to Realtors en masse ahead of every St. Pat’s. As you might guess, they are green (usually very green), and almost without exception bear some rendition of a four leaf clover. Also rainbows, pots of gold, wee leprechauns wearing green top hats with buckles on them, and sometimes horseshoes (to indicate the Luck O’ the Irish, of course).

What could this have to do with selling a Myrtle Beach home, or buying one? That’s very hard to pin down. There is the simple good will postcard, that says, “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” with no further connection. That’s a nice thought, certainly, and not risky. Who wouldn’t want to have a happy St. Patrick’s Day? There is one with a good-looking home at the end of a rainbow, with a wee little leprechaun holding a “Welcome Home!” sign—certainly a strong connection between selling a Myrtle Beach home and the celebration.

One of the best ones is the poster that features two shades of green, a cartoon three-leaf clover (mistake there, if you ask me) upon which is printed in Celtic-looking letters, “You don’t need to have the ‘Luck of the Irish’ to sell your home.” You have to like that one, because it doesn’t discriminate against people who aren’t Irish (the closer you get to St. Patrick’s Day, the more you run the risk of seeming to snub the non-Irish among us).

There is one postcard with a lady bug crawling over clover leaves emblazoned with a sentimental poem, but the emotionality of the poetry is tempered by the heading, “For all Your Real Estate needs just give me a call!” Balance is important on St. Patrick’s Day…but it’s not clear that the card with the green beer mugs got that message (which is “Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Remember, parade watching is like real estate. Location, location, location.”).

One that also tips the scales in the direction of crass commercialism is the picture of the big pot o’ gold brimming with gold coins. It says, “It takes more than Luck to sell your home.” I’m not sure what the St. Pat’s message is for that one—that selling your Myrtle Beach home requires you to go out, find a leprechaun or rainbow, and wangle a pot o’ gold? It’s simply not the case.

If you ask me, an experienced Realtor with a great marketing plan and a reasonable price will do the trick better than pots o’ gold or four-leaf clovers. Still, that can’t keep me from wishing you a terrific St. Patrick’s Day, as too!