Thoughts on Christmas

21 12 2011

It’s snowing here at wordpress.com. It’s probably the most snow I’ll see all winter. In South Carolina we rarely see snowflakes, and when we do it almost never sticks to the ground. In the six years I’ve lived here in Charleston we’ve had one snowfall that was measurable. There was a snowman in every yard that morning.

Vickery's

Vickery's

Even without the snow, Christmas is a magical time of year here. It’s warm so people are out and about, enjoying the weather and their time off. These are some of my favorite things about Christmas in Charleston.

James Island County Park offers one of the best light displays in the country, called the Holiday Festival of Lights. They have a 3-mile loop set up with thousands of lights in the form of everything from a candle stick to replicas of the old and new bridge over the Cooper River. Cars line up and crawl bumper-to-bumper through the park to enjoy the lights, the music, the activities, shops, and a visit with Santa.

Speaking of lights, it seems like there are more houses with lights on here than anywhere else I’ve lived. The restaurants and businesses around town hang lights as well. There’s something special about a palm tree and Christmas lights. Last night we enjoyed the lights and palm trees on the deck at Vickery’s on Shem Creek. Read the rest of this entry »





What Does it Take to Get Your Business?

15 11 2011

Business people around the world spend countless hours and dollars trying to get our attention so we’ll buy their product or service. Now more than ever I believe we are in a time when consumers choose to do business with people and companies they feel they can trust.

I find that when people don’t know someone they trust who can provide a product or service they need, they are willing to work with someone based on transferred trust. Transferred trust is where you trust someone because someone you trust told you you could. It’s like having a friend give you the answer to the bonus question on your final test.

In a business like real estate there are opportunities to connect consumers with other business professionals every day. We recommend home inspectors, lenders, insurance providers, moving companies, storage companies, hotels, restaurants, and so on.

My clients, family, and friends are happy when I can make their problems go away by giving them a name and number to call. Once they’ve made the decision to use the information I’ve given them, they know they can sit back while their problem goes away.

I don’t recommend people I don’t trust or haven’t had a positive personal experience with, unless someone I trust has said it’s okay to do so. In the world we live in it’s so easy to get tangled up with the wrong people. Doing so can have a small impact on us, such as paying a few extra dollars we didn’t need to pay, or a huge impact, such as losing an opportunity to achieve our dreams.

Successful business people realize products don’t attract sales. Service does. If I recommend someone who fails to increase the trust between me and the person I told to call them, I stop recommending that person. For a list of my most trusted resources, please click here.

 





Always Ask Your REALTOR®

22 10 2011

Seems like my clients fall into two categories: The ones who check with me on every detail, and the ones who don’t. Neither category is better than the other… until we have a day like today.

I can’t blame anyone for what happened but me. My client was a first-time home buyer who was doing her best to go with the flow. She had followed all the advice I gave her from the day we met all the way up to closing, which was today.

Last week I went over with her what to expect this week. I told her there would be a walk-thru with the builder, that there would be a re-walk with the builder, that she needed to contact her utility companies to establish services, and that I would be calling her to set a time to go over the settlement statement as soon as I received it from the attorney.

Several times this week I contacted the builder’s agent and the attorney to let them know I wanted to see the settlement statement and asked when they thought it would be available.

This morning I was still trying to chase it down. Read the rest of this entry »





Selling Your Home: What Stays, What Goes?

15 10 2011

One of my sellers was packing his moving truck yesterday when I stopped by. I asked him how it was going, and he said the only really hard part so far was loading up the stove. Uh-oh.

The seller had no idea that without the stove in the house, our buyer audience would shrink from every buyer out there to a select few.

It’s typical in South Carolina for the buyer and seller to negotiate who get the fridge, washer, and dryer, but the rest of the appliances are considered “fixtures” and should stay with the house.

If a house doesn’t have a cooking source – such as a stove – it can be hard to get financing for it. VA buyers and FHA buyers will be excluded immediately, according to the lenders I work with. Conventional financing may be an option, however the number of buyers who can afford the larger down payment of 5% or more is smaller than the number using government loans.

Not only does the stove have to be in the house, it has to work. Dishwashers, on the other hand, don’t have to be in the house and don’t have to work – but if it’s in the house and doesn’t work, the seller needs to let the buyer know up front. Same with built-in microwaves – they’re not required, but if the house has one, the buyer needs to know up front if it doesn’t work.

With short sales and foreclosures making up such a large part of the market, it’s not uncommon to see houses that have been completely stripped of light fixtures, fans, faucets, etc. Read the rest of this entry »





The Perfect Day in Real Estate

7 10 2011

If you took five minutes to close your eyes right now and imagine the perfect day at work, what would that day look like? What would happen – or not happen?

Last Thursday I had a perfect day at work. I couldn’t have imagined a better scenario. I have to share it with you.

One of my vacant listings with an out-of-town seller needed repair. The seller asked me in our weekly phone call if I would mind driving by to see that the repairs had been done. When I pulled up to the house there was a car in the driveway. I was trying to figure out whose car it was and why it was there when I noticed the lockbox was open and realized an agent was showing the house.

I got out of the car and walked into the yard. The agent came out of the house with his clients in tow. We’d met before, so I stuck my hand out and said hello. I started telling him about the repairs that had just been done on the house and let him know the seller was looking forward to getting the house sold.

This is when I experienced the Best Day in Real Estate: The agent handed me a CASH offer to purchase the house!

Eight days later, we are closing on that house. The really crazy thing is that the seller had considered taking the house off the market just 12 days ago. This just goes to show – it only takes one buyer to sell a house, and you never know when that buyer will show up!





Real Estate Trends: The Media Room

30 09 2011

Media RoomIn years past, when a family decided to buy a house, men would hope to find a house with a shed or workshop in the backyard where they could escape the house to get some time alone. If they ended up with a house that didn’t have one, many men would build one to suit them.

Over time, men started taking over the garage. If the garage was big enough, they would build a workbench inside it, turn it into a weight room, set up a pool table, and/or display their trophies and deer heads there. Women would “let” their husbands have the garage; the house was their domain.

When the boys who grew up playing video games became men, they started looking to claim a space inside the home. Many grew up playing their games in a bonus room, or Finished Room Over the Garage (called FROG in the South), naturally they started looking for FROGs in the homes they were buying. They would refer to this room as the “man cave,” with visions of comfort and solitude dancing in their heads.

Today those men have kids who also play video games, and systems like Wii and PlayStation Kinect have reunited the family. Now that families are enjoying indoor recreation together, FROGs with their sloping ceilings are not always big enough to accommodate the equipment or the number of family members and friends using the room. Solution: the Media Room. Read the rest of this entry »





The Kids are Back in School… Do Houses Sell in the Fall?

18 08 2011

For some reason, people think the real estate market revolves around the school year. I can see the reasoning behind it, and there are some trends to support it, but trust me – houses sell all year around.

This chart shows my own personal sales record by month over the past four years.

Seasonal Market Activity Graph

Note that while the summer months have a few more sales than the winter months, sales in the winter do exist.

It’s around this time of year (August/September) that I get calls from potential sellers asking if they should bother listing the house since school has started and the holidays are just around the corner. They wonder: Who buys houses in the winter? Answer: People who need a place to live.

There are a couple definite advantages to marketing your home during the fall and winter months. Read the rest of this entry »





Four Years and Blogging…

9 08 2011

Four years ago today I started this blog with a post called Putting Down Roots. A total of four people have read those words in these four years.

But I haven’t let it discourage me. Every now and then I stumble on a topic people really want to know about, such as Stimulus Package Helps Home Owners Too (3/09; 1,681 views), or FHA Nehemiah Program Offers Downpayment Assistance (5/08; 1163 views).

Early on I discovered readers are not so much interested in the houses themselves; they are looking for a way to get the house they want. There are also some who consult blog articles for advice when they aren’t sure whether or not to trust what their real estate agent is saying.

Hopefully I’ve said something over these years and with these 145 posts that has helped someone save money, hire the right agent, negotiate a deal, or avoid something bad. Thank you to everyone who’s been along for the ride, and keep those seat belts fastened, because we’re not done yet!





Buyers Say “No” to HOAs

30 07 2011

This was the feedback from an agent who showed one of my listings this week:

Stephanie, we ended up not looking at this home. Buyers don’t want to be in a neighborhood with HOA where they have to pay the fee and are so restricted.

Surprising? Not really. Lately I’m hearing the same thing from the buyers I’m working with.

Whether they’ve had a firsthand negative experience with a neighborhood HOA (Home Owner’s Association) or they’ve heard horror stories at work and from friends, HOAs are fast becoming the least desirable “feature” for today’s home buyers. What once seemed like a good idea to prevent “eye sores” from cropping up in the neighborhood has become a pestering bureaucracy that keeps people from enjoying home ownership. Read the rest of this entry »





Goose Creek Luxury Real Estate

22 07 2011

There’s a reason Crowfield Plantation is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the greater Charleston metro area. Aside from its natural beauty made up of luscious trees, rolling hills, picturesque lake and award-winning golf course, its convenient location to I-26, and easy drive to downtown and Summerville, Crowfield is home to nearly all of Goose Creek’s luxury real estate… and don’t we all love luxury?

In Goose Creek, “luxury” is a relative term, but for this post we’ll define it as homes priced over $500,000. Two homes have sold in Goose Creek above $500,000 since 2007: 134 Welchman in 2009 for $519,900 at $131/s.f., and 103 Meridian in April of this year for $585,000 at $125/s.f.

Let’s take a look at the three Goose Creek luxury homes looking for new owners right now. Read the rest of this entry »








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